IC Travel Agent July 2014
48
TRAVEL AGENT THE HOW-TO MAGAZINE FOR ICs, OSRs & HOME-BASED TRAVEL AGENTS THE ART OF SELLING TRAVEL FROM HOME JULY 2014
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The How-To Magazine for ICs, OSRs & Home-Based Travel Agents - includes The CASL Hassle Report
Transcript of IC Travel Agent July 2014
THE HOW-T
TH
TRAVEL AGENTO MAGAZINE FOR ICs, OSRs & HOME-BASED TRAVEL AGENTS
E ART OF SELLING TRAVEL FROM HO
MEJULY 2014
4 EDITORIAL
Selling travel from home doesnot have to be a puzzle when you
read IC! Find the host agencythat best suits your needs.
Share your money making ideasin IC and help your IC colleagues.
CONTACTSteve Crowhurst
www.ic-travelagent.com
Publisher:SMP Training Co.
www.smptraining.com
ContributorsSteve Crowhurst
IC TRAVEL AGENT is owned and publishedby Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. AllRights Reserved. Protected byInternational Copyright Law. IC TRAVELAGENT can be shared, forwarded, cut andpasted but not sold, resold or in any waymonetized. Using any images or contentfrom IC TRAVEL AGENT must be sourced asfollows: “Copyright SMP Training Co.www.smptraining.com” SMP Training Co.568 Country Club Drive, Qualicum Beach,BC, Canada, V9K-1G1 Note: SteveCrowhurst is not responsible for outcomesbased on how you interpret or use theideas in IC TRAVEL AGENT.T: 250-738-0064.
6 TAPPING INTO NEW BUSINESS GENERATION
8 DREAM MERCHANTS
10 TAP INTO SERVICE
12 TAPPING INTO YOUR INNER EXPLORER by Steve Gillick
15 SOCIAL MEDIA IS YOUR FRIEND by Jill Wykes
16 CLIENT UPGRADE
18 THE ART OF ASKING
19 ASK YOUR CLIENTS
20 ASK ME IDEAS
21 THINKING INSIDE THE BOX
22 YOUR SELLING CYCLE
23 QR QUIRKS
24 THE CASL HASSLE 2-STEP
25 THE CASL HASSLE REPORT
39 A GREAT CASL GUIDE
40 IF YOU DON’T KNOW…
41 SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT MARKETING? By Jill Wykes
42 THE BOOK PAGE
43 THE PHOTO PAGE – THE RAYS APP
44 SELLING TRAVEL WITH STEVE
TABLE OF CONTENTS – IC JULY 2014
If it’s not yet 5pm where you live, you still have time to make one morecall, close one more sale or e-mail one more promotion!
Advertising in IC Travel Agent reaches the serious business-minded travel agent.Promote your products and services via video, audio or generic text and images. ICTravel Agent is marketed direct to over 4,000 travel agents plus thousands more viasocial media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, SlideShare, trade contacts,partners and educational institutions. Your ad includes a BONUS How-to-Sell article.Full page rates range from $300 to $425 based on number of insertions.
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It’s time to join Nexion Canada.
• Your choice of up to 80% of commissions
• Top commissions with leading air, cruise and land suppliers
• Technology tools to better manage your business
• Access to our exclusive point-and-click booking engine or through the Amadeus, Sabre or Galileo
• Training, coaching and networking opportunities
• Innovative marketing programs to grow your business
• Exclusive cruise block space and supplier offers
• Lead generation for qualifi ed agents
• Vacation.com membership included at no additional charge!
Contact us today to learn more about our growing family of travel professionals. Visit www.Join.NexionCanada.com Email [email protected] 866-399-9989
MENTION THAT YOU SAW US IN IC AGENT MAGAZINE AND RECEIVE YOUR FIRST MONTH FREE!
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Tapping Into New Business Generation
I spend most of my time delving into what creates success for travel trade professionals. My
favourite topic: NBG. New Business Generation. It’s what I do, train on, live for and write about
and at the same time encourage everyone I meet to do, too. That means opening up that creative
gene, using the talent that’s close at hand and then have the courage to step out and make
something happen.
The activity of stepping out is not always easy to do for some people. The personality needs to
be slightly on the outgoing side of the scale. A little extrovert. However, if you follow the trends
you can appear to be outgoing and extrovert working behind the digital screen. In person, meek
and mild, online cheeky and wild! Whichever YOU makes the marketing plan happen and
whomever closes the sales, face-to-face, by phone, email or online… the most important
component is to turn on that creative tap.
Hope you can take some of the ideas in this month’s issue
of IC Travel Agent and generate additional sales to top
your usual target.
See you inside.
Don’t forget to check out the new titles at The Travel Agent’s Store.
Here’s to your continued success!
Best regards.
Steve Crowhurst, CTC
www.ic-travelagent.com
Steve Crowhurst, CTC, Publisher
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Tapping Into NBGNBG is a term I came up with some years ago as the very thing that I do for a living. Once I had
a handle on what it is I actually do, then I could teach others how to tap into it and using their
own creativity, sell more travel. The art of NBG – New Business Generation, is to be 100%
focused on opportunity and that in turn means each one of your senses are highly tuned to see
and sense when there is something ‘there’ that you can use to promote travel. Let me explain:
We all have the same sensory tools. Some
people tune into one or two, others less and
some are firing on all cylinders. Those that
know tell us we only use 10% of our brain.
Imagine if we could tap into that other 90%!
Sight and Seeing
We receive most of our information through
our eyes. The skill then is to determine what
it is you are looking at and deciding there
and then if there is an opportunity “here” to
sell travel.
What your eyes receive will be translated by
that part of your brain that deals with visual
and audio for instance. Then, based on the
information already stored in your brain,
together with the experiences already filed
away – by tapping into these vaults of
knowledge you can and will assess the
current situation / information and then
create the opportunity.
Seeing Things Others Do Not
The art of seeing things or sensing
opportunities that your competition misses
is usually based on your past experiences
and or having an acute sense of survival. You
might be the one that, when disaster strikes,
instinctively heads to the safe area when
others around you might stand still a
moment too long.
It’s the same in business and in selling travel.
You must tap into those survival skills and
most certainly use your eyes to capture and
feed the information to your brain and then
let it compute your next move once it has
checked into the experience already stored.
Reading about successful sales and
marketing methods will help. Looking at
layouts will help. Reviewing various posts
about marketing outcomes will help. All of
this information will be stored away and
combined with your own experience to
produce an answer. It’s at that moment you
decide whether or not to follow through.
The Eyes Have It
Marketing to the sense most used by us
humans, your clients and prospects makes,
well, it makes sense! This means your
marketing should be sight-worthy. By colour
and layout etc., it should capture the
viewer’s attention and cause them to go to
the next step and make the call.
Keeping It Visual
Focused on the printed word and the
imagery behind it you will need to develop a
good sense of colour and layout that is
trending for all three generations currently
in the client mix: Baby Boomers, Generation
X and Generation Y.
Out of the three generations as mentioned
in previous articles, the Baby Boomer is still
the generation with the time and money to
travel. Both Generation X & Y are embarking
on their early life adventures which includes
all the things Baby Boomers have finished
with such as marriage, kids, house, job,
career etc. This does not mean you remove
Gen X&Y from your marketing list – just
don’t overlook the BBs as some industries
are doing.
Step One: Website
Do you have a wall of text awaiting the next
visitor to your website? If your home page
full of text or like so many template host
agency websites littered with many small
buttons promoting so many things that none
stand out? Look for a total revamp if the
above reminds you of your website. What
you want and need is EYE CANDY. You’ve
heard this term before and it is what your
website needs. Use your fabulous photos or
request them from your suppliers and
tourist boards. Place those images where
they can sell for you. Add captions and call to
actions such: “You could have taken this
photograph! Call today to learn how.”
Step Two: Blog Posts
Blogging has moved on from text only. Now
is the time to once again make good use of
those photographs and even better, if you
have the footage, go video. If you don’t have
the footage, your suppliers do. Make the call
and offer your readers something new.
Inbound Marketing is Spam Compliant
No matter where you live and sell travel the
laws for preventing spam are causing havoc
in some industries and more so with SMEs
like most travel agencies. So what to do?
With Steps one and two completed, thus
giving your website visitors and blog readers
something new to attract their call you can
embark on an inbound marketing plan.
Inbound marketing can be defined as
attracting and earning attention organically
versus in your spam style in your face
marketing. Any one of the following actions
fits the concept of inbound marketing and
each is directed to where your prospect will
go for their travel information. This is very
important especially completing the best
Search Engine Optimization for your website
which means your website will show in the
early results when someone searches for
their special interest that you happen to
specialize in. The result should cause
someone to track you down, view your
website, read what you wrote. Inbound
marketing activities would include:
1. Blogging
2. E-books (you’ve authored)
3. Opt-In Email Lists
4. Pay Per Click
5. Press / Media Releases
6. Print Media
7. Public Relations
8. Public Speaking
9. Publicly Announced Consumer Events
10. SEO - Search Engine Optimization
11. Video
12. Viral Messages
13. Word of Mouth
How many are you doing?
IT’S IN PRODUCTION!My first book of this type only took 23 years to complete… this one is on a faster track.
The hard-hitting, no nonsense, no fluff content will cause you to re-think how you sell travel today
and in the coming years. The world of selling travel has changed in so many ways, offering a
whole new set of marketing tools, new travelling generations, communication tools, trends,
places to visit and things to do. The required skills and competencies for success have changed
too. The backdrop to your success has also changed – it is not the peaceful planet everyone
expected. Dream Merchants will help you keep the selling travel dream alive despite civil wars,
extreme weather and terrorism. Veteran of the trade or newcomer, supplier or NGO, you owe it
to yourself to read this insightful book. Published in eBook format to support Green Knowledge.
Watch for the publication announcement.
Dream Merchants™
As the other page shouts, it’s in production! Finally. Books take time to write and especially
the type of book that delivers the how-to behind the what-to-do that everyone else tells you
to do. The focus of Dream Merchants™ is to help newcomers to selling travel start their career
the right way and at the same time offer travel trade veterans and travel schools a new
approach to selling travel in the coming years. Additionally the content will also support the
efforts of travel trade suppliers who work closely with travel agents.
Unlike other books on the topic of selling travel
this one is hard core and pulls no punches in
what it takes to be considered a travel trade
professional, a Dream Merchant.™
The opening chapters explore the current world
wide situation and state of affairs which, in a
nutshell, is reducing places to visit. Existing
upheaval in many countries and the potential for
civil war is huge. Weather patterns have changed
dramatically. The seasons we know and sell have
moved. The planet is in turmoil in more ways
than one, yet, travel is still high on the list of
those that can afford it.
Additionally, the travel trade faces even more
challenges and this time from within as each
country creates its own anti-spam legislation
with Canada’s CASL being touted as the toughest
in the world. Guaranteed to kill off many small
travel businesses as genuine spammers, who
don’t play fair, simply carry on spamming as
usual.
How does a newcomer to selling travel even
build a clientele if they can no longer (in Canada)
reach out and e-touch? How do you keep the
dream alive for yourself and your clients? How
do you keep the passion for travel moving
onwards and upwards and how do you remain
the DREAM MERCHANT™ in your community?
Read Dream Merchants™ and you’ll be taken
through a rigorous course of study and self-
analysis. You may or may not like what you find
out – however follow the advice and you’ll
survive.
Young people entering the industry will be,
during their career, selling to four generations
ranging from BBs, Gen X, Y and Z. Social media
use will change from generation to generation. A
knowledge of travel apps and how they work is
now crucial. Being able to communicate using
Emoji is a new marketing must know skill when
targeting Gen Z. Using a tablet app instead of a
white flag when guiding a tour, is now a must do.
Video will be the best format for marketing
travel across all 5 screens. Knowing how to
create and produce a 3 minute powerful travel
feature is also a must know. Being camera
presentable is one more skill to learn.
I also explore the true meaning of over used
words such as professional, passion and
engagement to present the reality of selling
travel going forward, during the next five years.
There you have it. A brief overview of Dream
Merchants™ - a must read for the travel agent
wishing to grow their business in a way that will
work with and around the global challenges
happening now and the challenges to happen in
the coming years.
Send an email request and be first to secure a
copy when Dream Merchants™ is published.
Tap Into ServiceWhen I am in buying mode or have interaction with sales and service people I tend to step
outside the transaction and look back on it from all angles. It is a learning curve for me and I
bring what I observe into the training workshops I deliver. I will even suffer terrible service so
that I can learn from the situation and train around it. So, how does a travel seller deliver
customer service excellence? The answer to this is to study the Perfect Norm.
From Great to NormalOne topic that keeps coming up is the level of
service that is considered excellent when
actually, excellence is simply the operating level
of the Perfect Norm. First of all you have to
understand that there is no 110 per cent. There
is no “extra mile” to go to. There is only service.
Delivered, handled, presented and offered in a
manner that is refined, elegant and thoughtful,
engaging, articulate, proffered by a well-
groomed, pleasant individual who is high on
common sense, interested in what they are
doing, happy in the career they have chosen and
who maintains product knowledge excellence.
There is no extra mile!If you’re not delivering 100% then you are
not delivering service excellence.
The Scale of ServiceThe role of the travel seller is to solve the
problem(s) – not add to them. Many of these
problems are actually wonderful, interactive
experiences – the client wants a world cruise and
the travel agent of record has to find one that
matches. Nice problem to have and to solve. If
Normal equates to what others call “Excellence”
then where on the scale would you place the
words, “Yeah?” or the handing over of five
brochures followed by “... take these away and
read them...”? Do these actions even make the
scale? No, they don’t.
The Enjoyable ExperienceThe service level we are addressing, the Perfect
Norm, delivers an enjoyable shopping
experience for both the client and the travel
seller. It would consist of upbeat banter, fun,
humour, knowledge, discussion, what-ifs, can
dos and can’t dos, best and worst, too much and
not enough.
Finally both parties have reached the level of the
personalized sale. The customer feels they were
the only client being serviced, they feel great
having done business with “you” and they leave
feeling like a million bucks.
Look, Tone, WordsThe shopping experience starts when the client
first eyeballs you from across the room, office,
hotel lobby or wherever you sell from. As you
know, visual acceptance represents 55 per cent
of a customer’s intention to buy. If you are
having a bad hair day, look like the night before
or just couldn’t be bothered... you have helped
the customer check out and go to another travel
agent. Your tone of voice is the next factor as to
whether or not a customer will proceed or come
back to buy. Finally the words you use or don’t
use will keep the customer at your side or scare
them off. A customer asks, “What kind of cruises
do you have?” Typical B&M response, “The
brochures are over there on the rack... help
yourself.” Your Perfect Norm reply would be,
“Well right now there are three very popular
cruises... let me tell you about them and then we
can discuss which one appeals to you..., let’s sit
over here... coffee?”
The thing is, every travel agent preaches “We’ve
got service!” Service happens not as a by-
product of turning up, but as a focused effort to
serve.
As many home-based travel agents eventually
learn, they actually serve two customers – the
external customer representing clients, and the
internal customer representing host agency
staff, suppliers, colleagues & fellow members.
How you work with these individuals has a
dynamic effect on the level of service the end
customer receives from you.
Creating a Service Path is not reserved for the
‘big guys’ – you too can benefit from this plan. It
will help you establish how best to service both
your internal and external customer. Let’s start
you on the path to service excellence and the
Perfect Norm.
The Relay Race Metaphor
In a relay race, the athletes are positioned in the
race based on their individual talents and skills
so that overall the team stands a better than
average chance of winning. It is the same with
your service plan. The host agency team must
come together to support the frontrunner – that
would be you - so that the entire team wins. The
exchange of the baton in a relay race is crucial to
the team’s success. It is the same in the business
world. If you do not set up that exchange as
practiced hundreds of times (keyword: practice),
the win, the sale, will not happen.
Designing The Service PathAssuming you’ve got the right team supporting
you, you sit down with pad and pen and start to
discuss the interaction of each person/each job
function and then you look at where each person
interacts with you and decide on the level of
response and helpfulness you need. Each
interaction between host agency staff and you is
called an MOT – Moment of Truth. At this point
of interaction you would demand 100-per cent
respect for each other’s time, level of work, the
person themselves; you would each commit 100
per cent in response to helping solve the other’s
problem; and you would each be 100-per cent
helpful in making sure the job is done.
Now review each and every facet of your host
agency from marketing, to reporting, website
updating, ordering and stocking brochures and
sharing of knowledge through scheduled
internal training and weekly staff, sales and
service meetings.
The Perfect NormHere are a few things to work on that will bring
your service levels up to normal:
Accommodate customers with disabilities.
Always be well groomed.
Always follow up in a timely manner.
Be accountable and efficient.
Be gracious and grateful.
Develop and use common sense.
Encourage conversation via W5
Hold eye contact, shake hands firmly.
Know what is and what isn’t.
Learn social & business etiquette.
Learn to articulate well.
Learn to ask the right questions
Learn to communicate all generations.
Learn to write well.
Mail out seasonal brochures immediately.
Make the shopping experience enjoyable.
Notice things.
Read.
Study products and services.
Study your industry & host agency.
✈
The Perfect Norm in customer service is 100% - nothing less, nothing more. To
go 110% means you were operating at 90% to begin with. To go the extra mile
means you fluffed up somewhere along the line and fogged the mirror.
Tapping into YourThe comedian Jackie Mason has a routine in which he goes to a
psychiatrist. The doctor says his mission is “to find the real you”. Mason
turns this phrase around in every conceivable way to suggest that if he is
not the real me, then maybe the psychiatrist is the real me and that
perhaps the doctor should invoice himself and not Mason for the session,
“at least until he finds the real me”.
Of course the humorous lesson in all this is that
we all have our external personalities that we
use to confront our daily situations but
sometimes, due to the restraints of society,
family, friends or through our own machinations,
we don’t always express what we’re really
thinking, hoping, dreaming and wishing. In the
study of travel psychographics (which answers
the question “why do you want to travel in the
first place), travellers often refer to the freedom
of getting away from their regular routine, and
they mean this from both an activity and a
personality point of view.
Certainly on a holiday, the activities can
dramatically change and every possible (and
some not so possible) passive and active options
are on the table. From the personality point of
view, travellers often bring their travel persona
out of storage, out of the hidden depths of their
personality and relish the resulting freedom of
expression. For introverts (those whose level of
comfort generally lies in more sedate activities)
they can become a life-of-the-party extrovert.
And for extroverts (those whose level of comfort
is generally more gregarious) they may cherish
the opportunity to embrace introversion, peace,
meditation, waterfalls and silence.
Your travel clients are like Jack-in-the-boxes (or
Jacqueline-in-the-boxes) waiting to pop up and
surprise you when you least expect it.
Sometimes you have to pry the information out
of them (if you could wave a magic wand, what
would you really like to do when you’re in
Vienna) and sometimes the information just
flows (you know, I’ve always wanted to go tiger
spotting on an elephant, like they do in Nepal).
And when the client reveals their inner-most
thoughts, their expectations from you include
‘understanding’, ‘empathy’, ‘positive shock’,
‘’proactive amusement’, ‘wow’ and
acknowledgement that their idea is ‘fantastic’
and most likely, absolutely do-able.
It is a truism that in order to sell a hiking trip, you
don’t necessarily have to be a hiker, any more
than you have to be a birder to sell a bird
watching package to Panama or Costa Rica. But,
quite frankly, it helps!
Travel Consultants who try, experiment, test the
waters, throw caution to the wind, think out of
the box, embrace the extraordinary and make an
effort to tap into their inner explorer, are better
positioned to engage with consumers, and in
today’s travel market place, it’s the engagement
that is key to establishing relationships, sales,
referrals, testimonials and revenue. For years
we heard about Customer Relationship
Management (CRM)—that is to say, how to
“manage’ customers. In a sense, although the
management includes personal questions, listing
birthdays and anniversaries and travel
preferences, the concept of ‘managing’
customers is akin to commoditizing them. It
creates a me and you division. I am the one
who’s managing. You are the one being
managed.
By Steve Gillick
A new way of looking at consumers is through
Customer Relationship Engagement (CRE) where
the commoditizing barriers are brought down
and relationship with the client constitutes the
difference between a one-time business
transaction and a client-for-life mentality. And
again, part of this ‘engagement’ is the
determination of the travel consultant to do,
experience, interact, go further, respond to the
‘what else’ that travel is all about.
Every travel consultant has taken a fam trip to a
beach resort. Most ask about the free time they
might enjoy to lie on the beach and sip cocktails,
so they can tell their clients all about it. And
there is nothing wrong with this. Except that in
a world where clients engage in travel multi-
tasking (TMT)—what appears to be a simple
beach holiday may include water activities,
wandering down the beach, grabbing a bite at a
local beach hut restaurant, buying wood
carvings, getting their hair braided, taking a
nature trail, visiting a local town or attraction,
finding a waterfall, climbing a mountain, learning
about local culture and traditions, visiting the
local school to donate pens or a soccer ball etc.
And this is all in addition to activities that build
future business, such as meeting the wedding
planner at the resort, talking with the birding
staff, wandering through the rice paddies,
finding a colourful boat with an equally colourful
captain for that lake or river excursion, and
more.
The key is to do it!
Tapping into the travel intangibles
Whether you are on a personal trip or a fam trip
or a business trip, you have to continually
challenge yourself to respond to your current
and future customer profiles. And by future we
are looking ahead to Generation Z—those who
are 18 years of age and younger now, but are the
new travel cohort. Does the hotel or resort have
Wifi? Don’t know anything about Wifi?
Then you need to get up to speed! What other
apps and devices do travellers use? Find out and
also discover any limitations to their use at the
destination. Your inner explorer goes beyond
exploring the physical. Gee, even UNESCO has
an intangible world heritage category (songs,
dances, tastes, costumers). As a travel
consultant you have to have some knowledge of
the travel intangibles (how do they want to
communicate, how can their feelings of comfort,
safety, escapism, adventure, individuality be
satisfied, etc.)
The ultimate goal of all your ‘tapping into’ and
‘discovering intangibles’ is the provision of value.
I’ve used this example many times where my
colleague David Lowy of Renshaw Travel in
Vancouver says “Price is only an issue in the
absence of value”. If you’re providing value by
matching your experiences and interests with
those of your clients—by engaging your clients—
then dickering over price differentials between
what you are offering and what the competition
is offering, rarely comes into play.
To use a FIFA analogy. I was in Seoul during the
end of the 2002 FIFA matches where the Reds
were set to play Germany for 3rd place. The
entire city (or so it seemed) came to the city
centre wearing T-shirts that said “Be the Reds”.
In other words, it wasn’t just good enough to
support, or cheer or wish that the South Korean
team would win. You had to become a member
of the team in heart, spirit and soul. You had to
feel the team; become part of them.
So it is with travel in the 21st century. You need
to Be the experience, Be the niche, Be the
traveller, Be the global community and Be the
travel consultant. Tapping into your inner
explorer comes with some pretty hefty career
commitments. The result is a positive stream of
consumers and revenue. Are you up for it?
Are You On The List?As a member of The Travel Agent’s Store you’ll receive advanced notice of new
titles when they hit the shelves AND you’ll receive a discount too.
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Social Media Is Your Friend!In this column we will explore social media as a channel for home based travel agents to reachand keep in touch with their customers.
The first thing it is important to stress, is that social media will NOT reach all yourcustomers…we all know the diehard “I will never be on Facebook” people and many more whowouldn’t have a clue how to tweet. Never mind Pinterest, Reddit, Instagram and many, manymore that many people have never heard of.
And yet the younger generation relies heavily onsocial media…and so do some of their parents.You can’t afford to ignore this channel…andwhat’s more, it’s essentially free.
Now if this is sending you into a mild panic, relax!Many host agencies have addressed social mediaas part of their marketing programs. You willhear the word tossed about a lot. But some offerfar more comprehensive social media marketingtools and technology than others, so when youare looking for a host agency, be sure to really
explore how they will help you reach your clientsand potential clients using social media.
And, most important, ask what the cost is for thetemplates and technology to do so.
First you will need your own website, and thenask your host agency if they can provide you theability to post messages to a lot of social mediasites simultaneously. Do they provide templatesfor the social media sites? How easy is it tocreate your message or flyer? Are there socialmedia-appropriate messages for you to adapt asyour own?
Social media messages need to be short, to thepoint, funny, clever or poignant, and need toattract attention. Does your host agency helpyou with this?
Social media is not the place for hard sell, so youwill need to tailor your messages to fit themedium. Instead of “Punta Cana hotel & flight$599” you will want something more along thelines of
“Office getting you down?We can have you on the beach next week
for $599 #bestagentever”[email protected]”
You get the idea…..the key is to ask all the rightquestions of your host agency so you can tap intothis amazing marketing tool.
Brought to you byThe Travel Agent Next Door
By Jill Wykes
Client UpgradeAre seeking to upgrade? Maybe you are tired of handling the "what-have-ya- got-for-two-
hundred-bucks" market segment. You want to move up. Handle the elite. Deal with the
moneyed crowd. Clients who are easy to do business with. Guess what? They are out there.
Your perfect client is out there waiting for you. And that's what you really want and need.
Perfect clients. Let's see how you can go about attracting them.
Remember one thing. Whatever you do to
upgrade your clientele, it must be in alignment
with your business plan. This means you should
not go off on a tangent. You should not be trying
to sell wild and wacky trips when the bread and
butter business is left to go stale.
Ask your host to review the "continuous
customer acquisition" section of their business
plan with you. Make sure you are on the right
track. Get support. Move ahead from there.
When you start out you are required to build a
client base. Over time, years in fact, you will
develop a following. The key to upgrading is to
decide who the perfect client is for you and then
target people who fit that profile.
Stay Where You AreSound advice from "the greatest car salesman"
Joe Girard. I paid a fee to attend his workshop
some years back. I counted heads and he took in
$40,000 for those few hours he spoke to us. I left
with one solid piece of knowledge. If you want to
build a bigger and better client base, stay still.
Stay where you are. It is sound advice. Take it. It
means do not move from host to host, agency to
agency. Stay where you are. Be best. Get known.
Become the perfect travel provider. Attract the
perfect client. When you stay where you are,
referrals can be made. Clients can send their
friends to you. You can be found.
This is the best way to increase your client base.
Don't move. Stay put.
Attracting Better ClienteleIt is a two-way street. You have to be a better
travel agent to attract a better clientele. Make
sure you are "attractive" to the buying public.
Are you well groomed? Dressed in business
attire? Look sharp? Are sharp. Have the
knowledge. You cannot build a better clientele
looking and being anything less. Assuming you
have everything else in place, let's find out what
a perfect client looks like.
What Is A Perfect Client?Do you know? You should. You probably handle
them every day. What you want are more clients
like them. Take a few minutes. Think of a client
you truly enjoy selling and servicing. This would
be a client who makes you feel good. Can you
name someone? Good. Now bring to mind what
you like about them. What is their manner like?
How do they speak to you? Do they haggle? Do
they pay on time? What are their positive
qualities?
The Perfect Client ProfileCheck if you have any of the following on your
list. This client trusts you. They believe you have
their interest at heart. They pay your fees. They
pay on time. Before time. Up front. They plan
ahead. Give you time. They arrive on time. They
wait patiently. They appreciate your advice. They
send their friends and relatives to you. They are
sincere. True. Honest. They challenge you to
excel. They value your time. They value their
time even more. They are, well... just easy to do
business with. They're perfect!
Perfect PitchThis could be music to your ears. Commissions to
your pocket. When you are selling perfectly, the
perfect client will find you. It's a rule of life. Same
attracts same. Humans tend to navigate towards
people they identify with. People they enjoy.
Find it easy to be with. Easy to buy from. So your
perfect pitch will attract the perfect client.
Finding More Perfect ClientsThink hard. How did your best clients find you in
the first place? Was it instant eye contact? Did
they respond to a direct mail and you engaged
them on the phone. Or, did you respond to an e-
mail they sent and your words or style made a
connection? Did they comment on your social
media posts? Try to recall how it was that your
best, perfect, clients came to do business with
you. Repeat the activity that brought them to
you.
Clan GatheringList your perfect customers. Invite them to a
presentation. Yes, just them. Use the host
agency boardroom.
Use a supplier’s boardroom. Rent a small room
at the hotel close by. Chat with a supplier.
Cruises. Tours. Whatever product, destination or
vacation type you want to promote. Make this a
coffee session. Keep it to two hours max. Take a
look at your audience. Take in all the perfect
vibes. Chances are everyone gets along. They will
make friends. Might even team up. They could
be a group. Watch as the personalities entwine
as if they had known each other for years. Now
you are building a better clientele.
The Even More Perfect ClientHow could your perfect client become even
more perfect? It's almost a done deal. You have
generated some additional friendships. This base
will grow and new friends will come. They will be
referrals to you.
Slowly you will develop perfect pitch and a
perfect client following. Which sounds like...
"kaching!"
The Art of AskingAsking is a skill that seems to have gotten lost along the information highway. At one time in
the industry is was how you built your business. Asking people to do business with you. Straight
forward, no fluff, no nonsense, no spam. The well-known W5 shown below will guide you.
The activity of asking people to do business
with you is compliant will things anti-spam
and therefore all you need to do to activate
your masketing plan is put yourself in a place
or position where you can meet others and
simply ask them to do business with you.
So where can that be? Where can you be
sitting or standing to represent your travel
agency? Where could you set up a booth,
desk and or sign and be beside it to attract
questions, answer them and then ask each
contact to book their travel with you?
When it comes to asking outright for
someone’s business, so few travel agents do
it opening a great opportunity in the
community for you if your personality is
outgoing.
The ASK Me slogan has always attracted. Use
it on a wearable button, print it on your t-
shirt or sign. “Ask Me about cruising!” “Ask
Me about travelling to Europe!”
Put yourself in a position to asked and make
sure you know the answers.
Ask Your ClientsThere’s a trend in chatter about big data and little data, data bits’n’bytes and deciphering this
and that about your customer’s travel and travel habits. You can save an awful lot of time and
effort by simply checking in with your clients on a regular basis be it annual or quarterly. Here’s
why and how you want to tap into your clients directly.
Naturally you need information on which to
base your marketing plans for the year. With
good intentions various parties within the
travel trade are echoing big and bigger
business and advising you to get involved
with big data.
If you are running a fifty million dollar travel
agency then that would be a good thing to
do and a member of your financial team
would take it on. Most travel agencies are
writing $2m to $5m and all that’s required
here is to ask your clients about their travel
plans this year.
You want to sell more, sell up, sell niche, sell
luxury and additional services & peripherals
then the best thing to do is ask the very
people who make up your client list.
The Annual Ask
Plan your Annual Ask around November and
ask your clients about their travels for the
coming year. Some will know exactly and
others will still be thinking about it to having
“no idea”. Each response offers you a chance
to sell more travel.
Plotting Response
As the responses return to you it’s an easy
thing to plot each one onto a low tech Excel
spreadsheet if you do not have a CRM
program that you can use. Set up your
spreadsheet with monthly columns as a
starting point.
Code the responses so that you can plot
quickly. Keep it simple and let’s go with a two
letter code per country and then a date
number. UK9 means this client wants to visit
the United Kingdom in September. You can
add more coding if you want to such as T for
touring and C for cruising, A for adventure.
Again, keeping it easy to use and interpret
when you graph the data.
Asking Part Deux
With your spreadsheet completed you will
be looking at your sales and marketing plan
for the coming year. You can now target your
clients based on the month of travel, their
destination and vacation type. You can
upsell, offer supplier discounts and even
suggest another date close to the one they
selected that offers something more.
You have a chance to offer a customized trip
and sell the benefits of an FIT arrangement.
Take the time to ask if their friends are
joining them, if they can refer their friends to
you and how about other family members?
Yes you are trying to build a group departure
within each client’s circle of friends and
family.
Timing is Everything
Give yourself the month of November to
complete your project and be ready to
market come January 2nd.
Ask Me Ideas
“Go on, be an angel.
Ask me about
religious travel.”
Gorn… ask me
about travellin’ t’
Ireland this year…
You get the idea. You can
set up an ASK ME situation
pretty much anywhere
and then request specific
questions or just go for it
and take all travel
questions no matter what.
Have some fun with it…
entertain your clients and
that helps generate
response.
Thinking Inside That Box
Here’s the best news. You already have EVERYTHING you need to sell more travel! How about
that eh? It’s true. All you need to make more money is right there, and all around you. It’s in
the travel box. The host box. The agency box. The Supplier box. THE BOX! No need to spend
time and energy and money thinking OUTSIDE the box. That formula is old, done, expensive
and besides that you’ll miss and look past the tools you do have at your disposal.
It’s human nature to want more. Want what
someone else has got or do what they are doing
and invariably missing what’s close to them. In
this case it would be missing all the sales tools
readily available to you – IF you knew they were
there and IF you knew how to use them.
Take a few minutes and work by yourself or a
colleague and actually type out a list of all the
sales tools you do have available to you. If in
doubt check in with HQ, your BDM and ask.
There may well be some things you’ve missed or
never heard of. Perhaps HQ thought you knew
and didn’t follow up. All sorts of reasons as to
why you may not have the full list.
Now study that list and on a scale of 1 low -5
high, make a note as to your level of knowledge
in using each sales tool.
Once you’ve completed your checklist and
review you are looking at your training plan for
the week. Bring yourself up to speed on each and
every sales tool and then factor them into your
short, mid and long term sales and marketing
plan.
Your Selling CycleEvery travel agent has one. If you don’t you can borrow the one that’s coming up. A good, and
well planned selling cycle keeps you on track. It’s something you can check against to make
sure your activities are in sequence.
Start Here
There it is. Very easy to remember and if you
follow this formula you will be well on track
for both sales and referrals. Let’s review:
1. Information: make sure your content is
current and accurate
2. Education: deliver webinars, host client
events to educate your clients
3. Inspiration: send compelling imagery /
videos, post to your blog
4. Reservation: ask for the booking
5. Anticipation: build departure momentum
with follow up emails / images etc.
6. The Vacation: let your client enjoy their trip
7. Shareination: ask your clients to share their
experience with you and their friends – build
referrals.
SHAREINATION
THE VACATION
ANTICIPATION
RESERVATION
INSPIRATION
EDUCATION
INFORMATION
QR QuirksThe QR Code is not dead as announced in more than a few digital marketing posts. In fact the
QR Code fits nicely into a travel agency’s marketing plan and the best thing is, it can be FREE.
That’s right. There are websites that will create a QR code for you at no cost. Once you have
your QR created then the question is what do you do with it to generate new bookings? To
work that out, you’ll need to think about what your QR Code is meant to do for your agency.
For your purposes, a QR Code should cause
someone walking towards you, behind you,
looking at your agency window or at a
brochure you’ve left on a park bench to
cause curiosity. Using their smartphone to
scan the code the scannee will be
transported to view glorious imagery of a
destination you are promoting.
Here’s how the back of your t-shirt printed
with your large QR code might look to
someone walking behind. Make it easy for
them to scan it and you do that by giving
them permission to scan. Just add these
words above the QR image:
SCAN ME!
Then below the QR image you could print a
marketing term, a slogan, another call to
action or lure to push the viewer to scan…
Sizing and plac
colouring. Make
possible to enco
your website at
most, after the s
to Win offer, o
offer. Use those
Don’t forget you
someone using
they will be view
their phone an
website should
your website w
smartphone scr
Right, over to
very interesting
They range from
face, or photo,
it still works. Try
SCAN ME!
ement are important, also
your design as interesting as
urage that scan and “trip” to
the very least. At the very
can, there could be an Enter
r a BOOK NOW and SAVE
supplier discounts to sell.
r QR code will be scanned by
a mobile phone. This means
ing your website or offer on
d that in turn means your
have a mobile version. If not,
ill not look so good on that
een.
you. Check online for some
and quirky QR code designs.
artistic to using your own
logo. Tap into the QR code –
it.
AND WIN!
The CASL Hassle 2-StepSo how’s that one, two coming along? The soft shoe shuffle, the slide, the scoot… any new
steps in the routine as you finished rounding up your clients to sign their allegiance to you?
This CASL hassle is a pain the ASL and then some, but you have to do it. It could well be that
this all becomes someone’s folly – whoever thought it up, might just be getting sued from the
business world for causing huge expenses and or huge losses or worst of all, small businesses
giving up the ghost and saying enough.
The best formula is of course to hit the 20%
that generates 80% of your business. That’s
an old and done to death equation yet it still
holds true in most cases. If you are not sure
of the 80/20 rule go online and check it out.
It’s worth noting its history.
Many of those remaining 80 percenters are
not probably worth chasing. They might
have been the low priced deal wanters and
do not actually support your business. They
would be free to roam the travel agent
community to get the deals they want. With
you or without you. So, back to the 20%.
Focus on them.
Next, do not overdo it. I’ve just received an
opt-in email. Clicked yes. Then I received
another email advising me I had just opted in
and to confirm. Finally, one more email
confirming my confirmation! ENOUGH
ALREADY!
Oh and for some reason, I’m still receiving
those emails inviting me to take up pole
dancing. So pole dancing or the CASL Hassle
2 Step? Not sure yet. Still thinking. Both have
taken over from tax pain and that’s saying
something.
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THE CASL HASSLE REPORT
Heartfelt thanks to the 39 out of the few thousand on my lists who have now opted in to the
CASL HASSLE survey. Not too bad a response really. Sort of like… well very similar to the returns
asking clients to opt-in!
I’m sharing the results as they came in up until Saturday June 27th with nothing doctored. You
can review the actual results here at this link.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-RJX2MTC8/
Would have been nice to have around 50 responses but hey… I’ll take what I can get. I’ll leave
the survey open just in case others wish to contribute.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FG85TKD
The responses are very much self-explanatory and probably represent the mood within the
travel trade. I have added my own notes after each survey question.
Good luck and keep selling!
Steve Crowhurst, CTC
SMP Training Co.
www.smptraining.com
www.sellingtravel.net
www.ic-travelagent.com
www.thetravelagentsstore.com
A bit of hokey pokey
CASL Hassle fun:You put your opt-in in
You take your opt-out out
You put your opt-in in
And you shake it all about
You do the CASL Hassle
And you turn yourself around
That’s what it’s all about! HEY!
I know who you email!
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I’m sure the answer to this question is literally a mixture of what you read above. Some have managed to
send an email to everyone on their list and some are struggling to do so. If you haven’t managed your list
then of course you may be facing that 40% churn rate as people cancel or change their email addresses.
Whether or not the client will opt-in and give their consent is a decision you cannot control. After July 1st
however you can follow up by phone but not by email unless you have the client’s consent.
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Looks like the responses are very close to being evenly split as to the outcome of CASL. The fact of the
matter is this: some travel agents will indeed lose business and some of those lost clients will surface on
the lists of the competition. Some clients were looking for a way to say “Hey… stop sending me stuff!” Or,
“You didn’t take care of me, I’m moving to another agency!”
Then there are the clients you never really wanted but felt you had to service them – these are the
complainers, the cheap bookings, the clients who argue about your fees etc. Now you have an excuse NOT
to contact them.
As the months roll on you should end up with a very clean and mean list. This could be a good thing unless
you put value in a list of hundreds even if they don’t book any travel. Sort of like the LIKES on your
Facebook page. No one actually books with you, they just enjoy what you post.
So, final outcome: yes you will lose some clients and some you’ll be glad of the fact they didn’t opt-in.
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Don’t forget you are dealing with human nature here. CASL has put your clients, plus you & I in charge of
our own email inbox destiny. Not from those professional spammers of course, but from the websites and
services you did opt into and now just delete their emails when they arrive. Pretty soon, if you did not opt
in, then those emails will no longer arrive and or you can unsubscribe. The same thing is happening with
your clients when they see your please opt-in email. They’ll either not bother, had enough, were not
travelling anyway, or they will opt-in and are looking for a well-priced vacation.
You should tally up who responded and who didn’t and do not chase the cheap booking clients or the
nasty ones. Stick with the “perfect clients” that enhance your business and then set about growing more
of those types of clients.
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The answer is a resounding yes. Some of you will naturally have to wait and see, however with life in the
fast lane as it is for most people and the fact they are blasé about such things as opting in they are already
in charge of the sales process by default.
A percentage of your clients will decide to call you when they need you and bypass all the email flyers and
specials. Their life just got a little easier all round as they will reduce email into their inbox across the
board.
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As we all know – pro’ spammers can do what they want. They are always one step ahead. So all we can
do is ramp up our spam filters and turn a few things off in our Internet Settings and password where you
can. I use SPAMFIGHTER and so far so good. Once it reads your inbox and your deletes it understands
what YOU don’t want, plus of course it can identify spam and remove it to the delete / spam folder.
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If you attended the Baxter webinars about CASL you should have a pretty good understanding of what
you can and cannot do. Also there are some activities that are exempt, meaning you can do them – such
as telephone a person / client, or send direct mail. The only way to be sure you are on the right side of
CASL is to gain that consent and record the event as and when a client gave you that consent.
It looks like 20% of respondents know how complaints are registered and less how the complaint process
works. I wrote to CASL to find out and their response is shown below. I also wrote to a CASL “expert”
lawyer and have yet to hear back. Hmm?
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Here is CASL’s response to my complaint process email:
Incoming message 6/26/2014Re CASL and CEMs
How and where does a person or company complain about email spam and what is the procedure onceCASL considers the complaint as worth pursuing?Many thanks.
Steve CrowhurstSMP Training Co.
Email: [email protected] June 27, 2014
Dear Steve Crowhurst:
Thank you for contacting the CRTC on June 26, 2014 asking how to complain about receiving spam.
After Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) comes into effect on July 1, 2014, you will be able to file yourcomplaints with the Spam Reporting Centre at www.fightspam.gc.ca. Details of the complaint process willbe made available on our website at that time under “Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation”:
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/casl-lcap.htm.
I hope you find this information helpful.
Regards,
Michelle Edge
CRTC Client Services | Services à la clientèle---------------------------------
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Clearly all respondents are concerned about CASL and its overall effect on their business. They are also
upset at the time and effort required to initiate the program. That said… the travel agent’s resilience as
already mentioned will shine through.
From a positive point of view, having to contact your clients does offer you a chance to reconnect with
the clients you wish to retain and grow. In this way YOU are back in control of the sales process.
The next thing to ponder is this: would any of your clients ever really “turn you in” and complain about
your CEMs? Chances of that happening are very small unless you really do bother your clients with
unending communication that is nothing but fluff and of no value to them in the slightest such as sending
golf vacation offers to people who don’t golf.
As mentioned some of your clients are not yet aware of CASL – so here’s a chance to arrange a consumer
event to explain it and by that I mean keep it lean and mean – stick to the fact you need consent and then
get it. Have everyone sign an opt-in page and once that’s done, carry on with the show and offer your
audience some incredible vacations.
Also get busy via your social media outlets and same thing, tell them then sell them. Do NOT go into detail
or you’ll die a death of a thousand cuts.
CASL will suffer the outrage of both the business community as profits take a dive and the general public
as it starts to hit home that they missed out on some fantastic deals because they were not kept informed.
You are on the right side of the law because you did not pursue any client who did not opt-in. Where can
the client go to lodge their issue – to CASL. Give it time and either more exemptions will be introduced
or the CASL Hassle two-step will dance another tune.
For the brave souls who just continue on, business as usual, good luck, brave the storm and fight the fight.
Also make sure you have a good lawyer on your side and one that actually is an expert on CASL and how
to work with it.
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Hope this report is of use to you. There’s more information and eGuides
available at The Travel Agent’s Store so don’t forget to visit there when you can.
If you choose to Opt-In (now I’m doing it!) and become a Store Member you will
receive a 20% discount on all store products and bundles.
COMING SOON TO THE TRAVEL AGENT’S STORE
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An SMP Publication
A Great CASL GuideMake sure you click and download this CASL Survival Guide
published by Elite Email and also thank Cory Andrichuk for
make us aware of it. I like this guide because it’s written in
a language I understand – No Fluff!
The travel trade itself has not managed to create anything
like this and anything they did send out scared the pants
off anyone who read it or attended their well-meaning
webinars.
I know it’s now July and the deadline was July 1st to meet
much of the CASL requirements however you still have
time to put this Survival Guide into action.
Don’t forget that if you are just starting out selling travel you must do your best to attract new clients to
do business with you – keyword ATTRACT so make sure you read and practice everything you can about
Attraction Marketing as it works legally with the CASL requirements.
If You Don’t Knowwhere you’re going, you’ll probably end up
somewhere else…
The title of a classic book. A small book actually. Printed in 1974 I bought it in 1987. I keep it
close and often refer to it as it keeps me on track and has such wonderful insight to share with
others. Here’s a few lines from the introduction by the author David Campbell:
Unless you know what you want from life you are not likely to stumble across it. How do you know
what you want? I have learned that what most people want out of life, more than anything else
is the opportunity to make choices. The worst possible life is a life without choices, a life barren
of hope of new things, a life of blind alleys. In contrast, the most pleasant life is the life with the
most opportunities. There is a German saying as quoted here: You have to take life as it happens,
but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it.
Now we can apply this title and the introduction and the proverb to your travel career as an
independent contractor selling travel from home, online and anywhere else for that matter.
The travel industry, if you haven’t yet found out,
has more than its share of blind alleys. Unless
you know, you don’t know and that means a loss
of time, energy and money as you fumble around
in the darkness looking for direction.
If you want to truly tap into the business of
selling travel then, you must sit down and sketch
out a plan, a selling travel career plan that is
factual and doable, by you. This “you” will have
certain skills we wouldn’t know about, this “you”
would also lack certain skills we don’t know
about. Same with your personality. You'll need
to truly discover what it is you want from selling
travel and make sure you have the personality
and skills to make is all happen. Or, as the title
says, You will be ending up somewhere or some
place else.
Within the travel industry you have many
options and huge potential. Every form of travel
and every destination is a niche market waiting
to happen.
The world itself is in a stage of upheaval. Wars,
weather and 50 million people migrating as
refugees does not make for a planet worth
selling at times – however, I can tell you that
leisure travel has never stopped other than
during both world wars.
The key to your journey and knowing where you
are going to end up is to plan your direction
based on personality, skill sets, your knowledge
of specific places and travel styles and how much
money you have in your marketing fund.
If sales are not happening, then
you need to revamp your formula
and current direction. If sales are
off then you are “somewhere else”
and not where you should be. Take
on the German saying above and
instill it into your plan. Create the
choices you desire by design, not
accident. Read this book too.
So You Think You Knowsomething about marketing?
Marketing is key to increasing your sales, reaching your customers, and customerretention….and yet it is an area where travel agents so often fall down. Have you everwondered why your marketing efforts are not successful?
It is probably because you are not a marketingexpert! If you are a travel agent your specialtyshould be, and likely is, sales! Selling is whereyou should be concentrating your efforts.
One of the most frustrating aspects of amarketing person’s job is that everyone thinksthey know marketing. Everyone has an opinion.Senior executives love to dabble in it. They willscrutinize ad copy, redesign brochure covers andchange tag lines. This drives the marketingheads crazy, trust me! But they have to playalong if they want to keep their jobs.
Good marketing instincts are not humannature….it is a specialty….partly learned atcollege or university, partly gut instinct in thosewho have it. The rest of us really should leave itup to them!
And so when you become a home based agent,the very last thing you should have to worryabout is marketing your services and specialproducts and promotions to your database.
One of the most important services you shouldlook for in a host agency is marketing. What dothey provide? What does it cost? How much isincluded in your base fee?
And we are not just talking ads in your localnewspaper here…..in fact, we are likely nottalking about that at all these days.
Target marketing is vitally important if you wantto keep your customers….and remember the oldadage, it costs ten times as much to acquire anew customer as it does to retain the onesyou’ve already got. Customer retention is
where you should focus a lot of your marketingefforts.
In my next three columns we will exploremarketing in the following ways: Social Media,Email and Print.
IT is vital in the 21st century to use differentchannels to reach all your customers….one sizedoes NOT fit all. Once you understand all thatyou should be doing, it will be important to finda host agency that provides the mostcomprehensive marketing services.
By Jill Wykes
Brought to you by: The Travel Agent Next Door
The Book PageAre you stuck for something to say sometimes? How about something to write or use as a
headline, or something to kick start your creative juices? Well here are three books for you to
find online or on a bookshelf. Between the three of them you have a huge resource. The phrase
& fable book is about 3 inches thick, the flip dictionary and the best things book about 2 inches
each. So as you read you can work out at the same time!
Reading this book, Daughters of Britannia, at the moment and its
fascinating. I have an interest in adventure travel and those
intrepid explorers who set off in small, very small ships without any
idea of where they might end up after their maps showed a void.
Back in the day most explorers where men but there were some
women too who lived the explorers life. Any woman working in the
travel trade should know her roots and study the women who
travelled in Victorian times to those who fought alongside men
centuries ago. In every era adventurous women made it happen as
they do today.
Back to my current read: the book is full of characters, it is funny,
whimsical and tells a good story. You might think high society
women couldn’t take it as they followed their ambassador
husbands to their next post. They did and they did it in style. Books
like this one that can give your confidence a boost and also light up
your creativity. As an adventurous female travel agent, build
yourself a decent library that you can draw on. The knowledge will
in fact help boost your sales too.
The Photo Page
PHOTO APP: RAYSTaken with an iPhone 5
Steve CS
image o
Let us put a ray of sunshine
in your travels this year…
teve Crowhurst
rowhurst©Steve CrowhurstPhoto taken from my deck using an iPhone 5. Then opening RAYS, browsing the Camera Roll to find
and select an image – then you play with the editing features. A little fuzzy but offers interesting
pportunities and more if you also add a slogan tied into the ray of sunshine.
Enroll in The Travel Institute's Well-Being Travel Specialist course and receive acomplimentary, one-year membership in Well-Being Travel.
The online course is designed to show you how to boost sales byselling health, wellness and medical travel.
By enrolling in the course, you'll:
Gain an understanding of the health and wellness travel market.
Discover the different types of spas and wellness products.
Learn key health and wellness terminology.
Understand related insurance issues.
Discover what procedures are most common with patient travelers.
Learn how to find and market to health and wellness and medical travel clients.
The course includes interactive exercises, images, audio and graphics.A final test is available allowing you to earn the Well-Being Travel Specialist designation.
CTAs, CTCs and CTIEs who complete this course will also earn10 CEUs from The Travel Institute.
Thanks to the course sponsors:Well-Being Travel, Companion Global Healthcare, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Healing
Hotels of the World, Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council, the Las Vegas Conventionand Visitors Authority, and Greater Fort Lauderdale.
Register today for $99 and receive your complimentary, one-yearmembership in Well-Being Travel. Price includes online course and test.
www.thetravelinstitute.com
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A HOME FOR THE HOME BASED AGENTS
Big Bark has all your print-marketing needs covered!
201 – 3011 Underhill Ave.
Burnaby, BC
V5A 3C2
BonVo
yage
BonVoyage
THE HUNTINGTON GROUPHUNTINGTONThe agents choice since 1973
Thank you for choosing to travel with MyEscapades.com. We take pride in providing one-of-a-kind travel experiences in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. The majority of our clients require a trip customized to their likes, interests and budget. Whether you wish to travel in the lap of luxury or choose to indulge in an authentic adventure (we call it ‘roughing-it’) we will create a trip to suit your preferred tastes. In other words, we will give you a travel experience that goes beyond your expectations. Rest assured, MyEscapades.com is your perfect traveling companion.
Before You Travel:• Ensurethatyouarecarryingyourup-to-date passports and have obtained any required/necessary tourist visas for entering the country(s) you are visiting. • Youtripinvolvescancellationpenalties in the unforeseen event that you cancel/postpone your travel arrangements. Ensure that you are aware of these penalties.• CarryyourOut-of-CountryHospital/Medical/Travel Insurance Policy with you.• Beawareofluggagerestrictionssuchas weight, size and type of suitcases allowed on the international and domestic flights on your itinerary. Excess baggage charges are steep and can cause great inconvenience• Ensureyouhaveobtainedrecommended or required inoculations.Certaininoculationsare mandatory for travel to endemic areas.Yourtravelagentwillhaveprovided full details.
• CheckouttheavailabilityoflocalATMs in your destination and/or purchase some local currency or travellers cheques.• Givefamily/friendsthecontactinformation at hotels/lodges you will be staying during your travel. Information on your accommodations is provided within your documents.• Werecommendthatyouputyournewspaper subscription on hold for the duration of your trip and have your mail collected by a neighbour or held at your local post office.• Itisalwaysrecommendedthatyousecure your home with a security alarm before you leave.
3100RidgewayDr.,Suite17,Mississauga,ONCanadaL5L5M51.888.887.9710 | [email protected] | www. myescapades.ca
BonvoYage
THE HUNTINGTON GROUPHUNTINGTONThe agents choice since 1973
201 – 3011 Underhill AvenueBurnaby,BCV5A3C2Local:604-669-6607TollFree:1-877-523-7823Fax:604.669.5336
BIGBARKGRAPHICS.com T: 905.857.6333 | TF: 1.866.607.1556 | [email protected]
THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM PRINTER FOR OVER 30 YEARS
TOP 6 WAYS WE ARE DEDICATED TO THE HBA:
1. Easy to use, do-it-yourself, 24/7 online print-ordering store.
2. No design/setup fees – choose from our selection of pre-designed templates or Design Your Own.
3. Full use of our image gallery at no extra charge.
4. Travel related marketing products such as calendars and magnets plus all your standard business products – business cards, envelopes, letterhead, flyers, and more.
5. Wide selection of ticket packaging options for groups, weddings, and niches.
6. All products available in small quantities (some as low as 25).
