From getting into sold out venues through the back door, to drawing on his own experiences as a tour guide in Europe, Weka Travel’s Josh Loughnan says he can offer agents an edge in selling European Holidays.
The business aims to create itineraries to allow clients to experience Europe like a local and is ramping up its efforts to work with agents, offering commissionable European options that go beyond ‘cookie cutter packages’.
“We’ve got our own staff including drivers and guides in the destinations,” says Loughnan who has a wide network of contacts from chefs and attraction caretakers to artists and priests that enables Weka to provide experiences that may not be available elsewhere.
“We know all the secrets, where to get tickets when things are sold out, which events and festivals are on when—we do all the digging to come up with experiences that suit clients’ interests,” he says “What we need from agents is some details about their clients, their interests and a rough time frame and we can go from there—we might suggest changing the order of an itinerary because events are on, or detouring to take in something.”
Weka also keeps in contact with the clients once they’re travelling via a messaging app, but Loughnan stresses that the traveller remains the client of the agent. ”It’s about loyalty and trust and working together—and we want the clients to come back again.”
Loughnan says the company focuses on mid- to high-end European travel with clients who are generally 55 years plus, with a high repeat travel rate.
“Our goal is to work with agents and be ahead of the game for their clients,” adds Loughnan “We offer a value-for-money product and we want to make the agents look good. The client also has peace of mind and we are constantly in contact with them on their trip. It might be to say there’s roadworks down the road so we need to pick you up 30 minutes early to get there on time. That can stop an agent getting a call at 2am.”
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