International travel membership company, WorldVentures, has launched DreamTrips Local (DTL) in Australia, allowing members to earn points towards their next trip while dining at participating restaurants.
According to Anthony Fitzgerald, director Asia Pacific sales at WorldVentures, there are thousands of members in Australia and nearly half a million worldwide.
“DreamTrips Local will help our Australian members to take more holidays, faster, simply by rewarding them for the things they would normally do anyway, like dining out,” he said.
Twelve restaurants from Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra have joined the program including Sydney Vietnamese restaurant, Red Lantern. Red Lantern’s co-owner, Pauline Nguyen, was a driving force behind the program’s launch in Australia.
“Most [incentive] programs are all about the customer, as well as the owners of the program itself,” she told Hospitality. “It is rarely about the restaurateur. The programs pay little regard for our paper thin margins and enormous overheads. They rattle off exorbitant figures with no real backing or understanding of the outgoings of the restaurant. The DTL program is the first program that I have seen that benefits the restaurateur, customer and the program organisers.”
DreamTrips gives restaurateurs access to a database of 700,000 active travellers from around the world, and operators are able to choose which days/services to offer the incentive program. Members also pay full price when dining out, unlike other programs which require restaurants to heavily discount their offering.
“The restaurant doesn’t need to invest in any new technology as it’s all in the member’s phone on the Dreamtrip App. All the restaurant needs is a print out of the QR code. After dining, the waiter brings the bill, the member pulls out their app and scans the bill entering the amount, excluding GST. As soon as they scans the restaurant’s QR code, this information goes to main office and the member is rewarded with their Dreamtrip points the very next day,” Nguyen said.
Other participating restaurants include:
- The Flynn
- Red Lantern
- Brewristas
- Thai Pothong
- Calabur Cafee and Diner
- OTG Thai Restaurant
- Platform No 8 Caf
- Gridiron Grillhouse
- Hibachi Dining
- BamBam Asian Dining
- Indulge Brasserie
