Both Turner and Vickors have more than 20 years’ experience in the industry and previously worked together at accommodation specialist Beds with Ease. Vickors was also a long-time staff member at Broadway Travel.
Their new venture, which has a team of six people, will offer a range of sales and marketing services, including business development, brand partnerships and video production, as well as PR and social media.
Turner told TTG that Galaxi had already started working with several hotels in Greece and Madeira with more properties set to join in the coming weeks.
“These properties want representation in the UK market,” he explained. “They want that bit more control on how their hotels are perceived in the UK market. We want to help them join the dots.”
Galaxi is currently working with Atrium Hotels, which operates three five-star properties on the Greek island of Rhodes, as well as several hotels on the Portuguese island of Madeira, including The Vine and Caju Le Petit.
Vickors stressed its clients wanted to work more closely with agents in the UK and Ireland through the relationship with Galaxi.
“Most hotels want to support travel agents – it’s still their bread and butter,” he explained. “We can work with travel agents regardless of who they book with. If there’s a chain of travel agents, we can give them exclusive offers and get room upgrades for their clients.”
Vickors added they could also secure free hotel stays for agents to give away to clients, as well as organising stays at hotels for top-selling agency staff as potential incentives.
“We want to work with as many people as possible – there’s no B2B or B2C, it’s human-to-human that people want now,” he said.
Both Vickors and Turner emphasised the “flexibility” that Galaxi can offer to hotels which cannot afford to have their own business development staff in the UK, particularly when “purse strings” are tight during the pandemic.
“We’re speaking to some agents, online and tour operators,” said Turner. “We can help with product portfolio, marketing and brand campaigns.
“There are ways to keep brands moving and not stopping in a very competitive market. It’s a very cost-effective solution for them with a team of people able to represent them in the UK and Ireland.”
Vickors added Galaxi was taking “baby steps” with the current state of the market but said they would “react to what’s required”.
