PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Lufthansa City Center International and Jerne announce innovative social media partnership
24 June 2024 – Jerne (https://www.jerne.com/), the world’s leading platform connecting travel curators and experience providers, and Lufthansa City Center International (https://lufthansa-city-center.com/en/), one of the world’s leading travel agency networks, announced their innovative social media partnership at the international 2024 Lufthansa City Center (LCC) Annual Conference, “NXT”, in Braga, Portugal, 13 June 2024, in front of 250 LCC executive attendees, representing the network’s thousands of travel advisors in 105 countries, including the US, Canada, and the UK among them.
“LCC NXT is all about being agile, dynamic, and future-oriented,” said Martina Groenegres, Managing Director, LCC International. “With our Jerne partnership, we are looking to both solidify and renew our network’s relationship with the next generation of travellers.”
Through their partnership, LCC will utilize Jerne’s proprietary software to manage their relationships with the platforms 8,500 content creators and influencers in 101 countries, in order to create content and influence bookings aimed at supporting LCC’s 300 locations outside of Germany.
In launching together at LCC NXT, Tim Morgan, CEO, Jerne, was invited to present a keynote and an educational session at the event about the importance of social media for both the network’s corporate and leisure travel segments. Among the recent study results shared by Morgan during his presentations:
- 80% of consumers make purchases based on social media posts – Forbes
- 77% of travelers use social media for trip inspiration – Luth Research
- 76% of luxury travelers make buying decisions based on business-to-consumer social media posts – Stelico Consulting Group
- 75% of business-to-business buyers make buying decisions based on social media – LinkedIn
As part of the partnership announcement, LCC also utilized Jerne’s proprietary matching software to select Harry Tarbuck (https://www.instagram.com/harrytarbuck/), an award-winning content creator and influencer, to create inspiring content throughout the LCC event as well as to join Morgan for a live Q&A on stage.
“Having Harry attend was instrumental in dispelling many of the myths around social media,” said Groenegres. “For our agency and DMC members to hear from experts in the field, like Tim, and experts on the ground, like Harry, was imperative in understanding the sometimes complex but always essential need for them to take advantage of social media.”
With the successful launch of their partnership, Groenegres and Morgan were visibly excited but tight-lipped on the next steps for their relationship. “Stay tuned!” said Morgan.
Curators interested in applying to partner with Lufthansa City Center International can do so at https://lufthansacitycenter.jerne.app/register.
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ABOUT LCC
Lufthansa City Center (LCC) is the world’s largest independent network in the travel agency market with 580 offices in 105 countries and a total turnover of 5.98 billion Euros (business year 2023). LCC is active in the leisure (tourism) and corporate (business travel) sectors. The chain of owner-managed medium-sized travel agencies includes 280 offices with around 1,800 employees in Germany. Outside of its home market Germany (which is operated by the German franchisor Lufthansa City Center Reisebüropartner GmbH), the travel agency network employs around 4,500 people in 300 offices. Responsible for all world-wide agencies is Lufthansa City Center International GmbH, the international franchisor located in Frankfurt/Germany. Lufthansa City Center offer a global programme with local relevance to nurture the cultural differences and dynamics required in each market. A global presence with local capabilities ensures the best opportunity for delivering exceptional customer service. https://lufthansa-city-center.com/en/
ABOUT JERNE
Jerne is the world’s leading platform connecting 8,500 influential travel curators and 325 experience providers – hotels, cruise lines, tour operators, restaurants, spas, and every experiential product in between – forming a new channel for travel distribution. Jerne is also notably the Official Creator Economy Partner of Forbes Travel Guide.
For experience providers, Jerne’s end-to-end curator management platform simplifies travel curator sourcing, verification, agreement administration, content management, affiliate booking attribution, commission incentive reconciliation, earned media analytics, ROI reporting, and re-marketing via MyJerne – unlocking the full power of the travel curator distribution channel with Jerne’s proprietary inspiration engine. For travel curators, Jerne’s hundreds of experience provider partnerships open access to thousands of hosted experience opportunities with hotels, restaurants, spas, cruises, tours, and other travel and hospitality experiences that they can share with their followers and earn commission on attributable bookings.
Jerne was co-founded in 2021 by Tim Morgan and Ryan McElroy who have a combined 38 years of travel industry experience, both having worked with or served on advisory boards of some of the world’s leading travel companies. Formerly overseeing Canada & EMEA for Virtuoso, Morgan also co-founded The 1000 (acquired by Jerne), a $3 billion club for the world’s most influential travel advisors. McElroy also co-founded Travel Agency Tribes, a provider of B2B2C travel marketing technologies used by thousands of travel companies and consumers every day. https://www.jerne.com/
CONTACTS:
Jerne (info@jerne.com)
Anke Steinhauer, Head of Global Marketing and Events, Lufthansa City Center (anke.steinhauer@lcc.de)
