01/2015

“It’s MY year alright. So

don’t be sheepish about

selling travel and don’t let

others or things get

your goat.”

2 2015 YEAR OF THE SHEEP

The DESIRE to travel starts early and continues throughout one’s

life – are you marketing to Generation Z?

Share your money making ideas

in SELLING TRAVEL.

CONTACT

Steve Crowhurst steve@sellingtravel.net

250-738-0064 www.sellingtravel.net

Publisher:

SMP Training Co. www.smptraining.com

Contributors

Steve Crowhurst SELLING TRAVEL is owned and published by Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. All Rights Reserved. Protected by International Copyright Law. IC TRAVEL AGENT can be shared, forwarded, cut and pasted but not sold, resold or in any way monetized. Using any images or content from IC TRAVEL AGENT must be sourced as follows: “Copyright SMP Training Co. www.smptraining.com” SMP Training Co. 568 Country Club Drive, Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada, V9K-1G1 Note: Steve Crowhurst is not responsible for outcomes based on how you interpret or use the ideas in SELLING TRAVEL. T: 250-738-0064.

6 EDITORIAL

7 ARE YOU ON THE LIST?

10 SWITCHING ON TO OPPORTUNITY

16 THE MARKETING MAP

17 THE “WHERE TO?” QUESTION

18 GRAPHICS FOR 2015

22 OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF STARTING

24 A JOURNEY ON THE AMAZON – Anthony Dalton

28 TRAVEL ADVENTURES IN PSYCHO-PHOTOGRAPHY – Steve Gillick

31 CLIMATE CHANGE

32 JUST PUBLISHED – HOW TO SELL MORE BOOKS

34 FANTASY TRAVEL

38 WEATHER IS YOUR GREATEST SALES CHALLENGE!

40 SIGNING FOR SURVIVAL

42 SELLING GREEN IN 2015

45 SAINTS & TRAVELLERS

46 ABOUT US

49 THE TRAVEL INSTITUTE

50 READ MORE ME HERE

Please note that Selling Travel, owned and published by SMP Training Co, is not connected in any way to Selling Travel magazine published by BMI Publishing Ltd., and based in the UK. The latter publication focuses entirely on destination and travel/tourism product training and is circulated solely to the UK and Ireland travel industries. To benefit from this resource visit www.sellingtravel.co.uk and be sure to subscribe.

Attention Suppliers: Advertising in SELLING TRAVEL reaches the serious business-minded travel agent. Promote your products and services using Selling Travel’s unique promotional formula – you write the articles on how to sell your own products offering step-by-step selling tips, tools and techniques that you know have worked for your agency accounts. Full page rates range from $300 to $425 based on number of insertions. Remember, if you can’t sell it to them, they can’t sell it for you!

THE HOW-TO MAGAZINE FOR TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS

MENTION YOU SAW US IN SELLING TRAVEL MAGAZINE

AND RECEIVE YOUR FIRST MONTH FREE!

The

WILL

to

NEW YEAR AND A RE-TOOLED SELLING TRAVEL…

Happy New Year! Hope you had a happy and safe time over the holidays and managed to factor

in what you are going to be doing this year to generate new business. And time is of the essence

as they say. The clock is ticking already and by the time you read this issue of Selling Travel it will

be one week into 2015. So in a word, we’re all late! Better get that pen to paper, mouse to

keyboard and start working your marketing magic – and ST is here to help.

New for 2015: You might notice a change in the Selling Travel tag line and here’s the scoop behind

it. I’ve noticed that ICs, OSRs and Home Based travel agents want to be acknowledged and

included in the trade listings as travel counsellors / advisors etc., and not highlighted as home

based. As selling travel today can happen from anywhere the travel seller might be at any given

moment, I have made the strategic move to amalgamate IC Travel Agent with Selling Travel in

order to publish one magazine for ALL and one that “speaks” to the main activity at hand: selling

travel and generating new business. Hope you like and support the outcome.

Keeping with the one for ALL concept The Travel Agent’s Store has become the Selling Travel

Store and will reside on the Selling Travel website. So less clicks more tips. And so to this issue

based on Switching On Your Imagination and tapping into a world of selling opportunities.

Here’s to your continued success in SELLING TRAVEL.

Best regards.

Steve Crowhurst, CTC, CTM Hon. steve@sellingtravel.net

www.sellingtravel.net

SALES & MARKETING TIPS, TOOLS & TECHNIQUES FOR ALL TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS

Click on the store icon to opt-in.

Steve Crowhurst, Publisher

Click the store image to join.

http://www.homebased-travelagent.com/

Every travel agent, supplier and tourism board is looking for it. Searching for it in fact. That

“thing” everyone is looking for is opportunity. There are thousands of opportunities passing

each and every seller of travel, each and every day. Whether or not the opportunity is

recognised for what it is as it passes by, is another thing and, well, that’s an opportunity too!

One way to see them and even attract them, these opportunities, is to become opportunity

minded. It means you must switch on and sharpen all your senses to pick up on the vibes that

indicate a new or a repetitive been-there-done-that opportunity. It means opening every door

you come to. Let’s explore beyond the door and switch on some new opportunities:

Seizing opportunity in the travel trade has

always been based on past experience

coupled with a well-practiced skill set that

includes being able to project forward and

also to expect the unexpected.

The travel agent that has “lived” through the

various ups and downs the travel trade has

experienced over the past few years allows

that agent to judge an opportunity on

recent and historical fact.

Recent events such as the

Ebola outbreak, air

crashes recovered and

lost, ferry fires and cruise

ship viruses are not new to

veteran travel agents.

Knowing how to handle the

outcome of these events is

the key to the

opportunity.

In some cases you would ride

the publicity wave and in others you would

market away from the main story.

When it comes to anything related to

disasters you’ll need to be sensitive in your

marketing, but never stop marketing.

If cruising is the mass media target, promote

land based tours. If a coach or tour bus has

crashed, promote cruising. It’s very

simple in terms of keeping

your name out there and

promoting travel in your

local area and to your

existing clients.

There are two types

of opportunities – one

is real and the other

false. The false

opportunity tends to favour

newcomers to selling

travel and can, in any

given moment, empty

their bank account very

quickly. For instance, some

newcomers to the travel industry want to

create tours to the ‘old country’ where they

themselves (or their parents) were born, or

the place they love to visit.

It’s a great idea however, usually there are

packages to most of these places and

generally their pricing just cannot be beaten

or undercut and if the place of origin is

obscure, the market is too small even if it

exists. I have known TAs spending

thousands of dollars creating their

own group departures to

commonly visited

countries to where

package tours exist

and for less money.

The typical outcome is a

huge financial loss. The

same thing applies to

promoting huge sporting

events and buying a block

of seats to events. The

average TA does not have the

deep pockets required and cannot afford

the amount of marketing to push the

package and seat combo out to the general

public in a consistent way. Once again the

opportunity kills them financially.

So what we’re looking for here is the

opportunity that can be more or less easily

fulfilled and the opportunity that can

generate a profit, before the local and

general competition get wind of it. The usual

glory time before anyone else catches on is

about two-seconds or so after your first ad!

Recently there has been a few opportunities

that should have more than a couple of

travel agency backrooms humming with

excitement. One was President Obama’s

mention of Cuba and the US getting a little

closer, a little friendlier towards one

another.

Now that is an opportunity and who would

want it any different? Certainly not the

travel trade in the US. Canada and a few

other countries have

been selling their clients to Cuba for a long

time and as we well know, thousands of

Americans have travelled north to Canada to

travel back down to Cuba on a Canadian tour

or package. So the US travel trade want in big

time.

Just look at the graphic of the old car above.

There are hundreds of these cars in Cuba and

that makes Cuba a car lovers and car

collectors dream destination.

That’s one opportunity that jumps out at you

when any Cuba tourism videos are played.

Right off the bat, the sign says, Car Lovers

Tours of Cuba which would include the

paperwork and shipping of any car back to

the US.

The most rewarding opportunities are not

always tied to destinations – many ideas are

geared to marketing and come to you

through various channels. Take the time to

study the new media and become excellent

at using social media and apps to market

yourself no matter what you are selling.

The Era of Fusion Travel Marketing

After putting it off for some time, I finally sat

down to enjoy sushi a la fusion. I had tried

some before but the fusion was more

confusion. However this time, and this

particular restaurant, had it down pat. The

old sushi mixed with new ideas of taste and

ingredients that created a marvellous taste

experience and opportunity for the chef.

Indeed that chef showed their culinary skills

and it was delicious. So let’s move from the

kitchen to the travel agency to follow the

concept of Fusion Travel Marketing.

My definition of Fusion Travel Marketing as

pertained to selling travel is this: The

merging and blending of various media

elements with different marketing tools,

techniques and styles into a cohesive and

seamless marketing union.

Fusion Travel Marketing requires you to step

out a little father from the edge. It means to

bring together certain elements that work

well together and also to bring together

certain elements or themes that most travel

agents would shy away from.

Think about blending colours, or going just

black & white, or all brown, retro, grunge,

using backdrops, cartoons, mascots… and

yes any and all of these can market a beach,

a cruise, a land tour and more.

The next component to fuse here is the

medium through which your message will be

marketed. We all know a one shot promo

will deliver nothing in return. Advertising,

marketing, words, images all need to be

repeated many times in order for the general

public and your clients to take notice.

Take notice and respond is the outcome you

are trying to activate. Perhaps you are an e-

marketer – well to fuse another medium

with your emails would be video, podcasts, a

link to your blog.

Colour IS Important

Colour as you may know represents some

60-70% of a person’s buying response. Think

of a woman shopping for new attire and the

comment makes sense. Does it apply to

marketing travel? You bet. Some colours are

attractive and some not. Some combinations

work and some do not.

It’s important then that your initial slogan is

presented in the best font and colour. Black

on white, or gold on black is always classy –

but what about blue and green, pastel

shades or a more vibrant and vivid colour

combination that represents the destination

or trip?

You know that old saying of “blue and green

should never be seen” and that’s what most

people have heard and repeat. But there’s a

word or two missing and it is this: “…unless

there’s a colour in between.” Once you know

the missing text more opportunities present

themselves. Fusion Travel Marketing can

start.

Everything Works

Whenever you face a colour combination

challenge just look around the world you live

in and in particular the natural world. There

you will find that all colours go together.

Everything works when it is “done” the right

way. That and a ton of money!

Money allows ideas and opportunities to

flourish and be completed. Whether they

cause a return on the overall investment is

another thing. So for those (of us) who do

not possess deep pockets there is a need to

fuse correctly through trial and error or self-

study. Most travel agency chains have their

own marketing department that both

managers and staff can talk with and for the

independent travel seller working from

home, the home-based head office has all

the knowledge you can draw on too.

Opportunities In 2015

Each travel trade publication has already

delivered their top ten places to visit in 2015

along with recommendations by suppliers.

The only information missing which

supersedes the above is what your clients

want to experience this year. Hence the

article in this issue about The “WHERE TO?”

Question.

Before you start chasing your supplier’s

recommendations or what you read in the

trade papers, ask your clients, each and

every one of them, what their travel plans

are for 2015. You’ll want to do this now.

After your clients have voiced where they

want to go and what they wish to experience

this year, you can plot your educational

needs and your marketing plan that will

build on the information your clients have

given you.

Once that is done, you can relax and explore

the suggestions made by the trade.

Be Safe and Green

There are a few things that travellers

demand across all generations. The majority

want access to clean washrooms, bed-bug

free rooms, and they want to be safe and

have access to means of getting home

should certain world events take place.

Think weather to terror and everything in

between. Here’s where you can shine and

focus on this travel safe opportunity.

Make a point of being app aware and learn

how to use and demo various travel apps.

Be well aware of safety issues and also which

hotels are certified green, bug free, offer

family and senior services and assistance.

Make sure you know the weather patterns

for wherever your clients are travelling. This

is not difficult as let’s say about 25 of your

clients will be travelling at any given time

and heading off to perhaps ten different

destinations. A quick look at a weather

website does the job. If a hurricane is

heading in their direction you’ll be making

plans for them. If a volcano in Europe is

about to blow – same thing, you are making

plans for those clients too.

The opportunity here is to be EARTH aware,

PLANET aware, WEATHER aware… and most

certainly, when it comes to cruising, you

MUST know and be able to advise your

cruise clients and especially your first timers,

what to do in an emergency. Advise them

how the lifeboats operate and also how

those white canisters housing the rubber

lifeboat / dingy operate, open etc.

To promote TRAVEL SAFETY in 2015 is a huge

opportunity, but you must know what you

are talking about. The words, “Trust me…

you’ll be fine!” will come back to haunt you

100%.

Every Activity is a Niche Opportunity

Your opportunity is probably staring at you

right now. Let’s start with what you like to

do, your interests, your hobbies, what you

are passionate about and the destinations

where you love to go. Work through that

statement and you’ll have three or four

niche markets from the get go. Ask the same

questions of each client and collate their

responses.

The Presentation Opportunity

As I like to say, better to sell one group at a

time versus one couple. And that holds true

unless that ‘couple’ just purchased a $300K

world cruise! In which case, I’ll invoke the

build-a-group opportunity and suggest

asking that couple how many of their friends

will be joining them. It’s a natural thing to

ask no matter what the booking amounts to.

“What a wonderful cruise you will have, 90

days away, best cabin available and just look

at that itinerary… now, is there anyone else

who should be going with you…?”

If that’s not a typical situation for you, you

should start delivering monthly

presentations on and about your niche or

preferred destination where you can

develop a group following.

Take the time to explore the Selling Travel

Store where you will find a series of eGuides

on this very topic.

This promotional format fits right into the

concept of Fusion Travel Marketing where

you can tap into other media outlets to

promote your event. Social media although

it is wide reaching and no doubt you have

people who like your Facebook page from

halfway around the world, you can still use it

to promote your local event.

Once you post the event on your Facebook

page, give it a BOOST for about $10 and

you’ll gain further reach in the hundreds.

Well worth the ten bucks and if one person

who had not yet Liked your page receives

your information AND books, then you are a

winner. If they live close by, they will turn up

at your event too and now they are a

validation for you.

Start to plan your monthly event and start

factoring in the best and most affordable

marketing outlets for your wallet.

The “I’m Going With You” Promotion

When a customer reads that their travel

agent is also leading the tour group, well the

word will spread. People like to know that

YOU are going along to take care of certain

situations when they arise. Tour

management is not tour guiding. You’ll have

step on guides or one guide throughout the

tour for that, what you do is mix and mingle

with your clients and of course the trade as

in hotel managers, coach driver etc.

Your clients would also expect that you know

some neat places, cafes, shops, scenic spots

for photographs and more. Another

opportunity here and if you are top of your

game when it comes to your niche

destination then you can promote this as

fact to attract.

The Marketing Map

The map on the next page is based on the

London underground system. It is excellent.

It is a free download and here’s where you

go to get it: http://www.marketing-

map.co.uk/

Print it off. Study it. Take the journey and

journeys it represents and use this format to

build that marketing plan… The Fusion Travel

Marketing Plan. Perhaps work with someone

who can add their input as you discuss which

elements to fuse together for 2015.

Good Luck!

Right over to you. Enjoy the first issue of

Selling Travel for 2015 and make sure you

look out for those opportunities. If you have

an opportunity to review and would like

some help, send an email request to Skype.

If you have not yet asked this question of your clients, you still have time. Usually the question

as to where your clients are planning to travel to is asked in November for the coming year. If

you missed this date then fear not, you can ask it now and the timing is still good. You’ll be

appealing to your client’s New Year plans and perhaps one or two resolutions to travel more.

Also, all the holiday hassles are out of the way and the year ahead is looming large. Here’s how

to make good use of this question.

The first thing to overcome is asking the

question itself. You are not in any way shape

or form bothering your client. I know some

travel agents feel this type of question is an

invasion of privacy and not something that

should be done. It is however part of your

customer service model and should be

invoked each and every year. It is also a

major component of your marketing plan.

The information you receive back from your

clients will save you wasted marketing time,

effort and misspent money, too.

The benefit to your client is that by telling

you in advance about the trip they are

dreaming of, allows you to explore more

options and value adds on their behalf. Also,

should more than one couple want to travel

to a particular destination around the same

timing then you have the makings of a small

group that you can add to over time.

How, when and where you ask this question

is the key and you can ask it more than once.

Perhaps you would like to host a Where To

event and ask the question to everyone in

audience. You might deliver a show and tell

of places to visit in 2015 and then ask the

audience to complete a questionnaire and

hand it in. Always a good idea to capture the

information fresh from the audience versus

sending them home to click online to your

website. Whether sending an email or

handing out a questionnaire here’s how you

might lead into the core questions:

Each year we work closely with you our

clients as we strive to get you the best value

for your travel dollar. By reviewing your

answers to the following questions we will be

able to look for special rates, value adds,

upgrades and discounts well in advance of

your travel dates.

1. Where are planning to travel to in 2015?

2. When do you plan on travelling?

3. How many people will be travelling?

4. What is your estimated budget for this

trip?

5. Any special requirements?

That’s it. Job done. You can add to the above

or create your own questions – just make

sure you’ll receive definitive responses that

allow you to plan your year by monthly

potential and investigate your client’s needs

well in advance.

If you want to reach out and touch your clients where they reside online you’ll want to start

using graphics that relate to current times and those “times” would be social media based,

smartphone’d and definitely digital. Talking about moving away from the very, very old

graphics often found in so many e-Flyers and looking for current imagery. You can create them

yourself or purchase them. In fact you can purchase 800,000 images in a box if you wish. Also

worth noting is the ‘flat’ image which has taken over from all things rounded or 3-D. Let’s take

a look at the following ideas:

Tablet and smartphone images:

You can either take pictures of your own

tablet and smartphone or you can find

ready-made graphics. Here’s my iPhone in

its Survivor case. To make use of this image

I’ll need to cover the screen and to do that,

you just click on Shapes and select the

rectangle – then draw out the rectangle to

cover the screen and finally add a black fill

Okay, here’s the almost

finished image. All you

need to do now is add the

message. You can use a

scene of a beach if you

wish too. It’s up to you as

this will be a static image

and used in a flyer or sent

out by email.

If you search online you can also locate FREE

tablet images. Here’s how I used such a

tablet border. I mocked up the image using a

cloud background, a mugshot, a pie chart

image and added the text. Using SnagIt I

screen captured the image to lock it all in

one place and then laid over the tablet

image. Used SnagIt once again and below is

the finished product.

Speaking the Language of Graphics

You do not to speak Gen Y or Gen X or

Boomer lingo… but your graphics should do

the talking for you. Using current tools that

everyone is using, adding in colourful

imagery or Marvel comic characters or

adding a trending font can all work for you.

Hola!

This what a flat image looks

like and you’ll find these are

preferred to many of the

shiny vector images

normally associated with

social media icons.

There are companies such as Superstamps

who create graphical “stickers” like these:

They are perfect for adding to or layering

over a newsletter, promotional flyer or

brochure cover before you save to PDF for

instance. The cost of this kit is $27!

Tune into Cartoons

From mascots to Marvel comics there’s a

toon out there waiting for you. Toons are

humourous and most people need a little

extra happiness in their lives and you can

deliver that built around your next

marketing activity. You might even have a

custom designed cartoon / mascot created

for your agency.

Just send a photo

of yourself to a

cartoonist and

they will create

your very own

cartoon of you. Or,

if you happen to be

in a Disneyland

property look for

the cartoonist and

pay the $30 or

more and have one

of these created - mine shown above.

Super Heroes & Villains

You can follow the trends of Marvel comic

heroes and villains and create your own hero

right on the Marvel Comic’s webpage. Or,

ask your cartoonist to create one for you.

Here’s the one I created some time ago… not

sure where he fits just yet, but perhaps a

heading would read: “I need a cheaper

flight!”

The Video Graphic

Video is in. It’s not going away anytime too

son so you’d best learn how to create your

own videos and start sending them out to

your clients.

The most obvious video site is YouTube and

then there is Vimeo for a much classier look

and then you can even create your own

video site using Sprout Video and finally,

why not play your own videos on your own

website? Makes sense sending all the traffic

back to your own website versus to

YouTube. They really do not need the

promotion. So focus on yourself and then

upload to YouTube for the viral opportunity.

Choosing Your Video Format

Latest video trends for 2015 still include the

usual scene of the destination with your call

me text captioned somewhere in the credits.

That’s all good. However today, you have a

choice of “usual” to what is known as White

Board or Hand Sketched Videos. There are

several software programs that you can

purchase but these do take time to create. It

might be best to have someone create this

type of video for you, but of course centered

and focused on your ideas to promote your

current tour, niche or destination.

You can orchestrate the hand to move and

write your text, push images into the frame

and much more. Some programs allow you

to add hand written text over video…

imagine that. There you are strolling along

the beach talking about your tour and then

across the bottom of the video, over the

sand text appears to support your audio.

Now that is current, trending and right up

front for 2015.

Background or Not?

You find that using PNG images (Portable

Network Graphics) otherwise known as

transparent works better for you. It means

you can place yourself over another image –

so if that selfie of you is turned into a PNG

with the background removed, you can now

layer yourself on another image – standing

atop a mountain, sitting inside the latest

train or aircraft, walking where you haven’t

walked etc. PNG images of YOU are great!

Here’s one of me with the one that was too

large to take home! Honest. I’ll let you add

the caption you think might go with this

image. Now, if you had a fishing niche, you

could add, “We know where to find the big

ones!”

The message then is to watch what all other

industries are doing and note their graphics,

slogans, content and then compare to the

travel trade. See what you can borrow and

re purpose in how you promote your own

travel offers.

One thing is for sure, your website must have

the very best, the ultimate in terms of

graphics and video content. Double check

your website now and upgrade where

needed. This is the #1 task for heading into

2015.

I’ve just purchase an annual subscription with GraphicStock and the images are excellent and low cost.

Check it out and save through my referral: here

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Visit: thetravelagentnextdoor.ca

Call: 416-367-8263

tollfree: 1-844-845-8263BB047 19-12-14

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I am often asked about going out on one’s

own, to become one’s own boss and

whether or not it would be a sound move.

My typical response is “Why not?” Life is way

too short to worry about certain things, but

then certain things need to be in place

before you step out on your own.

Many travel agents wonder if they will be

able to generate the income they are making

now. The answer to that is absolutely and

even more if you desire to work as hard or

harder. For some however, their personality

is not the type that survives a team around

them, being directed by management and

having structure in their working

environment. If this is you, don’t leave. It

would be a costly mistake.

For those who can thrive on being alone and

able to multitask like never before.

Marketing, selling, closing, accounting,

paperwork, education, Fam trips… is your life

repeated each and every day. But then,

when YOU decide, you can travel anywhere

you choose. Nothing to stop you. You are the

boss.

Today of course you have so many home

based support systems that your first order

of the day is to sift and sort through their

features and benefits and pricing structure

to make sure they offer you what you want.

Once that’s done, half of your daily chores

are taken care of and so your main focus is

to use the marketing tools you now have

access to and then sharpen your selling,

closing skills.

The question about generating income is

answered this way: if you making $50,000

now, you’ll make $50,000 when you step out

on your own. There will be some pluses too

– re expenses and writing off your travel, and

business expenses etc. Overall, the financial

picture is a little rosier running your own

business. Out of the $50,000 you tend to

retain more tax wise.

The home-based support system you choose

will have all the marketing tools you need,

they will have e-mail services, accounting

services, training and development… leaving

you to focus as mentioned on your sales and

service.

Overcoming the fear of starting out on your

own is the biggest hurdle. You will never

know the thrill of going-it-alone until you

actually do it. Then when you close that first

group booking… the exhilaration is all yours.

You are off and running.

I’ll take you back to the first week I stepped

away from my corporate position to become

a travel & tourism management consultant

and had my first piece of business.

A travel agency owner needed a letter

written and asked if I could word it for him,

based on the impact he needed it to present.

My fee was only $50… for four lines of typing

that took me minutes to do. I can remember

thinking, “WOW! What could I charge for a

30-page manual?” Well that answer soon

came and it was $5,000!!!

So you see, that first client once you step out

on your own is the most important as it tells

you that you can generate a return on your

knowledge and your time and your effort. If

you never start however, you’ll never finish.

Perhaps this is where you are – revving up

the engine but not releasing the clutch.

One thing you’ll need before stepping out on

your own is a client base. A client list. And as

you know, you cannot take (steal) the client

list you serve at your agency of employment.

If the clients you service are not yours, as in

you brought them into the agency you work

for, and there is a document in place stating

this fact, then you cannot leave with that list

without doing jail time.

If the client list is yours then you are off to

the races. If you are about to start from

scratch then you focus on the marketing

tools your home-based support program

offers and work 24/7 to attract a new list of

clients. Here however you can decide who

you want as a customer. You no longer have

to service that grumpy ole fella who was a

long term customer of the agency you

worked for. Now you can choose based on

the destination and type of travel you are

passionate about.

In this way you start your business by

engaging clients you like and want to do

business with. For sure your first year will be

heavy in work and light in commission. Year

two however will be a different story as you

would have made good use of all social

media tools, your reputation for the niche

you sell would have gone viral, your YouTube

account is packed with quality video content

and have fifty been-there-seen-that selfies

to use in your self-promotion.

So get into the driver`s seat of your own

career. Turn on the engine and take off.

Drive it like you mean is and the leave the

fear of starting to the guy behind you. When

you`ve had enough of running your own

show, you can always return to work for

someone else – that opportunity will never

go away. There is a shortage of qualified

travel agents and that is your safety net for

trying out your entrepreneurial skills.

Anthony Dalton, FRGS, FRCGS

It’s deep. It’s wide. It’s muddy. It is a big river by any stretch of the imagination: at 6,750 kilometres, it is the longest in the world.

On its long passage to the sea, the mighty

torrent which will become the Amazon

tumbles down from glaciers in the Andes to

the jungles of Peru, where it becomes a

working river. From there, its navigable

length snakes a meandering route from the

Peruvian border to the Atlantic Ocean, a

journey of over 3,400 kilometres. Soon after

leaving Peru it washes the southern

extremity of Colombia before cutting Brazil

in two as it courses through the vast Amazon

rain forest.

Christmas Day, 2011. At anchor off Macapa,

the first city in from the Atlantic on the north

side of the delta. M.V. Pacific Princess

shimmers in the early morning heat. The

Amazon’s water temperature is 29 ͦC soon

after daybreak. The air is humid and even

hotter. The river is a muddy, pinkish brown.

Dolphins, some pink, some grey, arc out of

the water as they move with sensuous grace

through their chosen element. The delta

stretches 300 kilometres from north to

south. It is filled with hundreds of islands and

a maze of waterways.

The river, up which we will travel, is a major

highway through the northern half of South

America. Ocean freighters, cruise ships, oil

tankers, local riverboats carrying crowds of

passengers, open boats and fragile canoes all

share its length and its moods.

The Amazon’s banks are multi-hued. The

earth changes colour as we cruise past, from

sandy to light brown and to deep reds, all

topped by a variety of bright green

vegetation – grasses, bushes and tall trees.

We pass vast expanses of grasslands, thick

bush and great forests. In times of flood, the

river washes the banks so hard they crumble

and slide into the current carrying full-grown

trees with the mud.

The local multi-deck, passenger-carrying

riverboats look top heavy as they motor up

and down stream from village to village and

from town to town. Known by the locals as

gaiolas, or bird-cages, the gaily painted boats

are crowded with rainbows of hammocks

slung side by side on their covered decks.

At Santarem, where the clean, black Rio

Tapajos joins the brown of the Amazon, the

dividing line between the two rivers is visible

for a long distance. The same is true near

Manaus, where the merger of the equally

black Rio Negro and the silt-laden Rio

Solimoes takes many kilometres before the

two become one in colour. In the end, the

muddy brown flow of the main river

overwhelms that of the lesser streams.

A report from 1855 referred to Santarem as

“the most civilised and important settlement

on the banks of the main river from Peru to

the Atlantic.” Manaus was bigger and better

known, but it was on the Rio Negro.

Santarem has grown from 2,500 inhabitants

in 1855 to 300,000 today. It is recognized as

having the best freshwater beaches in Brazil.

An important soybean shipment port,

Santarem is second only to Manaus in

importance on the Amazon River. I talked

with riverboat captains at Santarem, curious

about the costs of travelling by traditional

craft. I learned that the fare from Santarem

to Manaus, for a journey of 2 to 3 days,

would cost a minimum of $6.00 without food

– bring your own hammock. An air-

conditioned private cabin (with a ceiling fan,

not a real air-conditioner) could be as much

as $45, also without food. Either way,

considering the novelty of stopping at a

series of jungle villages en route, the fares

are definite travel bargains, although the

boats do tend to travel fully loaded with

passengers and freight.

The site of Manaus was first settled in 1669

and became much expanded during the

rubber boom of the 1800s. It is a startling

sight from the river, situated as it is 1,600

kilometres upstream from the Atlantic

Ocean. Carved out of the jungle, it has grown

from a village to a cosmopolitan city of 1.86

million people. Pacific Princess ties up at the

main dock, towering over the dozens of

gaiolas moored nearby and a welcoming

brass band playing, of course, Brazil.

The magnificent opera house – the Amazon

Theatre – is an elegant architectural relic of

Brazil’s ‘belle époque’ and built in the

Renaissance style, mostly with materials

imported from Europe. Construction began

in 1884 and continued until 1896. The

completed structure cost a staggering 10

million dollars. It has been said that Enrico

Caruso performed there, but that may not

be true. A conflicting story says that Caruso

arrived on a steamer, heard there was an

epidemic of a disease such as cholera, and

returned home without setting foot ashore.

With the decline of the rubber era, the opera

house fell silent and stayed that way for 90

years. It reopened in 2001 after extensive

renovations and now, once again, world

class musicians and singers perform in the

middle of the Amazon jungle.

The theatre’s dome can be seen from the

river. It is only a few minutes’ walk away.

Down at the waterfront, the bars are busy

for a holiday weekend. The cruise ship

attracts everyone’s attention, including a

denizen of the river.

A big caiman, or alligator, over four metres

long, glides through the rubbish of the busy

port. Two cormorants paddle out of its way,

without undue haste. On a large floating

mound of refuse a handful of vultures eat

their fill of a city’s waste. The caiman ignores

it all. Moving slowly, its deadly snout, eyes

and the top of its serrated tail just visible

above the water, it approaches the dock

where our white cruise ship is moored. On

the adjacent dock a local points out the

approaching reptile. Passengers from the

ship watch in awe as the caiman watches

them. One senses it is hoping someone will

fall in. It waits for a while, then,

disappointed, it drifts away in search of an

easier meal.

A motorized canoe ride away from Manaus,

the Amazonian rain-forest is a peaceful

break from the bustling city. There are said

to be 15,000 streams that feed this mighty

river. We follow one of them to a few shacks

and an open-air bar. From there we stroll

through the trees on an elevated wooden

walkway. All around us Amazonia sings with

unseen creatures and a few visible ones.

A black-crowned night heron, fishing from a

semi-submerged log in a pond, ignores us as

we pass. In a large clearing, a natural

freshwater lake is home to giant Victoria lily

pads – some as much as two metres in

diameter. A variety of bird species, herons,

storks and ducks, tip-toe over the green,

plate-like surfaces of the lilies in search of

food. In the canopy high above a troop of

spider monkeys screech at each other, or

perhaps at us. A slight movement beside one

lily reveals a large caiman watching and

waiting, only the top half of its scaly, black

head, its eyes and nostrils showing above the

surface.

At a house in the forest beside a significant

side stream, a handful of children stagger

down to the water’s edge carrying a gigantic

anaconda between them. At another we are

offered bored-looking sloths to hold. This is

the Amazon’s version of a photo op. Take a

photo – pay a few coins for the privilege. To

solve the problem of being swept away in

times of flood, some enterprising

householders have built their homes on

huge log pontoons moored out of the river

but ready to be poled to safety in an

emergency.

The 19th century British naturalist, Henry W.

Bates, spent 11 years exploring the Amazon

and collecting specimens of its creatures for

the Natural History Museum in London. He

roamed the river’s banks from the delta near

Belem all the way up stream to at least Ega,

600 kilometres beyond Manaus. During his

many collecting expeditions in Amazonia,

Bates sent 14,712 different species of

creatures to England. Of that impressive

number, roughly 8,000 were previously

unknown to science. By any standard, it was

a magnificent achievement.

Bates described his feelings about the

Amazon forest and its incredible artery as he

was about to leave Brazil forever in the

equatorial summer of 1859. He wrote, “On

the evening of the 3rd of June, I took a last

view of the glorious forest for which I had so

much love, and to explore which I had

devoted so many years.” He continued by

admitting that his saddest moments took

place the following night as the ship he was

on found a wind to take her out of the

Amazon delta. “…I felt that the last link

which connected me with the land of so

many pleasing recollections was broken.”

I was only on the Amazon for a few weeks

but I too felt a sense of loss as the small

cruise ship sailed out of the delta, left the big

river behind and turned north into the

Atlantic Ocean.

VISIT ANTHONY DALTON’S WEBSITE HERE

Travel Adventures in Psycho-photography

Steve Gillick

VISIT STEVE’S WEBSITE HERE

Steve Gillick indulging his passion to point and shoot...but sometimes it also helps to keep your eyes open!

Cameras and videos are empowerment

tools. We think of them as our personal

means of capturing moments in time to

remember, savour, re-live and memorialize.

But the very art of clicking the button, that

releases the shutter, that records the image,

that releases the endorphins, that results in

your slide presentation, is a subliminal

statement of power. “I can capture this

moment”. “I can control time by re-living

the moment”. “I can exercise control over

things that were once relegated to the

gods”.

And so it goes with travel. We often discuss

social media in the context of relationship-

building but this is something in which our

cameras have been engaging us since the

first Daguerreotypes were produced in the

1840’s.

It may have been our relationship to

ourselves through portraiture, and being

able to ‘see ourselves’ in another medium,

other than a mirror. Or it may have been our

relationship to others in the sense that “here

is my photo for you to remember me”. And

certainly it was a way of converting oral

history—which was a main modus for

transferring knowledge in many societies

and communities—into something tangible.

In illiterate societies, pictures were the main

conduit for lessons on morality (take

religious paintings of heaven and hell, for

example) or remembrance, inventory,

adoration, dreaming and celebration. And

now in 2014 we embrace and thrill to the

explosion of the photo genre with Academy

Award-winning selfies, hundreds of apps to

adorn our cell phones and iPads, as well as

software programs to show off our

presentation skills.

Travel photos not only capture moments in

time but also help to convey, graphically,

what serendipity is all about. It’s the

discovery of the pyramids all over again, but

more important, it’s YOUR discovery of the

pyramids. It’s your relationship to the first

moment of ‘wow’. Previous writings or

explorations are irrelevant. It’s all about

you. It’s all about pride and accomplishment

and boasting and feeling good. It matters

not whether the photo is out of focus, off

colour, crooked, cropped or heavily in need

of photo-shopping. The medium is the

message. The fact that you created the

image is what’s important.

And guess what?

Tangible proof of your journey is a long

lasting and subliminal call to action for you

to travel again. Travellers look to collect

more memories in order to accumulate

more souvenirs in the true meaning of the

word. Literally a ‘souvenir’ means ‘to come

from below’ or ‘come to mind’; ‘to

remember’ (‘Sou’ (under) & ‘Venire’(to

come)). The ‘psycho’ (literally, ‘the mind’)

part of the term ‘psycho-photography’,

comes into play when you fully appreciate

the mechanisms that cause you to lug

around an apparatus (small or large) and

click it to your heart’s content during your

beloved vacation time. (Thank goodness for

64 gigabyte memory cards!)

For many travellers, the camera is the portal

that leads them from one world – the world

of routine existence: work, home, family—

to the world of enchantment.

The camera is the passport, the magical incantation that opens caves and passages. The modern day storybook tale of ‘Open Sesame’. The camera is the security blanket that comforts the introvert and

many times transports the photographer into expressive extroversion. It allows access to places that were off limits. It allows the traveller to get up close and personal with architecture, sculpture, faces, emotions and events.

Consider the power of photographing a

Michelangelo in no way that it’s been done

before. And you can do it because it’s YOUR

vision. It’s your interpretation of that marble

fold or the glint in the eye. It’s what’s been

called the Seven-Billion-People Syndrome.

In 2014 the world population reached 7

billion. And now, there you are in the early

morning, visiting the Bayon temple in Angkor

Wat, before the crowds of tourists arrive.

You enter a passageway and take a photo of

a grouping of Apsaras—celestial nymphs—

floating dreamily on a rock surface, where

they have enchanted pilgrims since the 13th

Century. They are perfectly framed by an

ancient stone archway. And you are the only

one there at that specific moment in time.

Out of the 7 billion people on the planet, it’s

all about you and your aloneness with the

amazing scene. You are not only connecting

with these mystical, mythical deities but

you’ve captured that connection with that

magical instrument called, the camera.

The power of having taken that photo

envelopes your imagination and catapults

you into ‘the travel mind’ whereby your

travels and adventures are truly yours to

cherish.

The challenge for you as a travel consultant

is to keep providing the client with a never-

ending list of possibilities to consider: “What

else can I do”; “Where else can I go”, “What

else can I capture on my memory card and

own for myself’.

The next time you click a shutter or turn on

the video or point your iPad at an intriguing

scene, consider the power that your simple

gesture wields. But also, from a travel

consultant’s sales & marketing perspective,

don’t underestimate the power of the

camera in enchanting your clients to travel—

and travel again. ✈

Now there’s a heading that everyone reads. Well, almost everyone. All you need do is turn a

few heads and have them look in your direction. The idea here is to ride on the recognition

factor of climate change and use this term in your marketing to attract attention to your latest

travel offer.

These days everyone needs a change of

climate, something new in their lives, in their

travels and you are just the right person to

make that happen.

So where have you been, or what have you

read about that would be a change for your

clients?

Is there a new cruise ship itinerary that

would be a change? Could you promote a

winter vacation to your sun loving clients –

and I mean a real winter vacation such as a

week up north. Up north could be Canada,

Greenland, Iceland, Russia, Scandinavia…

you know, NORTH! Wouldn’t that be a

change of climate and then some?

You see where this is going. It’s a shock and

awe travel program for some of your clients

and an adventure for the others.

Keep your eye on the climate in a general

sense too. The weather patterns are

changing and that means catastrophe for

some countries, destinations, villages and

resort hotels. On the other hand you might

develop a niche in storm chasing, or huge

wave watching.

Seasons are changing too and that is one

more aspect of climate change to watch out

for. Peak seasons are moving in terms of

weather, not pricing. Some of the best

weather is now during the shoulder season.

There’s a new sales theme called The Book is the NEW Business Card and if you are a writer

then this eGuide will help you get your publication marketed and hopefully sold. I have

partnered with author Anthony Dalton on this Guide as I work with Anthony to help market

his 14 books, which means every idea in this publication we actually do.

Click Here to View

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Is it just me noticing this or is everyone living in a fantasy world? Creatures with thirty three

heads, teeth only a dentist would enjoy flossing and skin that would never make it into being

a handbag. I am always of the mind that anything and everything in this world of ours can be

turned into a niche market and as the fantasy market looms large, sure enough I went a-

hunting. And sure enough, you’ll know of the Harry Potter tours, and now the Hunger Games

tours too. So what is your fantasy that you could develop into a niche?

I’ll start with mine to give you time to ponder

your response. I’ve always been fascinated

with blades and more importantly Japanese

blades such as the well-known Samurai

sword or katana. The short sword, the

Wakizashi and the small dagger – the Tanto.

Along the way various movies have been

based on Japanese themes and those

creative Hollywood minds, designers,

writers and artists have given us the world of

FANTASY… even fantasy blades. And yes,

there is a travel market for those who collect

such things.

To enter this niche market of Fantasy Travel

you would do well to catch the latest movies

of this genre plus decide which end of the

word fantasy you want to grasp. There’s

those fang based werewolf flicks, to the 300

war bashing tribes to children’s fantasy

movies to fantasy love & loss movies – and

then there’s the books such as Game of

Thrones.

And wouldn’t you know it – the tours are

already in place and Ireland is the

destination where much of the filming was

done. You can explore online for other film

locations, sites, countries, etc.

It’s always the case when a movie is a hit –

tours to the film locations are created

usually within a seconds of the opening date.

If you would like to attract the Gen X & Y

traveller and those Boomers who also follow

the fantasy worlds then you’ll need to use

fantastical designs, alphabets and graphics

in your marketing. To see what’s out there,

Google ‘fantasy designs’ and drill down from

there.

Look for websites and books featuring

fantasy alphabets too. You can purchase

fantasy fonts for Word and also learn to

create your own alphabet too.

Fantasy travel, fantasy tourism – it is a

current genre and theme should you want to

study it and as mentioned there’s no end to

it in site. Only more to come and that means

a growing client base that fancies the

fantastical journey no matter where it’s

headed. Perhaps that’s the name of your

new website: Fantastical Journeys. It has a

nice ring to it.

Before closing out, here’s one more of my

fantasy arrowhead designs. It is addictive

once you start, so good luck and turn your

fantasy travel ideas into magical moola!

SteveCrowhurst

Download the ISSUU app and read

Selling Travel on your tablet.

Weather

is

your

greatest

sales

challenge!

The weather is what most tourists are chasing and they want the best of it. They want the best

weather for the season they are travelling in. To some of your clients that would mean plenty

of sunshine and the heat that goes with it. For those like me, it’s the crisp fall weather that is

preferred. For your skiing clientele – their preference would be snow and sunshine. The

challenge is, the weather is not doing what it normally does. No. It is doing what it wants to do

and in many cases upsetting everyone’s vacation plans not to mention your marketing plans.

When you write your marketing plan this

year, best to click to your favourite weather

website and check out the coming

predictions as they pertain to your niche

destination or part of the world you sell the

most.

If you sell around the Pacific Rim you’ll be

more than aware of the Ring of Fire and the

potential for earth tremors, quakes and

tsunamis.

If you sell into Europe, you’ll know about

those pesky volcanoes that spew those

glorious flight stopping clouds.

Elsewhere you would be selling against

typical weather patterns such as the

monsoon period, however some of these

regular patterns are changing. They are

moving up or down a few weeks. Some

weather patterns are causing major havoc

due to much heavier rain, wind and ice.

Seasonality has always been a selling

challenge however it does seem that climate

change is giving you just a little more to think

about and plan for.

Snow in the mountains may not be as

compact as it once was and therefore the

potential for avalanches is heightened.

Rivers may be running higher than normal

causing wide-spread flooding. Waves may be

three times their size as the roll in. A

challenge to some, and an opportunity to

others.

If you are new to selling travel then take note

that the world-wide weather is your friend

and your enemy too. You’ll need to make a

study of the weather patterns and seasonal

change - both typical and expected.

There are several websites where you can

locate the forecast for your niche

destination. You can also use the current

weather 14 day trending pattern to market

your tours today. Simply do a screen capture

and then email that image to your clients.

Here’s the weather in Kingston, Jamaica (at

the time I clicked) and so in real time you

would email this image to your sun loving

clients with a covering message that says

something like: “IT’S HOT IN JAMAICA!” and

follow this by promoting one or two

packages or your group departure if you

have one.

Learning to use the weather to help you sell,

or promote a different part of the world is

going to be a major factor going forward.

Start now. Embrace your favourite weather

channel and sell, sell, sell!

After watching those two women taken hostage in Australia and forced to hold a flag in the

window of the coffee shop, one apparently signing an unmistakeable gesture, moving her

finger across her throat – it came to me that every traveller should learn the basics of signing

for survival. Knowing how to sign the words ‘hostage’ and ‘gun’ would be a start. Being able to

sign more information would also help those who can see you and planning your rescue.

As this event in Australia played out, I started

to think about a what-if scenario. What

would I do if I were caught up in such a

situation? The advice from those that know

is to remain as calm as possible, do what the

hostage taker demands and never “go for it”

unless there is clear indication that you are

bigger, stronger, faster and very sure of your

winning over the hostage taker. Never for

instance grab their gun which in this event,

so the media reported, the coffee shop

manager bravely tried to do. Had he waited

a split second longer, he would have

hopefully survived.

As few of us are trained in wrestling a gun or

rifle from a hyper hostage taker the result is

usually not good. To be trained in signing, in

this case, could have given the police much

more information that would have hopefully

led to an earlier conclusion. Hard to say,

however to have a knowledge of signing in

this day and age of travelling can only be a

plus.

If you click to the link on the START ASL

image here you’ll be able to access more

than enough information.

Naturally there’s an app for that and this too and

here’s two that I have found. Cannot say

anything more about them as I have not yet

downloaded them. Leave it you to do your due

diligence.

On the next page you’ll notice a chart for signing

the English language alphabet. At minimum this

chart would help you sign a distress message as

and when required which we hope is never. On

a lighter note, you may be able to help someone

else through your new knowledge.

You can start here with this chart, which is FREE and can be found at the link below.

Print it out and hand it to your clients and also practice with your travel agency colleagues.

Expecting the unexpected is one key factor in travelling safely.

http://www.deafedge.com/printable-abc.html

Last year I sailed on the MV Uchuk III from Gold River to Friendly Cove. We were heading to a rendezvous with history. Friendly Cove is where Captain James Cook anchored in the late 1700’s after a pretty tough voyage and his quest to find access to the Northwest Passage. Following in the footsteps of past explorers and where they explored, where they walked you can touch the walls and stairs of centuries old buildings and you let your hand rub across an ancient headstone knowing that someone in history has touched that same spot. When we arrived at Friendly Cove we walked the path to the pebbled beach where Cook must have walked. The pebbles had been worn smooth by the centuries of being churned in the surf.

My concern for the planet is real but it gets in the way of my pursuits and my love of stones, pebbles and rocks. Hard to explain, but they fascinate me. They are millions of years old. To touch one, well… most people would skim it across the water, I hold it and drift away wondering what this one pebble has “witnessed” in its lifetime. Habitually, I look for certain pebbles and I put them in my pocket, carry them home to look at. My Green outlook is not Mean, but somewhere in between - more Grean I would say. Since I started hitchhiking in my mid-teens, there has always been a pebble, a stone, a local coin, a branch… travelling with me. I’m trying to break the habit, but it is a tough thing to do.

The green machine is being ramped up in various areas of our world. The need for speed is all important and that’s a fact. It’s a tough job though to ask everyone to stop what they have been so used to doing personally and corporately and start a Green lifestyle. The same applies to your customers who were travelling their way and now they must travel green if they wish to be considered worthy of travelling their own planet. With that in mind let’s explore how you can break your customer’s mean travel habits and market Green Travel & Tourism to them the coming year.

Onboard the Uchuck I met the man you was contracted to boost tourism to Friendly Cove. As we chatted about this I mentioned my collecting of pebbles from the beach. He shared with me that when tour groups visit, one of his ideas is to allow each person to choose a pebble from the beach and to take it home. I explored the idea with him and he stated that that one pebble will do more to attract tourists to the area than thousands of dollars spent on advertising. A concept of Pebble Based Viral Marketing I thought. The viral marketing effect of each pebble makes each pebble worth thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. I believed him because anyone who visits my home, gets the Uchuk story, they see the photos and they hold and rub the pebbles I brought home. This idea is very similar to what a traveller told me about his visit to the fossil fields at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Drumheller – you were allowed to take home certain fossil bits if you found them. Not the complete T’Rex as it were, but bits. Bits that are of no use scientifically, but essential to boosting tourism. Between what you “pick up” naturally to what you purchased, to your photographs you have what you need to help you sell green hotels, tours and more. Even the green amenity kit that comes with your hotel room can help. Bring home those hotel soaps and shampoos so that you can display them and promote the hotel, resort or spa. Your photographs are probably the greenest way to promote Green Travel to your customers. Once taken you can upload to

your computer and email, post and share them with your customers. No paper involved. No printing to be done. Keeping it all digital keeps it green. So we know that many of your customers will have long term travel habits that need to be reckoned with. That aside you can sell almost any form or type of travel and make it a Green Departure. Many of your preferred ITC suppliers and Cruise and Tour suppliers offer a green styled trip and if not, they’ll no doubt be connected to a carbon off-setting program that your customers can buy into and confess their Green travel sins. You can promote hybrid rental cars and SUV’s plus hotels, resorts and spas that are green in almost every aspect of running the property… the only challenge is the flight. Not yet Green but getting there – and as mentioned there are off-setting programs to help green up the flight and reduce your customers overall carbon footprint. Once at the Green hotel, your customers will be met with many a message about turning off the taps, the lights, reusing their towels etc. The learning curve is built in. Even during the flight, your customer will be offered the option of using their own headsets to access the in-flight entertainment and reduce the throw-away threat to the environment or they can buy a set for $3 which will eventually move them to use their own and not purchase the airline headset. With oil prices dropping and recent agreements between world leaders to, in principle, further adopt a green attitude there will even more attention to going green.

When price is at stake however many a traveller will forego Green in favour of Mean – that means the cheapest flight possible and forget the foot-print reduction purchase The only thing a traveller might opt out of when flying would be the off-setting of their

carbon foot print – which to some travellers is still suspect to say the least. A lower airfare is not anti-green – it’s common-sense travel. You could argue that many travellers are changing their hotel chains, giving up Green

hotels for a lower cost room elsewhere. As far as I know, many and most hotels, low cost or not, have a Green Program as in re-using the towels which is more about saving costs for the hotels which indirectly services the going green concept. A reduction in the number of towels to launder saves on labour costs, water usage and more. So, Green by default. There is no need to bring the term green into the selling scenario. The Green machine is operating behind the scenes and doing very nicely. Many unconcerned travellers are going green without knowing it. Totally unaware. This means you just sell like you usually do and book what you know to be eco and planet friendly. The customer will enjoy their trip. Drive the hybrid, re-use their towels etc., and close the gate as requested. They would have travelled green without a fuss. Cruise ships have been operating green for years now, hotels too, car rental firms the same… tour companies also. So quite

honestly all you have to do is sell the same suppliers you have always sold as so many have already made the switch to go green. On the other hand, when a customer sits down across your desk and ‘demands’ green… (“We want to trek in the mountains with a low impact company…”) you had better be able to state which tour companies are 100% green. To attract your true Greenies and not snub your regular shades-of-green clients you might want to promote your agency as Earth Friendly and leave it at that. “Doing Our Best For You and The Universe” is the message you are trying to get across – and try to make sure this does not become translated as “more expensive” in the customer’s mind. If in doubt, sell travel like you lay a lawn – Green Side Up! You can’t lose. You’ll reap what you sow anyway and to that end so will Planet Earth. Sell smart. Sell Green. Now about my pebbles. Green, mean or marketing machine. I’m still deciding.

Using slogans like this one will warm you towards green conscious travellers without alienating your clients who are not quite ‘there’ yet.

Would you like to mix religious tours with travel connections? This is not about taking a group

to view religious sites and relics it’s a niche that references the various patron saints of

travellers and wayfarers and this in turn leads to gorgeous scenery, churches and the tracing

of long lost men and women of the faith they followed. Along the way there would also be a

few pubs and rivers to sit by and in general bask in the light of someone known to protect those

on the road and for whatever reason they travelled it.

I’m sure you’ve heard about, read about and

perhaps even prayed to St. Christopher. You

might even wear a medallion featuring his

likeness. But what about St. Botolph? And

then what about the other 21 saints who

also take care of us travellers? Chances are

these days we need more than one and St.

Christopher, the rumour goes, never existed.

There are Celtic gods and Hindu deities and

many more who watch us as we go about the

world. There are also symbols and amulets

and mantras and prayers that can be

thought, said, written and worn to ward of

the evil that befalls present day travellers.

And then a quick fast-forward to present day

and the app store where you can download

SOS apps that may save you from whatever

predicament you are in. That said I went

looking for the obvious St. Christopher app –

that one could engage with on your

smartphone and invoke his presence to

assist in travelling safe. Guess what? There

isn’t an app for that!! Who knew?

If you are an enterprising travel agent

dealing in religious vacations – there’s your

sign. A St. Christopher app.

Back to the theme of this page: there is a

niche market here and it’s a niche within a

niche as I like to say. Somewhere within the

realms of religious travel is this niche to build

a trip, a tour around one of the saints, gods,

deities and anyone else you can find and

attach this tour to a fabulous destination and

itinerary where the said protector once

lived.

You might even design your own amulet or

visit http://www.wowamulets.com/ to view

what they offer.

Right over to you. A new idea. A new niche.

A chance to generate additional income

from creating merchandise that ties into

your Saints & Travellers tour of England,

Ireland, Scotland, India, Japan… and your

favourite niche destination too.

Do you have a website? Have to ask because not every agency has one or needs one. It all

depends on your customer’s preferred style of buying travel and doing business with you. If

you do have a website then chances are you have the standard tabs and links ranging from

Home to Contact Us. Somewhere in between the Home and Contact Us tab is the About Us tab.

Click on the About Us tab and you scoot to a page where as a consumer I can read all about the

people who would be planning my trip and taking my money. Ya think? Nope. Typically what

you’d find is a whole bunch of nothing. Just marketing-speak. Kafuffle with a dash of booyaa

dotted with words without love. In otherwise what you find at the end of the About Us tab,

link and page doesn’t tell the reader anything About US as in YOU.

On the other hand there are some About Us

pages that really do the job. Well laid out,

they tell the story in a way that keep you

glued to the website. You want to go deeper

into the site. You want to make friends with

these people. Best of all, you go there feeling

like you know them and can trust them.

WOW! Eh. They even listed their names and

uploaded a photo of each member of staff

from the owner or chief executive down.

Let’s explore how you can turn your About

Us page into the marketing tool it was meant

to be.

How Important is Your About Us Page?

A variety of surveys and web design firms

will tell you that second to the home page,

the majority of visitors click on the About Us

link. The About Us tab indicates to a visitor

that the company is willing to talk about

themselves, share some information,

introduce the team and state their

experience. Some will include mission

statements and why, out of all the options

the consumer has, this company is the best

to buy travel from. In short – the consumer

wants to know who they are dealing with

and whether or not they are credible.

My Usual Click Path

It’s true, my usual clicking route after landing

on the home page is the About Us tab

followed by the Contact Us link. Initially I

always look for “Where do these guys live?”

In other words, where’s my money going? If

the address takes me off my continent I’ll

read about the products, catch the keywords

and go surfing for a local firm. I also like to

see the faces of who is about to profit from

my purchase. No info, no mug shots, no

nuttin’… I’m usually gone. Of course I

wouldn’t expect a hotel in Austria to have a

local address… so if I was booking direct, I’m

good with that. However, booking that

Austrian hotel through a travel agency with

no information about who this agent is and

where they hang out… well, click delete.

Next.

What to Include in Your About Us Page

As mentioned some travel agencies have

done an excellent job, others have gone the

less is more route and some have gone

towards overkill with a wall of text, which is

worse than not enough info. Boredom also

moves the visitor to click and be gone. Here’s

a few About Us page additions and ideas for

you to consider. Remember, travel is a happy

business. You sell dreams. The people

visiting your website have those dreams.

There are needs to be fulfilled. The visitor

wants to spend $1,000 or more. They want

to know who you are and what you can do.

Okay, let’s go. Here a few ideas to add to

your About US page:

1. Your location address, contact information, image of your agency and link to the map and driving directions page. It’s okay to duplicate information.

2. Present your staff / team with their full names and an excellent business like photograph / publicity shot. Lose the scruffy attire shots and cell phone images. Do this right. Get the photographs taken by a pro. Some TA’s are concerned re full names and photographs being on the site for fear of being harassed or stalked. So we invoke the old statement that 85% of what we worry about never happens. It could. But it’s a long shot. If anything does happen, then the cyber police would be activated by the (your) agency. If anyone is watching anyone then chances are they are across the street watching – not on your website.

3. Offer a link under each of your team’s portraits to their bio page. This bio is not a resume for a job, or meant for personal expressions about children, cats and dogs. Keep it corporate. Nothing personal. Explain each person’s expertise, extensive travels, and their specialty. Add their direct emails with a call to action.

4. List the agency’s years of being in the business, awards, certifications, customer service statements, any guarantees you offer and testimonials.

5. Aways tell the visitor why you are the best option for them. Answer this question to find your answer: “Out of all the options in the world today, why should a customer book their travel with you, me, us?”

6. Are you environmentally friendly? Are you a Green TA? If so mention it and who or which cause you support. Or simply state that you will look for vacations, hotels, cruise lines with the least impact on the planet. No need to go too deep – booking green is simple enough. So mention it. It might cause someone to book with your versus the other agency.

In short then: best to be brief, worst to be

boring. State worthy facts and be credible.

Deliver on the WIFFM. Do update your

About Us page every few months or at least

check it. Did anyone leave or join? Have you

changed the page? Old news is always old

news.

About Face

So, the message is to make sure your About

Us page markets YOU. Whatever you do to

your About Us page should support your

sales strategy. It should push the visitor to

the rest of your site where they can play,

stay, read, dream and book. More so, the

rest of your site should in the final analysis,

cause the visitor to make a phone call or

send you an email.

After that it’s all ABOUT YOU and how well

you can convert the caller / inquiry into a

sale.

There are so many big travel firms with cold, cold About Us pages. If that’s YOU – make the

changes now. As a smaller enterprise or home based agent you could increase your sales and

win the business simply by selling yourself using your About ME page to warm up the client into

doing business with YOU.

Below are five tips that will help you change your About Us page. Tip #5 is very

important as VIDEO is the marketing tool from here on. Get yourself on camera

and deliver a wonderful “performance” that is casual in nature and shows you

relaxed and talking about your travels, your passion for travel and then welcome

and invite your viewers to travel with you.

Change About Us to ABOUT ME

Show a current business photo…

List where you have travelled…

Promote your niche…

Add a short video clip of YOU

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