Meet the Advertiser
Vacation Adventures Primes On-Premise Operators for Profits
Flight confirmed? Check. Hotel booked? Check. Patrons packing the bar
in hopes of winning the highlight giveaway of the night, an
expenses-paid vacation? Check. Wait a minute.
It’s not the routine vacation; it’s a promising promotional scenario,
and thanks to the many guests filling an operator’s establishment for
their chance to get away from it all, it’s a profitable venture brought
to any bar from afar. With 18 years of vacation-package-providing
service to nightclub and bar owners, Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based Vacation
Adventures International (with a satellite office near Atlantic City)
is an innovative leader in the hospitality industry for boosting
operators’ bottom lines with travel incentives.
Taking Off
“The company was started in 1987 by George Okun, primarily by
advertising in Nightclub & Bar and other publications,” says Vito
Finizio, operations manager.
“Essentially, we’re a wholesale broker of vacation packages and tie-in giveaways.”
Although the company’s founder, Okun, passed away in 1999, his wife
Susan stepped in as Vacation Adventures’ president, and today the
company serves as a go-to resource for on-premise operators wanting to
offer special incentives to guests. Whether for special events or
scheduled promotional campaigns, Finizio says Vacation Adventures
travel packages provide a special promotional touch for bars and clubs,
as well as the added value of convenience.
“Most nightclub owners basically are selling themselves versus selling
their products, and especially initially there is a lot of time spent
doing that,” Finizio says. “The front of the house is where you really
make your money. So, it’s a necessity for many operators to become
promotion-oriented, and that’s where we come in — (our services) give a
nice hook to bring people in.”
Generating Activity
It’s all about generating activity, Finizio says, and he says the
Vacation Adventures packages accomplish this in several ways. With a
ballpark of 12 vacation destinations in its repetoire, the company is
able to provide guests — via venue owners — with a variety of getaway
options. There also are six-city packages available for owners, which
include New York City, Miami, New Orleans, San Francisco, San Antonio,
Texas, and Washington, D.C. These can be used out of most any major
U.S. airport, too.
Finizio says common uses of the packages are for Ladies’ Night, “Wheel
of Fortune”-style contests featuring prize wheels and, most recently,
Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments, which Finizio says work especially well
with the Vegas vacations. Vacation Adventures also will assist with
promoting events through employee buttons, table tents and even custom
flyers. “We try to do everything from our end to give a ready-made
promotion.”
Typical cost to operators is ballpark $100, and most packages are
valued at $500, Finizio says. A Bahamas cruise package available for
around $50.
Finizio says the bargains result from the company’s long-standing
relationship with travel providers and hotels is the root of it, and
also any upgrades passengers make contribute to bottom-line cost
reduction. Once an operator purchases the packages of airfare and hotel
for guests — usually sold in groups of 25 or more — Vacation
Adventures’ travel coordination personnel take care of the rest. NCB
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