Engaging the Travel Trade: How “Sell Your Way to the USA” Drove Results

peri861
Jun 24, 2025
2 min read

Updated: Aug 25, 2025

Brief

Client - Visit Anchorage, Utah Office of Tourism, Travel Nevada, Destination DC, Grapevine and Travel Oklahoma. In partnership with American Airlines and Brand USA.

Campaign - Sell Your Way to the USA

Target Audience - New Zealand and Australian Travel Trade

Increase bookings to Canuckiwi client destinations during key selling periods by partnering with American Airlines to drive sales and revenue through a low-cost agent incentive.

Idea

Building on the success of previous years, the 2024 campaign was launched during key trade events and

supported by strategic trade media partnerships. Flyers and campaign material were distributed at Visit USA expos and through partner channels. The incentive was further promoted through stage presentations, trade media articles, and online trade platforms. Trade media partners included KarryOn, Travelweek, Travel Daily, Travel Memo, and Tabs on Travel, ensuring the program remained top of mind for agents throughout the campaign period.

Agents earned points for each round-trip American Airlines airfare booked to North America, with bonus points awarded for bookings that included one of the featured gateway cities: Anchorage, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Reno-Tahoe, Salt Lake City, or Washington, DC. Additional points were available for land packages that included room nights in participating partner destinations such as Anchorage, Grapevine (Texas), Oklahoma, Nevada, Utah, and Washington, DC. Agents could further increase their points by completing new or destination-specific badges on the Brand USA Discovery Program. This tiered, points-based system was designed to encourage multi-destination sales and engagement with the featured regions. At the close of the campaign, the top 15 performing agents were rewarded with hosted trips to the United States to experience the destinations firsthand.