Ocean Florida launches programme to travel trade with agent competition

Specialist Florida tour operator, Ocean Florida, launches competition for agents to win a Florida holiday for four as it expands travel trade programme

Ocean Florida, the UK’s No.1 specialist tour operator to Florida, is set to scale up sales of its package holidays to the UK travel trade following a successful trial that was launched in July 2020 in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst Ocean Beds has been successfully selling villas to the UK travel trade for several years, Ocean Florida had previously only sold Florida holidays direct to the consumer.

The initiative was launched in response to the impact of COVID-19 on the travel industry as Ocean Florida was able to leverage its ability to sell package holidays to the USA for dates beyond when airline seats were on sale, with guaranteed pricing.

Following a limited roll-out with a few consortia including The Travel Network Group, Advantage Travel and Barrhead Travel to name a few, Ocean Florida now has over 250 agents actively booking not only USA holidays, such as Orlando villa and hotel holidays, but also Caribbean beach holidays, New York hotels and California road trips.

With a team of 12, including 8 dedicated sales agents, the programme is now being expanded to the wider UK travel trade and they have the chance to win a 12-night holiday for four to Florida in 2023 or 2024 with flights, villa, car hire, and Ocean Explorer tickets all included.

Once an agent signs up to the programme on www.ocean-florida.co.uk/agents and completes the onboarding process, they can join our exclusive Facebook group (Ocean4Agents) where they receive details of exclusive offers and product updates and access to our dedicated trade sales team to support with all their needs.

Melanie Saavedra, Managing Director of Travel Sense Ltd said “Ocean Florida have been an amazing new edition to Travel Sense and we couldn’t be happier. Quote turnaround time is so quick, completely professional with outstanding knowledge and nothing is too much trouble. They are now our go-to for everything USA and more! Great product, great service and a pleasure to work with, we love Ocean Florida.”

Ann-Maria Agar, Head of Trade Sales, said “As soon the travel restrictions came in last March, we leaned on our B2C brand Ocean Florida, who had holidays on sale up to 2024, to assist agents wanting book or amend holidays to later dates. Very quickly we were up and running with a select group of agents and we’re delighted to be expanding our offering to the wider travel trade and launching a holiday competition for our trade partners.”

Harry Hastings, Co-CEO, said “Like many businesses, when COVID-19 hit we had to pivot our business if we wanted to thrive when the market started to fully recover. Our trade sales have become an increasingly important and valued part of our business strategy and we look forward to building our trade programme with travel agents.”