Agents Vacation Better with Sunwing

Tour Operator
05-02-2019 10:45 am
Blake Wolfe

Blake Wolfe

Blake Wolfe is an award-winning journalist and editor, who joined PAX after nearly 10 years in Canada’s newspaper industry. In addition to PAX, his work has been featured in publications such as the Metroland Media group of newspapers and the Toronto Sun.

New properties, new destinations and a new way for clients to travel are all on the horizon for the 2019-20 sun season, ensuring that the future is bright for Sunwing and travel agents.

Hundreds of Toronto-area travel advisors met with dozens of suppliers at the Toronto stop of Sunwing’s 2019 Vacation Better Tour, fittingly coinciding with the 2019 edition of Travel Agent Day. The tour, which has travelled across the country this spring, brought more than 50 representatives showcasing the destinations, resorts and cruise lines found in Sunwing’s 2019-20 brochure, launched this week.

Something new under the sun

Dave Wright, Sunwing’s director of sales, Ontario and Atlantic Canada, told PAX that this year the tour operator is focusing on new resorts in several key destinations:

Tobago, with service from Toronto launched this past December, with properties including the new Starfish Tobago Resort and Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort;
Grenada, which also saw flights from Toronto added in December and will see the opening of the new Royalton Grenada this winter;
Antigua, home of the Royalton Antigua opening tomorrow; and
St. Maarten, which returned to Sunwing’s destination line-up this winter following its recovery from the 2017 hurricane season, set to welcome a Planet Hollywood property in 2020.

Wright added that Sunwing will offer additional Planet Hollywood properties, including Planet Hollywood Beach Resort Costa Rica and in 2020, Planet Hollywood Beach Resort Cancun.

Tanja Steinbock, or Barrett & Carlysle Travel, was the winner of 1 million STAR Points from Sunwing during the Toronto stop of the Vacation Better Tour

A new way to book

Sunwing also recently introduced its Sunwing Flex portal, which Wright said will offer travellers a new way to book destinations which Sunwing doesn’t currently fly to, such as Hawaii, Barbados and Belize.

While the air portion will be handled by a different carrier, Wright explained that agents booking clients on these trips will earn commission on the land portion as a Sunwing booking. The portal, which was added to sunwingagents.ca, will also see the inclusion of Sunwing product to be added later this summer, he said.

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!