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How G Adventures’ Inca challenge helped one agent to garner client interest in Peru

When Small Planet Travel took part in – and won – G Adventures’ Inca Trail Steps Challenge, it created a bit of a Peruvian buzz

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G Adventures offers an Inca Trail trek
G Adventures offers an Inca Trail trek

Jill and Kevin Woods, founders of Cumbria-based travel agency Small Planet Travel, are no strangers to walking since the Lake District’s hiking routes are right on the doorstep of their South Lakes home. So when G Adventures launched its Inca Trail Steps Challenge asking agents to match the famed path’s 26 miles in four days, the homeworkers jumped at the chance to take part.

 

“We can walk out of our door onto roads where you only see tractors, cows and sheep, so we thought ‘we’re walking anyway – the same roads day in and day out – so this gives us something to aim for’,” says Jill.

 

Between them, the husband-and-wife team clocked up 90,800 steps over four days by completing at least six miles every day. The duo beat more than 140 agents to the top spot, bagging a pair of prize Craghoppers walking boots in the process.

Kevin and Jill Woods, Small Planet Travel
Kevin and Jill Woods, Small Planet Travel

G Adventures launched the Inca Trail Steps Challenge to help educate agents about its Peruvian holidays, with the tour operator distributing daily videos, training opportunities and marketing collateral during the competition period.

 

Jill, who has yet to visit Peru herself, says the initiative was “really quite useful”, adding: “I’ve had clients do the Inca Trail before, so I was already aware of it, but it was interesting to find out exactly how G Adventures runs its tours and what other experiences and destinations are good to combine the Inca Trail with.”

 

Jill even used the agency’s Facebook page to encourage Small Planet Travel’s clients to take part, with a handful of solo walkers joining in from their respective locations in surrounding areas such as Northumberland and West Yorkshire, updating each other on their progress by posting on the agency’s social media channel.

 

“It’s a bucket-list holiday [so we don’t sell the Inca Trail regularly], but putting the G Adventures challenge on our Facebook page certainly piqued some interest in the destination,” says Jill. “Hopefully it will help us sell more Peru.”

Stu Darnley, national sales manager for G Adventures, explains the thinking behind the challenge. “While the trail is well known, many agents aren’t that confident in selling the experience, so we tailored the content to help them understand what’s involved each day – this will help cater to the increasing traveller demand we are seeing for our trips across Peru,” he says.

 

Market on the move

While the Inca Trail Steps Challenge has drawn the attention of Small Planet Travel clients, so has the recent government announcement that predicts Brits will be able to travel abroad to certain European destinations once again from 6 July. Jill reports that the agency has seen an increase in enquiries in the second half of June, with 2021 bookings now starting to trickle back in and one Christmas 2019 break confirmed.

 

“It’s slow but it’s definitely picking up, and thanks to word of mouth we’ve gained some new clients in the last couple of weeks too,” she adds.

 

It’s this respectable reputation and attentive customer service that’s helped the agency through the pandemic, with nearly all clients taking a considerate approach to cancellations and postponements due to Covid-19.

 

“We’ve been really lucky with our client base in that they’ve been really patient, understanding that [cancellations and delayed refunds are] not the travel agent’s fault, and happy to move their holidays to next year where needed,” says Jill. “They’ve just been very pleased that we’re in their corner.”

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