As a part of a new working approach for the Sernatur Vacaciones Tercera Edad (VTE) which aims to establish direct and close links with the travel agencies that are part of the commercialization of the program’s regular quotas, the first meeting with this community of agents and tour operators that today are part of the sales force of these state trips focused on the elderly segment took place on Thursday July 20th in the morning. 

The session, which was attended in person by more than 70 representatives from travel agencies and brought together another 60 agents though online transmission, focused on highlighting the importance and impact of social tourism and on providing complete information of the VTE program and how it operates with the awarded companies. In addition, Senama provided spaces to emphasize the good treatment of the elderly and a new sales system was presented for the getaways which accredited agencies will have at their disposal. 

The Undersecretary for Tourism, Verónica Pardo, stressed that “Vacaciones Tercera Edad is one of the most important social programs we have in tourism because it generates a huge impact on the elderly and the agencies that commercialize the trips, along with the public sector, fulfill the role of contributing to dignified, active and healthy aging through what is offered. We all do tourism with social impact, even helping local providers to break the seasonality and finally boosting the country’s economy”. 

For his part, the Sernatur national director, Cristóbal Benítez, stressed that “ for the first time, the 116 travel agencies that applied to be part of the VTE program, will have direct contact with Sernatur and without intermediaries for the travel operation, which is extremely valuable because together we are doing social tourism and this way of working allows us to strengthen the bonds of trust for this articulation and promote the development of new travel agencies that have been incorporated into the national tourism chain”. 

The tourist authorities emphasized that this instance not only allows us to provide useful information about the program and its scopes but also worked with dynamics that contributed to integrating travel agencies in the design of the bases to define the 2023 work plan, considering their experience with the state program and to promote improvements and align the work to provide an excellent travel experience for the VTE program beneficiaries. 

Mipymes agencies expand their sales force

Because of the success of the application process for the VTE program carried out in May this year, there are now 116 travel agencies registered on Sernatur which are part of the sales force of the classic trips and getaways across the country.  

The above meant an increase of 15% in relation to last year’s call for applications for regular quotas and with this participation Sernatur is making it easier for them to expand their field of direct sales to opening the marketing space to getaways. 

In this way, the institution is contributing to its reboot with an increase of 41% in the quotas on sale for the year 2023. This implies a direct benefit for the participating agencies on the VTE program, since it allows them to expand their business scope, improve their integrated production and to strengthen its competitive level in the national market. 

Finally, the tourism authorities explained that, since the travel agencies that participate in the VTE program are mainly MiPymes, they are now able to directly market two methods of the VTE:  classic and getaways which translate into a direct benefit for them, given that the amount corresponding to the agency’s commission was increased by 58%. This implies an injection of close to $430,000,000 in agency fees under the VTE program.