Selling Travel March 2015
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Transcript of Selling Travel March 2015
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 [email protected]
250-738-0064 www.sellingtravel.net
Publisher:
SMP Training Co. www.sellingtravel.net
Contributors
Steve Crowhurst SELLING TRAVEL is owned and published by Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. All Rights Reserved. Protected by International Copyright Law. SELLING TRAVEL can be shared, forwarded, cut and pasted but not sold, resold or in any way monetized. Using any images or content from SELLING TRAVEL must be sourced as follows: “Copyright SMP Training Co. www.sellingtravel.net” 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.
4 EDITORIAL
5 ARE YOU ON THE LIST?
6 EYE EYE
7 SELLING MYSTERIOUS PLACES
11 TRICK SHOT
14 YOUR TRAVEL DRIVERS By Steve Gillick
18 MISTY & MYSTERIOUS ANTARCTICA By Anthony Dalton
21 COMING SOON
22 SELLING TRAVEL WITH HUMOUR
24 SELLING TRAVEL WITH A SMILE
27 WOMEN ONLY TRAVEL - ON THE STORE SHELVES NOW
28 AIR PUMP – SELLING THAT SEAT
30 DELOITTE REPORT – SOCIAL MEDIA
32 LIKE ME OR NOT – AN ABOUT FACE(BOOK) POV
34 NEW GADGETS
35 READ MORE ME HERE
36 THE TRAVEL INSTITUTE
37 WEDDING & HONEYMOON MARKETING MATERIALS
THE HOW-TO MAGAZINE FOR TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS
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!
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• Training, coaching and networking opportunities
• Innovative marketing programs to grow your business
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10131503-Nexion_Ad.indd 1 10/29/13 2:18 PM
The
WILL
to
Selling the Mysterious Ancient tombs, radiated patches in forests, lights in the sky, haunted castles, islands appearing
out of the ocean, lost cities, newly found artifacts, 3,000 year old ships found in the mud, dino
footprints… and a customer wants to book what? A beach vacation!!! What can I say? One
tourist’s beach is another explorer’s mystery adventure.
In this issue of Selling Travel we’ll take a look at selling something different, something just
slightly off the track, beaten or otherwise. Selling the world’s Mysterious Places might just
become a new niche for you.
We’ll also explore the contents of a new eGuide: Selling With Humour and how the use of humour
in your sales & marketing activities can warm more prospects to you and even speed up their
buying decision.
On the social media front, I have to tell you more about why I’ve put my Facebook business page
on hold. Okay let’s go inside…
Here’s to your continued success in SELLING TRAVEL.
Best regards.
Steve Crowhurst, CTC, CTM Hon. [email protected]
www.sellingtravel.net
SALES & MARKETING TIPS, TOOLS & TECHNIQUES FOR ALL TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS
Click on the store icon to opt-in.
Steve Crowhurst, Publisher
Well what can you say, mystery is
in the eye of the beholder… and
there are mysteries everywhere
you travel and then some. Always keep an eye
open for anything
that’s new, different
and causes your
clients to think.
Unravel a mystery or two for
yourself and then you’ll have
direct knowledge to market to
your client list.
Where have you visited recently, or in the past, that was anything bordering on mysterious? Now
that could mean you were lost in the mist, you heard someone who wasn’t there calling your
name, you noticed the angle of the pictures on the wall change… you were suddenly in a different
time dimension and saw yourself in 2030… all clever stuff. A bit of Hollywood. So OKAY… BACK
TO REALITY which in itself is a mystery! In truth, where have you travelled that haunts you for all
the right reasons?
Let’s get a handle on the word mysterious – the definitions come back as: difficult or impossible
to understand, explain, or identify… puzzling, strange, peculiar, curious, funny, queer, odd, weird,
bizarre, mystifying, inexplicable, baffling, perplexing, incomprehensible, unexplainable,
unfathomable… and I bet that you can place a memory or two against each of those words.
I once hitch-hiked across an area in the UK known as Dartmoor. Now that was freaky Friday let
me tell you. And of course we had to be there as night fell. Not sure why now, I suppose we
wanted to test our resolve and perhaps see if we could meet any of the mass-murderers being
housed in the prison of the same name, who might be out for an evening stroll.
Being out on the ocean can be mysterious. You can see things that may or may not be there. You
can witness such wonderful skies and turbulent seas one minute and calm the next and even see
a line where two colours of ocean meet.
In the forests, atop mountain peaks, walking in the valleys and flying in a window seat… you can
witness sights, sounds and events that you might class as mysterious too. After the death of a
loved one, a white dove flew into the garden where I was standing and came right to my feet and
stayed there whilst my Mum and I crouched down with our hands out… the dove stayed with us
for three to five minutes and then it was gone.
Ancient events often leave a trail and an atmosphere that you sense when you enter that space,
you can touch walls and doors and again, get a feeling of what happened there. Real or being
tricked, sometimes we just don’t know and all of this makes for great marketing and even more
so if you have photographs or a video of what you experienced.
In terms of UFOs, my wife scores two to my one! Well, I was driving and couldn’t look up,
otherwise the score would have been 2-2.
The Pyramids are mysterious. Easter Island is mysterious. Ghost ships like the Baychimo are
mysterious. Bigfoot is in there somewhere too. Nepal has its own ways and what about those
Nazca Lines and crop circles and similar phenomena? Did you know that there are hundreds of
reports and books all about those crop circles and there are crop circle tours of the world too.
Here’s one UK company that’s focused on this
niche and their rates are $6,000 all-in for the
tour and accommodation etc. Not bad!
Another website that’s focused on this mystery uses a phrase Sacred Geometry and that has a
nice ring to it. Part of your success in marketing and selling mysterious places will be how you
label your company or products.
Headings for your e-Blasts might be something like this:-
Explore the Mysteries of…
Walk Where Gods Walk
Unravel the Mystery of the Vikings
The Mysteries of Zen Buddhism
Stone Circles, Crop Circles and More
You have an excellent opportunity here to also include places that hold a “power” and those
places can range from libraries to mountain peaks, to waterfalls, to a forest glade… and the power
is often related to what happened ‘there’ or what the place of power holds such as an ancient
text for instance. Why not ask your clients to BRING YOUR TRAVEL MYSTERY TO US and then
plan that once-in-a-lifetime trip for them?
TV Shows
Hey look at this, on the Travel Channel…
Mysteries at the Museum. Have you
watched it? The shows are excellent and
each museum they review gives you a new
opportunity. Why? Well thousands of people
in your neck of the woods just might be
watching the same show. When you market
a Museum Mystery Tour… featuring for
instance four or five European museums all
within a train ride away… well that’s a group
tour itinerary ready to go.
Genealogy Mysteries
At some point in their lives, usually around
age of 50 – 60 people start to think about
their ancestry and if you are watching the
Genealogy Roadshow then you’ll know that
so many people have a family mystery that
needs solving. You can embark on a tour to
Europe, South America, Eastern Europe, Asia
and focus your tour on helping certain
people (could be by race, religion, interest…)
get to places where they can attempt to
unravel their own mystery.
Mysteries of the Universe
Are we alone? Are we watched? Do those
cave paintings tell us something we ought to
know? Probably watching too much TV
however, the universe does hold one heck of
lot of mysterious things and you can bet that
once again, thousands of people in your area
have questions. Just to gaze up through a
powerful telescope can be life changing. A
trip to all the famous telescopes in the world
might just be a tour you could offer.
Waterfalls
These thundering torrents have held visitors
spellbound at their awesome power and
some of them hold a mystery dating back
centuries. Some have caves behind them,
some footpaths leading ‘somewhere’ and
some have rock paintings. Now if you want
to view something spectacular click here.
Cave Paintings
These amazing records of our ancestors are
losing their mystery as those that know are
finding them and decoding them. For the
moment tourists can still enter some caves
to view ancient cave art – but that will cease
soon as the breath of tourists cause the
death of the artworks.
There’s still ghost towns to explore, the
Bermuda Triangle, lost tribes, haunted
hotels and if you need more click here for 60
mysterious and interesting places to visit.
The mystery will never end as you well know.
So many places to see before “we” step off
the globe and enter a new universe. As the
saying goes, “Life is short, death is long” so
solve the mystery of your client’s mysterious
travels needs now.
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An off-quoted phrase is that “yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift and that’s why they call it the present”. We can complicate things by citing the 1964 song, Forget Domani (Forget tomorrow), as “tomorrow never comes”. So where does this leave “mystery”? Historically, the word ‘mystery’ referred to secret rites, divine rituals and something hidden from mere mortals. Today we refer to anything that is hard to explain as a mystery. Stonehenge is a mystery. The pyramids of Egypt are a mystery. So are the whirling dervishes in Turkey.
But as we probe deeper and scientific
explanations turn mysteries into
probabilities, a sense of discovery still exists.
And from the point of view of human
curiosity and travel, the sense of
enchantment, supernatural, hidden
meanings, fantasies, storybook tales and
innate wonder, seems to take over our sense
of logic. The idea of placing yourself in the
state of mind that “I am witnessing this for
myself; The idea of placing yourself in the
state of mind that “I am witnessing this for
myself; I am a modern day explorer on my
own terms, I can be Indiana Jones or Lara
Croft or the real life Freya Stark or Wilfred
Thesiger, is very compelling.
Mystery for the sake of mystery becomes a bone fide attraction and becomes a strong draw for travellers looking to put their own footprint on the globe.
Angkor Wat is a fascinating temple complex. It’s a mystery even after knowledgeable local guides explain the significance of the bridges, the niches, the statues, and the position of the complex. Then you travel from Seam Rep in Cambodia to the Bulgaksa Temple in Gyeongju, South Korea or to Sigiriya, The Lion’s Rock, in Sri Lanka and you hear similar tales of structures providing pilgrims with a way to travel from the mortal world to the abode of the gods, many times with Apsaras (female celestial spirits) guiding the way. Even though the explanation has been provided, the thought behind the construction and the very process by which the temple complexes were conceived, remains something extraordinary and fantastic. The mystery of these legendary places continue. And mysteries come in all shapes and sizes. Some are on the regular tourist route: trying to imagine the actual Roman Coliseum in
Your Mystery Active Ingredient, Steve Gillick, President, Talking Travel
Italy or the Roman amphitheatre in El Djem, Tunisia; gazing at the Sphinx in Giza, Egypt; wandering down the street in Ephesus, Turkey to wonder at the Library of Celsus; standing before Ahu Tongariki-- the platform of 15 Moai statues on Easter Island; or scampering on one of the original “wild” sections of the Great Wall of China. Some mysteries are more nature-oriented: Oggling at the pink flamingoes in Lake Nakuru, in Kenya or the wildlife on the Galapagos Islands or on Japan’s isolated Ogasawara Islands; climbing the Santa Ana Volcano in El Salvador to see the brilliant turquoise crater lake; exploring the astounding land formations along the Quebrada del Rio de las Conchas, the road
that stretches from Cafayette to Salta in northern Argentina; and exploring deserts, gorges, canyons, waterfalls and rivers. Some mysteries inspire reflection: the Potala Palace in Lhasa Tibet, the city of Bhaktapur in Nepal, the Palace of the Winds in Jaipur, the Taj Mahal in Agra, Machu Picchu in Peru, Pompeii in Italy, Goreme in Cappadocia, and more. It’s a veritable world of wonders out there and the sense of mystery is a very personal ‘driver’ of travel dreams. For the travel seller it’s necessary to consider your own travel ‘drivers’ and then interview your clients with the same sense of awe and enthusiasm as you would plan your own journeys.
Selling mystery is like a detective process.
Following these leads will uncover your clients mystery needs:
1) Create the atmosphere. a. Posters on the walls b. Photos or short videos of mysterious
venues c. Subtle music playing in the background
(Irish reels or Indonesian Gamelan or Taiko drumming or Brazilian folk)
d. Tasting options. Keep a few bottles of local drinks on hand to give a tiny taste of the destination (wine, whiskey, sake, pisco sour)
e. Attitude. Nothing puts a damper on the mystery of travel than a travel agent with a blasé attitude and an order-taker mentality. Perk up! Get enthused! Show dynamic positivity. It’s infectious and your clients will reciprocate with their own enthusiasm.
2) Qualify the client a. Ask open-ended questions during the
client interview. “If you could wave a magic wand, where would you want to go; what would you want to see and experience”
b. Where have you been—where haven’t you been?
c. What’s the theme of your next travel? Beach? Adventure? Peace and Quiet? History? Mystery?
3) Do your homework. Every destination has its mystery elements. a. Be ready to suggest some, based on your
knowledge of the client. b. You can do some prep work before the
client’s visit if you’ve worked with them before, or you may need to follow up with a client to enhance the value of the destination.
c. Eventually, you will put together your own compendium of mystery features that cover destinations your client base is apt to visit. (Thinking of Japan? Have you ever thought of a temple stay in Koyasan? Or staying with a fisherman’s family in Tagarasu?)
4) Try it yourself! Remember that every time you travel and for whatever reason, you are investing in your career. a. Ask questions, take photos, assume that
one of your clients will want to travel to the same destination at some point in time.
b. Know the basics: the attractions, hotels, restaurants…but also know the mystery? Where is the mystery and why was it so compelling?
5) Don’t underestimate the ‘call’ of mystery in the travel-selling equation.
a. Key words, such as ‘mystery’, ‘unusual’, ‘hidden’, ‘secret’, ‘thrilling’, ‘discover’, ‘explore’ etc plant seeds of inquisitiveness in your clients and they will want to hear more.
b. Consider adding another line to your business card: “Mystery Maker” of “Mysteriously Yours”
The Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet. Santa Ana Volcano, El Salvador.
Sigiriya (The Lion's Rock) Sri Lanka. The 3rd Century Roman Amphitheatre,
El Djem, Tunisia
The big ship rolls with the heavy swells. Cold winds sweep the open decks. Spindrift whips off
the tops of restless waves. Keeping station on either side of the upper decks, a dozen or more
albatrosses ride the air currents with practised disdain for the howling wind. Gliding just above
the wake left by the cruise liner’s passing, another squadron of albatrosses follow us with
effortless style. Albatrosses, mariners believe, are the wandering souls of the sailors who lost
their lives near Cape Horn. If the legend is true, those souls are now graceful in the extreme.
We’re crossing the Drake Passage, a 600 mile
wide part of the Southern Ocean, where the
winds and waves are unhindered by land.
They power in from the west on a non-stop
parade around their cold and stormy domain
at the bottom of the world.
Cape Horn is behind us. We left that craggy
promontory astern a few hours ago. Ahead
is the icy continent of Antarctica. We’ll see
her massive glaciers, vast snow fields,
drifting icebergs and her exuberant wildlife
tomorrow. For now, late in the afternoon,
some passengers are sampling wines, or
drinking coffee, reading books, playing
bridge. Others, equally disinterested in the
ocean outside, are playing bingo, or feeding
coins into slot machines. The hardy few, all
bundled up against the cold, share the
promenade deck with me. All of us are
anxious for our first look at the vast southern
continent of ice and snow. Together, until
sunset, we scan the waters for signs of
whales, or dolphins, and we watch the skies
for the wide wingspans of the great birds
that frequent this desolate, mysterious part
of our planet.
We are out on deck again at daybreak,
determined not to miss anything if possible.
Weather conditions, however, interfere with
that plan. We pass Smith Island’s latitude but
could not see it due to the misty weather. A
couple of hours later, after passing a few
large, drifting icebergs, we enter the
Schollaert Channel, cruising between the
rugged shores of Brabant Island on the
starboard side and Anvers Island off to port.
Both are heavily glaciated; each beautiful in
an austere, frigid way. Along with Gerlache
Strait, they were named by members of
Belgium’s Belgica Expedition of 1898-99, the
islands and the straits are breathtaking in
their mysterious beauty. Without warning, a
pair of humpback whales show themselves.
Twin spumes of spray followed by two backs
breaking the surface. Two large tails wave in
the air, and they are gone again.
Paradise Bay is a deep circular opening in the
western side of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Named by whalers in the early 20th century,
if a paradise can be cold its name suits it well.
We move slowly past the rocky headland on
the north side of the large bay. Two other,
smaller, expedition-style cruise ships are
there before us. One is preparing to leave as
we arrive. The other, a ghostly image in
white, is almost invisible against the
snowfields. There is plenty of room for us.
Our Greek captain has a great respect for
Antarctica’s ice, and for its beauty. With a
Chilean ice pilot on watch at his side, he
makes his ship pirouette slowly so all on
board get to experience the panoramic
views without running from side to side.
More whales appear for a few seconds each
and a line of penguins can just be seen
angling up the lower reaches of a glacier.
The Antarctic Peninsula is home to an exotic
collection of southern creatures. There are
six species of penguins, at least seventeen
types of birds – plus many more over
surrounding waters, including the glorious
albatrosses. Then there are six varieties of
seals, eight species of whales, plus
hourglass dolphins and the orcas – or killer
whales. The wildlife, for me however, is
only part of the show: the dramatic scenery
dominating the bay has me spellbound.
Craggy peaks, encrusted in white with black
and grey rock showing through on the
steeper elevations, overlook the still
waters. The mist sweeps in and recedes just
as quickly. A light rain falls; then turns to
snow flurries. The sun is visible as a strange
orb behind the lowering clouds. The
temperature hovers at just above freezing
point. Despite the conditions, the open
decks and the ship’s rails are lined with
people. No one wants to miss a second of
this magical scenery.
From Paradise Bay we travel north-east,
following the peninsula on one side and the
South Shetland Islands on the other. Our
new destination is Elephant Island and a
date with the memory of Sir Ernest
Shackleton, one of Antarctica’s greatest
explorers. The island is said to have been
named for its abundance of elephant seals
and for its shape, which, on a map
resembles an elephant’s head and trunk.
We discover it is a desolate, barren piece of
frozen real estate.
After his expedition ship was sunk by ice,
Shackleton and his men made their
torturous way to this bleak, inhospitable
island. Leaving 22 men to live under an
upturned boat, Shackleton and five
companions sailed over 700 miles in
another open boat to find help. Four and a
half months later he returned with a ship to
take his men home. It is a remarkable story
of survival, determination and leadership.
From the comfort of our cruise ship we
study the frozen shores of Elephant Island
and wonder how those men survived.
To emphasize the dreadful cold that is part
of Antarctica at all seasons, a monster
iceberg is stranded a few miles off shore.
Shaped like a rectangular table and
covering an area equivalent to a city block,
it has grounded in 900 feet of water, leaving
an estimated 100 feet showing above the
surface. Close by another berg, a little
smaller but equally impressive, glides past
the ship and the giant berg.
Ahead of us, as we leave the vicinity of
Elephant Island, is another crossing of the
Southern Ocean and a return to warmer
lands. No one on board really wants to
leave: Antarctica has captured our
imaginations and, for some of us, our
hearts. For me, a return to the ice is a silent
promise made to myself.
I’m hooked on mysterious places. I’m
hooked on Antarctica.
Check the Selling Travel Store at the end of March, or Opt-In
to the Store list and be notified when this guide is published.
Okay. Here we go. Make ‘em laugh as they say, and the money will follow. And I have to say,
from my own career selling travel, it works. Take a few minutes to think back through your
own career and chances are when everyone was smiling, happy and laughing with you, that
you found it easier to close the sale. For those of you new to selling travel, make no mistake
that selling with humour is a selling technique that should be as natural to you as waking up. If
you fake this, it will show and your clients will go. But not with you. So listen and learn. Better
still, read and learn.
Who knows where it comes from, but my
family were funny. They loved to laugh and
that was how I grew up. We found life in
general funny or we made light of things that
would get others down. Hey no money this
month – we laugh about it. No food. What a
chuckle. And of course this humourous trait
was developed during WW1 for my
grandparents and WW2 for my parents –
with my Dad spending five years as a POW in
Poland during the war, he needed his sense
of humour to survive. That’s what he
brought home after the war, well that and a
few memories he chose to bury.
My Dad sold life insurance for the Prudential
and that line of work also required a sense of
humour! Getting back to work after being a
POW – well that too required a sense of
humour. Having me as a son, well… say no
more! Apparently I was a funny kid. Made
ma & pa laugh and when I set of around the
world at age 18, well my letters home were
humourous too. That trait stayed with me
and I have trained many other travel agents
over time in how to find and use their funny
side. It’s not for everyone of course as some
of us are just not humourous. Not so say
some have no sense of humour, they do, but
they just cannot impart it and when they try,
well everything goes pear shaped.
But then, if you can’t say it, can you spell it
out, can you write it, can you create it in a
graphic? These are the tools you can use, if
you don’t happen to be a stand up
comedienne like Steve Martin or Carole
Burnett.
If you can laugh at yourself and have stories
to tell and photos too, then you are on your
way to selling more travel and laughing all
the way to the bank – and that my friends
has a nice ring to it!
Are you a woman in travel? Could you
emulate any of the female comediennes?
Are there stories you can tell that are funny,
happened to you or your clients? If so, then
why not script yourself for a short stand up
introduction to open a consumer event
with? It works. Believe me.
Okay, over to you. Start to record those funny
events and situations that both you and your
agency team and all of your clients have
experienced and or reported. These stories will
help your cartoonist do their job. Once you have
a decent selection you can start posting them on
your website and who knows you might even
have enough to publish a booklet that you can
hand out to your existing and new clients. So,
how much fun would this be? Funny money!
Agency Comics & Cartoons Find yourself a local cartoonist, tell them all about the things that have happened to you
and also to your clients when they travel. Let your cartoonist create your comic strips and
cartoons for you and then you can select the best ones for your website, flyers and even
your brochures.
Believe it or not, this takes practice. If you intend to sell with a smile then we’re talking about in person, on the phone, via your website, in your written communication and over social media too. That’s a lot of smiling, but it will be worth it. Let’s start with your website as this is where so many customers and customers-to-be go when they want to check you and your agency out. Whether you are a single independent, home-based travel agent or you work at a downtown, full service, physical location… your website is where the so called customer is won or lost in an instance.
What’s On Your Screen That’s Humourous? Take a look to the right and note that this webpage belongs to National Geographic Traveller magazine, India. When I searched for websites with travel humour this was the first to pop up and it really does have quite a selection of funny “stuff” – even a video of Jerry Seinfeld talking about air travel. The key to this webpage and the humour it dispenses is that the humour is clean – and that’s important. I viewed other websites that actually boasted travel humour and comedy but I was put off by the lewd humour and expletives. Might be funny at another time and place, but there’s no need for it on, in this case, your website. To attract the visitor to your website and to have them stay on your website at least until they click to read about your services and latest tour offerings, all you need to do is to position a video slap dab in the center of your website.
This video could be all about one of your funny encounters, it might be from YouTube or an embedded video you found online and it’s free to use, or it might be a series of funny images that you personally shot. Using my own website home page as the test page layout I’ve kept the header image and blanked out the rest of the page… now I can insert something humourous. Start with a title for your humour page. Factor in the word/s fun, funny, humour… in other words tell the visitor to your website what they’re looking at… then add a tag line to entice them to read on, click on, check out… or get in the mood to travel. A little humour at this point reduces the fear of flying and the hesitancy to book or try something new. I’ve come up with a name for my travel humour page as The Funny Traveller. How would you label your humour page?
This cartoon I’ve created is more a humourous reminder to the traveller that you get what you pay for and at the same time reminds them of the time they booked on line or paid for cheap seats and got them! Think beyond the humour for a real time meaning / education behind the words/image. As far as we know from those that do website testing, the typical visitor to a website will spend 20% of their time, which could be three seconds, focused on the center of your webpage. If that is true, then that’s where you’ll want to play your humourous video, or set up a slide show of funny images or embed a cartoon. If you have your humourous content behind a tab on the navigation bar labeled Resources for instance, not too many visitors will find it let alone click on it. This is why it’s important to make use of that Home Page real estate.
Get in the mood to travel with our travel humour page!
If your website is a ready-made template design established by the company you work for or hold a membership with, then if you can update your website without HQ consent, you will need to look for areas on your home page where you can place your humourous content. If there is a spot vacant to the top right – go for it as our eyes tend to end up there after we have swept them across the webpage.
THIS AREA TAKEN
UP WITH AGENCY
PRODUCT OFFERS
Client’s eyes will end up here – hyperlink an icon to your humour page
PUNNY
STUFF!
The Women Only market is there for every female travel agent to consider as a niche – so think about
what you currently sell and ask yourself if there is a ‘women only’ opportunity where you live. This new
publication includes a review of travel safety which is the #1 challenge for the travelling woman. Travel
safety then is a key component to running a successful women only niche. Not every female traveller is
a shopper. Some like fly-fishing, cuisine tours, others a discussion group around a campfire lost in the
mountains… so never generalize. For every activity there’s a woman waiting and wanting to do it, by
herself or with like-minded women. Check the store today.
Tell the world you sell airline seats: The media have already made comment. They have already
asked the consumer, "Do you book flights on the Internet?" Supposedly the consumer has said
yes. The media have stated that airlines are moving away from travel agents. That travel agents
will be charging more. That the big "I" will take all those airline seat reservations. Perception
is reality. Time to start your media ball rolling. Attract the consumer by promoting airline seats.
'Push' Your Web Site To Your Clients: That's
right. Add a "We Sell Airlines" comment on
your home page. Get noticed. Here's how to
"push" or mail your Web site. Open your
Web site. Right Click on the grey area just
under your URL. Click Command and this
tool bar will appear:
Click on PAGE and you will see two options:
Send the home page or just the link. It's your
choice. Sending the page is more graphic and
grabs more attention. Be sure to test send
your home page to your own email account
to make sure the webpage arrives intact.
Sometimes the graphics do weird things. If
your home page does not look good, then
you know to just send the link and add your
message.
The other method is simply to Print Screen
and insert that image into your email, then
Right Click on the image and hyperlink it to
your website.
The Seat of Power is Knowledge: Time to get
the agency team back in the knowledge
game. Study what makes you money. Find
out where those money making seats are.
Some corporate agencies have the software
that will keep searching for a selected seat.
When that seat clears — zap! It has been
secured and reserved. Study SeatGuru.com
to know where the best seats are and know
what you will charge for this service.
Seatbelt Signs On: Sure you can wait until
someone asks about "any seats to..." or, you
could unbuckle, be proactive and check
availability in the morning. You'd be
checking the point-to-point or end-point
destination you sell the most. Knowing seat
availability, you can now e-mail or call your
"last minute flight club" (you do have one?)
and say, "Hi, this is Getaway Gertie calling. I
have two seats to (destination X) leaving like
now! And I have a great spa that will go with
those dates too!" And the fee to go with that
is your next statement.
Flight Schedules: Yes, they still exist. You can
send a paper version or electronic. Sure your
clients could go online. But that's like saying
its Monday and it's raining so no one will buy
today. Learn to "push" your know how out to
your clients. Remember there is B2B, B2C
and then there is U2ME. Keep it U2ME. Send
the schedules. Tell your clients that
"someone almost sat in your seat!" Then tell
them you saved it for them. For a fee, of
course.
Re-brand The Brand: Many charter firms
and tour firms will let you add your own
brand to their flight or air-tour combo. Go
for it. The airline seats are there. Flight time
and date is set. It's going with or without
your group. Best to have a group on that
flight, wouldn't you say? Discuss with your
BDM today how you can re-brand the brand.
Local Store Marketing: Get out into your
community. Meet with schools. Talk to
teachers about school trips. Move on to
associations. Get a camera club group ready
to click. Walk into all retail stores in your
area and talk about joint marketing efforts.
You bring the seat. Let them bring their
mailing list.
New Seat Fits All: When airlines introduce a
new seat, get one in your agency window
and invite the walk-by traffic to come in and
try it. Remember to sell all the senses. Sell
the emotion of comfort vs. the never
popular knees-to-chest configuration.
Becoming a Glass Act: Do you have an
agency window? Chances are you do. If you
are in a high traffic area and you have high
walk in, this could work for you. You can find
airline seats in town (your town) to use in a
window display. Now, hire a student from
the local acting school, class or theatre. Have
them in the seat, relaxing, holding up signs
and interacting with the window-watchers.
Most of the time you agencies only feature
the seat. Remember we need to add some
sparkle. Some fizz. Animate. Sell on emotion.
Add an actor and go live action.
Best Seats In The House: Do your
homework. Which airline has been rated
best? What seats are rated best? Find out.
Define your Best Seat strategy and get to
market. There are probably a million ways to
sell an airline seat. Let your preferred airline
suppliers promote their destinations. This is
excellent backup support for you. Unless
there is a seat it doesn’t mean anything.
What if you blocked and held under deposit
20 seats to a destination for an exclusive
tour. Whatever it is, think seats. Book, block
and sell 'em.
Sell Insurance: Every airline seat means a
chance to sell insurance. How could this not
be a sale given the reports on terrorism?
Even if you didn't get to book the seat, you
can still sell insurance. So let's say you sell
2,000 seats/tickets a year. At a premium of
$100 paying 43% commission that would be
$86,000 in insurance commissions. Pump
up your air seat sales and win!
“Lousy seats eh Jimmie, but what a view!”
Social? That’s for consumers.For travel companies, social media means business.As digital channels mature in scope and power, the industry needs to catch up
Social? That’s for consumers.For travel companies, social media means businessQuick facts on travel
When researching a trip… When on a trip…
33% of people use Facebook on vacation because they “like to share the satisfaction of being on holiday with my Facebook friends”
48% of people post vacation photos to Facebook when they return home
Popular devices used while on vacation
How soon people log into Facebook after landing
Before getting home from airport27%
42%
28%
3%
Same day
Within a week
Longer
37%
% of people with apps on phone or tablet (type of app)
Airline
Online Travel Agent
Hotel Chain
Review Site
23%
20%
18%
14%
Dream trip list
76% of people have a list of dream trips
Only 8% have been everywhere on their list
Liked on Facebook
50% of people have liked a travel brand on FB; hotels and airlines are most popular
Online reviews from travelers
76% agree “they give me insider knowledge not available elsewhere”
68% agree “they give me the confidence I need to book”
of people book their vacation through online travel agents
laptop
42%
tablet
37%
64%
smart- phone
83%of people use the internet while on
vacation
Source: Facebook-commissioned global survey of 10,500 people who use social media
A funny thing happened on the way to my Facebook page. I received an email from Facebook,
I think… looked like it. But? Anyway it was mentioning new rules for business pages and the
fact that I had to operate a Personal Page and migrate to Business Manager… and then a whole
bunch more work to meet the new rules.
With 729 LIKES I thought I’d delve deeper
and so clicked on INSIGHTS found on the
top toolbar. Once there you can view the
data that’s all about your page.
When you click on Insights you will see
another tool bar listing LIKES and PEOPLE.
I clicked on People first to find out where
my LIKES where coming from.
The chart shown here is first up and it
discloses Male to Female ratios and age
brackets and further down, where your
LIKES come from.
I cropped the chart as shown here in the
table, and out of my 729 LIKES you can
see the split: 394 live in the USA, 229 in
Canada… and there’s that one LIKE from
various countries – even Uzbekistan!
Next I wanted to know WHO my LIKES
were. To find that out, I clicked on LIKES
and here was my about face – 60% of the
LIKES did not sell travel.
My Selling Travel Facebook page is meant
purely for people and businesses working in
the travel trade as all of the tips, tools and
techniques are related to selling to the
consumer. Well, as I went through each of
my so called LIKES, I found out why I received
clicks when I posted a zany image versus
hardly any clicks when I posted something
that could boost a travel agent’s sales.
Reason was: over 60% of my LIKES were by
people with absolutely no connection to
selling travel. The big question is: WHY on
earth would these people LIKE my page? So
then I had the task of cleaning up my
Facebook page.
That’s where it now stands. I am visiting each
and every LIKE which means clicking on the
person’s link who LIKED my page and then
that takes me to their Facebook page. If
there’s no sign or mention of being in the
travel industry that LIKE is removed.
Turning my experience to your own use –
you’ll need to check out WHO is behind the
LIKES on your own agency Facebook page,
and then delve into their Facebook page to
find out their status and any mention of
employment, recent trips, up-coming travel
etc. If there’s no mention of any such thing,
or they have booked and paid and travelled
and returned and that booking did not go
through your agency, then you have a couple
of options. One would be to contact them
and ask why, the other to remove them from
your list.
HOWEVER… here’s a great tool just introduced and it is a CALL TO ACTION button.
Check out your Facebook page. Look for the Call to Action button shown on mine as Shop Now
and then just follow the clicks. If your Timeline Image represents a new tour for instance then
your Call to Action button could link your Facebook followers to the web page on your website
that talks about the new tour.
So once I clear all the NON-LIKES from my Facebook page, I’ll be back with some trade stuff.
Selling travel today means knowing more than just where places are and the best hotels. Today
the travel professional needs to show their knowledge as it relates to travel related “things”
and these things could be services, applications, and especially techno gadgets that could help
make a client’s trip more enjoyable. Here’s a few tips:
iStick USB Flash Drive
This drive is so simple. You use the Lightening connector to
attach it to your iPhone or iPad and you then you have an
additional 16, 32, or 64GB storage for and let’s go for photos.
Now, your travellers can shoot to their hearts content and not
worry about storage space. They can retain all their apps and let
the Camera Roll transfer to the iStick. To transfer images to a
computer you slide the slider to reveal a USB. Click here.
SanDisk iXpand™ Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad
iXpand™ Flash Drive is the easiest way to transfer photos and
videos between your iPhone, iPad, PCs and Mac computers.
Quickly free up memory on your iPhone or iPad, and instantly
expand storage by up to 64GB. You can search online for where
to purchase in your local area. Click here.
CardRecovery Software
Data Recovery Tools for Camera Cards Price: $39.95 (USD) per copy. No monthly fees. You can
keep and use the product permanently to recover an unlimited number of files. Free 2-year
upgrades. Click here. Depending on which camera card your client uses, they can also go to their
website and look for Data Recovery.
I Vest SHAMAN HTUC-System
(Hi-Tech Utility Clothing System) Technophiles tend to travel
with lots of hardware and gadgets. Each of those gadgets
often needs its own charger and we need cables to connect
those gadgets to other device. In short, we need lots of space
for our electronics when we travel. Shaman HTUC (Hi -
Technology - Utility - Clothing) System Shaman product utility
wear as the light weight pro reporter vest system and the
electro traveller vest emphases the concept that travelers
and pro photographers should wear all of their devices and accouterments within their,
backpack, or luggage but in their HTUC. Click here.
Here’s where you find even more ideas on how to
sell travel and boost your revenues. Ct is the trade
magazine and every article I write is always
geared to new business generation for YOU and
your suppliers. The content ranges from a step by
step how-to article to a comment about a
current topic. Many of the articles are worth
reviewing with your suppliers should you be
able to work together to generate that new
dollar for all. Click here to read.
The full Canadian Traveller logo represents the
consumer magazine that now reaches millions
of readers. Even if you have your own in-house
magazine it is always a good idea to tell your
clients about the consumer CT and the main
reason for that is some supplements are shared
between the trade and consumer magazine. Now
you know what your client is reading, you can,
from the trade issue, learn how to sell various
destinations and then make the call. Everything CT
does targets new business generation and hopes to
put more money in your jeans. Click here to read.
Wtimpr
Our online bookstore isoverflowing with trainingoptions to boost sales andincrease your knowledgeon just about any topic! Inaddition to The TravelInstitute’s certificationsand specialist courses, weare stocking the shelveswith other valuablecontent. Travel Institutemembers save ten percenton every purchase.
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THE HUNTINGTON GROUPHUNTINGTONThe agents choice since 1973
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If you could refer us to your travel trade colleagues,
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SELLING TRAVEL
SALES & MARKETING TIPS, TOOLS & TECHNIQUES FOR ALL TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS