Destination-Wedding Specialist Plans More Direct Marketing

Ask Me About Destination Weddings, a reservation and resource center for travel agents, is going to expand its reach by advertising directly to consumers in 2009, according to Marilyn Cairo, vice president of marketing.

Beginning next year, the company will promote its 46 hotel partners in the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico in advertising directed to the consumer as well as in bridal shows and on the company’s website.

Currently, 20 percent of Ask Me’s business comes directly from consumers. The rest comes from their company-trained travel agency specialists, dubbed Ask Me agents. The idea is to grow the niche, but Ask Me isn’t about to neglect the distribution channel that produces 80 percent of its business.

Under the new plan, media advertising will steer the consumer to Ask Me’s call center in Miami, where a “romance expert,” as members of the sales team are called, will try to route the consumer to an Ask Me travel agent.

The synergy that Ask Me has created with agents and its hotel partners in 12 destinations has created cross-promotion opportunities that benefit each segment, Cairo said.

Participation in the summer promotion for hotels includes a profile of the hotel and its wedding/honeymoon packages displayed on the Ask Me website, featured placement on the site’s home page for one week, inclusion in the company’s wedding brochure and the services of the center’s bilingual call center.