“Now it’s a true Alberta business,” says Hidar Elmais, standing in front of the storefront space that will house the Calgary location of TravelGurus.ca. TravelPulse Canada dropped in to see the new space during a recent visit.
Strong demand for travel booking with a human touch sent Elmais south from Edmonton, where the first TravelGurus location is going strong. TravelGurus also presents the annual YEG Travel Show, set this year for October 14 at the Premium Outlet Collection at Edmonton International Airport.
“We have seven stations in our Edmonton location and we needed more for the number of leads we’re getting. My sisters in Calgary were interested in joining the business and this is the result,” Hidar said
Sister Asmaa is leaving a good job as a bank manager to take on a new role selling travel and helping to run the Calgary office in the charming neighbourhood of Bowness. Another sister Haifa is investing time in the business while continuing to work in real estate and mortgages.
Hidar Elmais and TravelGurus produce the annual YEG Travel Show. (Photo Credit: TravelGurus.ca)
“I’m blessed to have them with me,” says Hidar. “I’m building my business with the most trustworthy people I know and staying close with them. It’s a beautiful thing.”
The new space will feature an open concept, with the front styled after an airport lounge, including departures screens and a large TV. As well as the six stations for advisors, there will be an area selling travel accessories, and a VR station.
“We have one of the first in Canada at our Edmonton office and there is more and more content available,” Hidar says. “There’s great stuff like a G Adventures tour of Morocco, and VR lets customers really see what they’ll get.”
Hidar says younger people are increasingly coming to travel agents for advice and booking assistance. “They want human service, an actual person.
He prefers to hire people without prior agency experience, and to give them the resources to learn on the job. “Everybody is under 30 at our office except me,” he says.
For her part, Asmaa says she’s learning a lot through group chat on the company’s Facebook and other social media pages. She laughs that it’s often more pleasant dealing with travel clients than bank customers. “People are happy when they’re buying travel – bank customers are often mad.”
Hidar Elmais at the 2022 Ensemble conference in Miami. (Photo Credit: Bruce Parkinson)
Asmaa says Hidar continually tests her by sending her difficult leads. “He throws the hard ones at me, like people who want a vacation on a $500 budget!”
There are many different approaches to selling travel these days, and TravelGurus.ca is a true hybrid of bricks-and-mortar and online-driven sales. While there’s decent walk-in traffic in Edmonton and Hidar expects the same in Calgary, most leads come from online sources, and TravelGurus.ca is happy to compete on price, offering a ‘Beat My Quote’ function on its website.
The company doesn’t charge booking fees, but it takes deposits for complex itineraries and adds mark-ups where possible, especially on air. Hidar says TravelGurus.ca will book LCCs for budget-conscious travellers, but insists they take out insurance to protect themselves. He says this often results in an upsell, simply through education.
“We want to offer human service in a way that means our customers don’t have to pay more,” Hidar says. “We’re trying to take market share from online agencies, not other agents.”
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