Erin Rogers, National Sales Manager, Canada for G Adventures celebrated 19 years with the company in July. She first heard about what was then called ‘G.A.P. Adventures’ during her ecotourism course at Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario.
Rogers had completed an undergrad in English Literature at Western and thought it would be a good idea to get some practical skills. Born and raised in Muskoka, tourism management seemed like it might be the right fit. In her ecotourism course she learned about the practices of sustainability, the idea of ‘take only photos, leave only footprints’ and how Bruce Poon Tip was paving new paths with his company, then only 10 years old.
After skipping a few winters by funding my overseas travels through hospitality jobs in Muskoka, she thought it might be time to ‘move to the big city’ and get a real job. G Adventures was the only company she applied to. She says she "got lucky" by getting hired as an "adventure specialist" and then working in various roles in the sales department before her current role working with with "an amazing team of passionate GPS’s (global purpose specialists) and marketing wizards under the leadership of managing director, David Green."
What do you see as the core components of your national sales manager role?
In my role my number one responsibility is leading and motivating our Canadian trade sales team so
that they can connect with advisors across the country to help them change more lives through
travel. I also work closely with our valued agency partners to support their sales and marketing
strategies, and with the entire team to represent G Adventures at industry events, trade shows, and
conferences to promote the brand and deepen industry connections.
G offers a vast amount of destinations and travel styles, and appeals to a wide
demographic of customers. How do you educate advisors on what makes it unique and
desirable in a competitive marketplace?
Here a few of the ways that we can support advisors in their journey with G Adventures:
- Agents of Change Facebook Group Managed by G Adventures’ Team Canada this is where we are
able to share ‘breaking news’, webinar links, and new product information in real time. Plus it also
provides agents with a platform to ask for help and advice from their peers.
- In the Loop With the support of the team, I host a monthly broadcast on destinations, travel styles
and trends in the industry - a fun and interactive way to get to know us as a team, as well as our
brand and trip portfolio and how to best sell and market it.
- Agent FAMs In 2024 we will have run 10 FAMs, a ‘top performers’ trip plus a conference that you
might have read about here in TravelPulse! Joining us on an agent FAM or taking advantage of our
agent discounts for personal travel is a great way to get familiar with the unique selling points of a G
Adventures travel experience ‘in the real world’.
- Outdoor Adventure & Travel Show We always like to encourage agents to attend the Outdoor
Adventure & Travel Shows in Toronto, Vancouver & Calgary by providing all access passes to join us.
This is an excellent place to speak to consumers about what’s in their travel plans and where they
want to go next. We use it as a bit of a temperature check and we also host some fun IRL events
while we are in town to get to know our agents better.
What are the most impactful changes you have seen in the travel advisor community
over the past few years?
Oh gosh, there have been a lot. The two that I think are most impactful are the advance of technology
and a shift to really supporting local communities.
I really love being able to Zoom into someone’s home or travel agency from the comfort of my home
in Kelowna, BC. I think we’ve all had a bit of a push towards maximizing the use of technology and it’s
incredible to see so many travel advisors really embracing it. On that same topic – have you seen
some of the social media content coming out of advisors in Canada? I am so impressed. For anyone
travelling with G Adventures please remember to tag #gadventures and our social team will do their
best to repost your content which will help to increase your views and followers.
G Adventures has been hyping up the word ‘local’ for decades now by talking about our promises of
local guides, local transport and local accommodations as the way to really see a destination. Covid
taught the world how important ‘local’ is when we all needed to support our local community
businesses to help them get through the pandemic, so hopefully when advisors make new
connections or meet new clients explaining why they should be supporting local isn’t such a
challenge anymore.
What are the most common requests/questions you get from travel agents?
Well, the obvious one is ‘what’s your travel agent rate?’ but hopefully everyone has already logged
into Sherpa to figure out the answer to that and how generous we are. The other one that I’ve been
getting lately is more of a statement/question, ‘I didn’t know you were a Canadian company?’. Yes!
We sure are. We are proudly Canadian - but because we’re Canadian we don’t brag about that. We
have global operations and a global consumer base and are quietly flying our Canadian flag at home.
The other question we’ve been hearing a lot lately is ‘How do I get started with Private Groups
through G Adventures?’ and my answer to this is to set up a meeting with your regional GPS! They
have all the insider tips and tricks to support agents, whether this is your very first private group
attempt or you’ve been selling private groups for decades and want to try doing a group with G
Adventures. Help us help you!
The G Adventures Canadian Team
How can advisors take advantage of the resources you offer in the most efficient way
possible?
In the interest of saving time for advisors (so they can sell more life-changing G Adventures trips!)
here is my quick hit list:
- Set up a 1-on-1 with your regional GPS (Jenna for British Columbia & the Northern Territories, Ana
for Alberta & the Prairies, Nuppy for Ontario or Hilary for Quebec & the Maritimes) to discuss your
business needs. This team is insanely talented and will make time for anyone who wants to listen to
them speak about how G Adventures changes people’s lives.
- Join us in the Agents of Change Facebook Group for those real time updates.
- Check out our Agent Backpack (in Sherpa) which is full of interesting and engaging self-paced
training modules on topics from travel styles to emerging destinations. Just this week we’ve
launched a 2025 New Product for Agents training so it’s best to bookmark the Agent Backpack and
check back as we will be releasing 130+ new tours between now and November.
- Tune into In the Loop. Did I mention that we give away a free trip or travel credit in each
broadcast?! Advisors need to have made at least one booking this calendar year and be on the live
webinar to qualify for the draw. Last month we gave away $500 G Dollars and the month before was
a spot on our upcoming Hiking the Azores FAM - with flights! Don’t miss out!
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