Pleasant Holidays: Caribbean Bookings on the Rise

Pleasant Holidays' Caribbean sales are up by double digits so far this year after a slow start coming off the 2017 hurricane season. 

Pleasant CEO Jack Richards, speaking at the company's fifth annual Elite Experience incentive held this year at Beaches in Turks & Caicos, said Caribbean sales were slower in early 2018 than at the start of 2017, but that they have since surged, and that for 2019, the Caribbean is up in the “high double digits.”

Pleasant said that to help jump-start the region's 2019 bookings, and be more competitive, Pleasant last month lowered the trip deposit for all Caribbean bookings from $200 per person to $50 per person.

Of the 23 Caribbean destinations Pleasant sells, some, like Puerto Rico, haven't fully recovered from last year's powerful hurricane season.

Pleasant's choice of Turks & Caicos to host its annual incentive trip to top agents was chosen in part to support the island's comeback from Hurricane Irma.

In planning the Elite trip, Richards said, Pleasant looks for destinations with the "greatest opportunity going forward based on what agents may not have seen" but would most likely sell after a visit.

Pleasant revealed an enhancement to its booking site, which rolled out last month, called Hotel Recommendation. After an agent enters trip dates for a specific destination, the agent can select up to six hotel options, with prices and images, to be sent directly via e-mail to the client, and may include a personalized message.

In addition, in 2019 more hotels at the Pleasant booking site will offer dynamic rates with instant confirmations based on those rates.

Source: Travel Weekly