THE E-MAGAZINE THAT FOCUSES O

N THE REALITY OF SELLING TRAVEL

Keep those sales just

a ZIPPIN’ along by

going DEEP

into your

DATA.

WHAT’S IN

WORLD?

Find out how to

unzip something

new & exciting

to sell!

3 EDITORIAL

Publisher:SMP Training Co.

www.smptraining.com

ContributorsSteve Crowhurst

Steve GillickCory Andrichuk

4 IC TRAVEL AGENT MAGAZINE

6 WHAT’S IN YOUR WORLD?

8 EXPLORING NEW PLACES TO SELL

10 ENCOURAGING CLIENTS TO TAKE THEIR NEXT ADVENTURE

12 RADIUS SELLING

14 TRAVEL2JAPAN – A New Publication From Steve Gillick, TalkingTravel

15 CULINARY BLISS – By Steve Gillick

18 THE POWER OF TRAVEL AGENTS

20 TRAVEL AGENT IS THE NAME…

22 NEW TOOLS

23 THE ‘SKETCH YOUR WORLD’ PROMOTION

24 OLD MEDIA MARKETING

26 GOING DEEP INTO YOUR DATA

28 ROUGH LUXE, DELUXE, GLAMPING AND MORE

29 TRAVEL AGENT REVOLUTION

30 CTIE CERTIFIED TRAVEL INDUSTRY EXECUTIVE

31 CTRG 2013/14 CANADA TOURISM RESOURCE GUIDE

32 CLASSIFIEDS

Selling Travel is owned and published by Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. All Rights Reserved. Protected by InternationalCopyright Law. Selling Travel can be shared, forwarded, cut and pasted but not sold, resold or in anyway monetized. Using anyimages or content from Selling Travel must be sourced as follows: “Copyright SMP Training Co. www.smptraining.com” SMPTraining Co. 568 Country Club Drive, Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada V9K 1G1 Note: Steve Crowhurst is not responsible foroutcomes based on how you interpret or use the ideas in Selling Travel or on the Selling Travel Website. T:250-738-0064.

TABLE OF CONTENTS – ST SEPTEMBER 2013

EDITORIAL – September 2013

WHAT’S IN YOUR WORLD?As you may know, it is your job and role and responsibility to keep your clients tingling withexcitement about where they can go next. It’s also your job, role and responsibility to search for newand exciting destinations that answer the call for your clients – each by one or the entire clientcollection on mass. In other words you need to know your clients one-by-one (targeted) and teasethem with new and exciting places to visit and then repeat this performance targeting your entireclient list (mass market).

I hear you. Not an easy task. However, it has to be done. You must work out what’s in your world thatfulfills the travel dreams of your clients. You’ve read this next bit before in my previous articles – and itfocuses on asking each and every client what their dream trip is. Once you have, let’s say, 300 to 500dream trips recorded against each of your active clients, this data is huge. It’s BIG. It’s decision makingworthy and allows you to plan your dream trip initiative.

So what is in your world? How big is YOUR world? Are you focused on a small part of the planet or areyou all over the orb? Have you developed a destination niche or a travel type niche? Adventure hasalways been my world and Japan has always been my niche country and photography has aways beenmy travel activity. With those three elements I know what’s in my world. Did I mention cemeteries? Noidea why, but I am drawn to them. Reading 16th century headstones or standing by the resting place ofsomeone historically famous… fascinating. See, there’s more to the world than continual cruising orheading back to the same ole beach. Word to the wise, you may be handling the same ole beach trip,but someone else for sure is booking that grand adventure for your clients and the reason for that issimple… perhaps your world has not expanded as it should.

You have the opportunity now to explore and discover andperhaps even surprise yourself as to all the new places you cansend your clients.

Be worthy of YOUR world and travel it as far as you can. BecomeMarco Polo and return to tell the stories you have witnessed –then sell like there’s no tomorrow!

Here’s to a very successful month.

All the BEST!

Steve Crowhurst, CTCPublisher and New Business Generatorsteve@sellingtravel.net250-738-0064

September Issue

You can find it HERE.

THE HOW-TO

TRAVEL AGENTMAGAZINE FOR TRAVEL TRADE INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS

AN SMP TRAINING PUBLICATION

T

Sell

fr

OCTOBER 2013

he ART of

ing Travel

om HOME

It’s NEW!Watch for itin October

2013

IC TRAVEL AGENT focuses on the business needs of travel agents

working from home delivering monthly ideas, tips, tools and

techniques to increase sales with updates on host agencies and

articles from successful ICs, too. SMP Publications are always

innovative so look for the Quick Clip video training pages.

Alright. You have 50 people sitting in front of

you, some hanging out at the back in the last

row of seats as humans tend to do in such a

meeting. You’ll be using all your skills to

entice them forward as you want them in the

front row and you want their undivided

attention.

When you have herded your attendees to

the front, you can now introduce yourself,

and tell your audience what you are going to

tell them, then tell them and then wrap it up

with a quick review of what you told them.

Then what? Then you shout, “Who is brave

enough to come with me?” Do you have

something new and exciting to talk about?

If not, this will be a sad presentation. If you

have been living the life you are mean’t to be

living then you would have explored new

places and with that knowledge return

home to sell them to your clients. This is one

major role of a travel agent and if you are

new to the industry, learn it now. You must

invest in your own travels and explorations

and this in turn gives you something NEW to

market.

So again the question: What’s In Your

World? I’m looking for something beyond

the beach – unless that beach is along a

coast that is not overrun with hamburger

noshing tourists. “What have you got for

us?” your clients are asking.

The world of travel as we know it is getting

smaller each and every day. Not so much

caused by global warming but more by

global warring. It seems, and sadly so, that as

a human race, we have not yet understood

what world peace is all about and that

reduces the places you can book your clients

to for a marvellous vacation.

Outside of the warring areas is where you

can concentrate your attention and do your

due diligence in terms of looking for new and

exciting places to visit, adventures to

experience and opportunities to explore.

http://www.warsintheworld.com/?page=static1329446051

The map shown above can be viewed at the

link below it. You can clearly see that YOUR

world is having a bit of a challenge in the war

department. Take another look and make a

note of the space, the territory that is not

involved in a war or skirmish of some kind.

Review your list and think about the areas

that are peaceful that you would like in your

world and start developing your plans for

self-study, followed by a visit and then

generate your marketing plan to bring your

chosen area to life for your clients.

You might want to tie this study into what it

is your clients want to do this year and where

they want to go to do it. This also applies to

their dream trip as and when they have the

time and money to fulfil this life event –

chances are they have more than one dream

trip pending. Lucky you!

Much of the time, your next and best, new

and exciting destination is most often tucked

away in a remote corner of the country you

already sell. Or, it might be a type of travel

that you might never have thought of that

could be enjoyed in this or that location.

As you decipher your client’s dream trips and

their desire for new adventures, you may

consider creating a list of expert tour guides

who will guide your clients around a city,

country or area, based on the guide’s

expertise and personal interest. In Prague,

my wife and I were lucky enough to be

guided by someone who loved books and art

and so we visited the book stores and print

shops he enjoyed. I use the word ‘lucky’

however we did request a guide with the

same interests as ourselves – but then you

can always be fooled. Not so in this case. We

lucked out.

When you read the facts, stats and studies

on who wants to go where – you will often

find that the Baby Boomers that are still

travelling are looking for an adventure in the

truest sense of the word. They want to be

thrilled. Younger generations, as they

should, are looking for that beach vacation

and to meet their own age group. Then

somewhere in the mix are those clients who

will do anything and go anywhere as long as

it is most definitely new.

The question returns: What’s in YOUR

World? You are the leader of the band. You

should be out in the world bringing home

those new discoveries to promote to your

clients. So what have you got for me? Where

are we going next? What’s driving the need

for something new and exciting in yourself?

As a client, I’m looking to you, my leader.

To carry on from What’s In Your World? –

let’s now explore how you might explore the

world and visit new places to sell to your

clients.

Typically travel agency owners and

managers and in some cases frontline

counsellors will go on a discovery tour to

check out new destinations. They take time

to review them in their own time and then

return to the office to discuss their findings.

How the new destination could be marketed

is explored. Then training dates set for each

of the agency team and over a few months

each counsellor is to visit the new and very

important destination.

Present day, there does not seem to be too

much interest in exploring new places as

mentioned above. If your competition have

become tired, and disinterested in delivering

new and exciting places to visit to their

clients, then this suggests a huge

opportunity for you.

This same opportunity is there for you too if

you are an IC and manage your own working

hours. When you undertake these

exploratory journeys promote the fact.

You are indeed out there, looking, searching

and bringing home the latest information,

images etc., of a certain destination. Your

delivery, your content is first hand. Hot off

the press and so on. Just what the consumer

is looking for – you were there. You tested it.

You liked it and now you will take me there.

It’s Always Close

Believe it or not, many new and exciting

places are only a few miles up the road,

across the pond, on the next island, or just

across the border to the well-known places

you sell day-in and day-out.

Take any group of islands. There is always a

main island, then, out of the other 300 or

3,000 islands in the chain, there’s one or two

that are gems and yet to be truly overrun

with tourists. This is a find.

Let’s zip to Europe. Choose a spot. Okay we

go for Poland. You could offer the major

cities once again, but then, as always, with a

little more exploration you find an area, a

village, a place, scenery that has not yet

made the tourist map. Another find.

Let’s keep looking…

Cruise Blues

How many more stuffed buffet bellies can a

client look at? OMG… offer them something

new and exciting here too and what you are

looking for might just be on the next dock.

Take a look at the smaller vessels. Check out

the adventure based ships. Study up on small

boats and canal boats – and in all of this, look

for cruising action in untapped areas of the

world.

New Place or New Activity?

As you may know, there are no new places

on the planet. They have been here for more

than a few thousand years, it’s just that you-

me-we have not yet had the pleasure of

visiting them. Life gets in the way of these

explorations, so you’ll need to plan the trip.

Some countries have split up, changed their

names (and even disappeared); you could

count each change as a new place, however

in real time, new name – old country.

So what about a new activity then? Same

place, but a new way of looking at it. A new

side of that same place. Could you go up as

in climb a mountain? Could you go down as

in caving?

Are there luxury accommodations in

wilderness areas for your Glamping clients?

Can you go with more a culinary based view

of the area, or religious tours, could volcano

tourism be just the thing you are looking for?

Go With Your Niche

Best to figure out what you like first. Find out

which countries crank your lightbulb to full

glare and go from there. Decide which places

really do turn on your inner traveller and

then review how well you know this place

and finally work on your marketing plan to

plot how you will take your new found place

or activity to market.

It’s time to pack that wheelie luggage of

yours, pack the camera and laptop and head

out. Be sure to arrange your visits through

the tourism offices of the countries you

intend to explore. If they understand this is a

scouting trip versus vacation you may well

receive additional help and introductions to

people who can help you along the way.

Now, what’s your plan for new places?

Hey, ya never know!

Image courtesy of Idea go at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here’s the thing. If you want to

encourage your clients to take off

once more you’d better be doing it

yourself and be back with the news.

That’s what this issue is all about.

Unzipping your world to find out

what’s out there, then go there and

come back from there to tell your

clients about your new find.

The key word, ‘encouraging’ does not mean

or translate as bothering or pestering. It

means keeping updated and informed and

using excellent slogans to entice, suggest,

nudge and overall help each client fulfill on

their desire to travel.

The world is currently topsy-turvy as you

know. Not as safe as we’d all want and

wondering why we just cannot seem to get

along as well as we should. This has an

impact on your client’s state of travel-mind.

So it’s up to you to pitch the good news.

Choose colourful and cheerful font’s, and

images and show not only gorgeous

landscapes for instance, but with someone

in them, “like YOU” who is obviously

enjoying their travel moment.

Very important to show, and suggest and

then as I say be clever with the wording and

slogans to attract, tease, tell and sell. It’s

the old bucket list thing. Although that

phrase has been done to death by now,

many people as in your clients, still use the

concept of generating a travel list to

complete before they head off into the

sunset. Knowing this you can include the

words bucket list in your next adventure

promotion. It has meaning and it will

resonate with the baby boomer generation,

especially those in their later years.

So here’s what you do:

1. Create anadventureposter for youragency window.

2. Add a “Whereto Next?” sloganat the top ofyour emailmessage – notthe bottom, thetop. It will beread by 99% ofthe people whoreceive an emailfrom you.

3. Add a digitalversion of thatposter to yourwebsite page.

4. Wear your“Where toNEXT?” sloganon your t-shirt,ball cap andsweatshirt oradd a button toyour clothingthat asks,“Where toNEXT?”

Your slogan question will prompt a

conversation. Once you’re in that

conversation you can start to ask questions

such as: “So tell me, where have you always

wanted to go…?” – and then, as you well

know, you shut up. You allow your client to

talk, to ramble on, to dream and when they

are in that space, you know they are

encouraging themselves to go on their own

next adventure.

Keep it low key, keep it subtle and you will

encourage your clients to take off once

more.

“I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts”Herman Melville (1819-1991)

Here’s something you need to factor into your selling travel activities and

marketing plan. It’s got to do with your selling radius. In other words where you

can effectively sell travel in real time not hope time. Hope time is based on

passive marketing and advertising – which as you know, is NOT selling. Your

selling radius then is very important and once decided and acknowledged will

save you wasted time and effort.

Now… the typical selling radius is 5 miles around where

your agency is located. You can map that out and then

you’ll know the territory your radius includes.

Next… here’s where you use your in-house data to create

your TRUE selling radius. Using your CRM program, or, if

you don’t have one / use one, then it’s all down to pen and

paper. The activity here is to identify the postal code of

every client on your mailing list, and then highlight the

clients who have booked with you this year. Your selling

radius is more likely to be a rather distorted and wandering

line – it will however map out the territory you can refer to

as your selling radius.

Once… you have completed this activity you’ll need to study your map and be guided by it. What

you are looking at and especially if your map is ‘over time’ which means you have mapped out,

let’s say 5 years-worth of postal codes, then this territory is your generic marketing reach. This is

your area you sell to.

The Social Selling RadiusHere comes the challenge. Like all travel agents you want in on the social media marketing action

and as well you should. Or should you? Can you actually service a client in Miami who wants to

go to the Caribbean? Could you advise a Japanese couple who wish to visit New York or see the

Aurora Borealis? The answer is you could, but not well. Plus, you should be more focused on

your generic clients that are within your local selling radius. Did I mention your theoretical

agency was located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada?

It’s important to know where

your clients live and how far

your sales reach actually is.

Your social selling radius is of course world-wide and it’s here that so much time and effort can

go to waste. When you market your agency and yourself socially as in across all social media

platforms, a large amount of your marketing seeds will fall on stony ground. The recipient of your

social media marketing is outside your real time selling radius. They cannot and they won’t be

buying from you.

SOCIAL SELLING RADIUS OUTCOMES GENERIC SELLING RADIUS OUTCOMES

Your mass marketing social selling radius activity will win you one or two perhaps ten bookings

for your efforts. Your targeted generic selling radius activity will deliver more bookings and for

the simple reason that you are on-location.

The Social Selling Radius Opportunity however is large if you have a dedicated niche market; you

operate a dedicated website that is updated each day every day; your social media activity is

constant; the content absolutely well timed, top quality and you make excellent use of cutting

edge technology - AND you have a support team to counsel, sell, convert and close your socially

connected clients.

The Inbound Social Selling Radius is another matter. What if your outbound promotions where

selling inbound tours into your country, county, territory, state, town, city or village? Then you

would require a different business model, but hey, this is where more money can be made. Check

with your local tourism office and explore how you can be a crucial sales outlet for inbound

programs. Expand your global selling radius though social media. Expand your local selling radius

through local store marketing.

Travel2Japan!

Enhancing the Value and Joy of Discovery

Summer, 2013

In this issue: A few of my favourite things Culinary Bliss Hellbent for Adventure: Jigokudani Making the Right Accommodation Yamaguchi: The Entrance to the Mountain Forest

Travel2Japan is a TalkingTravel.ca Publication

Popular dictionary definitions of ‘bliss’ include words such as happiness, joy andcontentment. We know that travellers with specific interests (niches) enjoy akind of personal bliss when they have an opportunity to engage in their passion,whether it’s bird watching, shopping, climbing a mountain or lazing on a whitesand beach. Culinary Bliss has its own special connotation

‘Culinary’ refers to food and drink. Thepresence in our daily lives of Food TV,cooking shows, celebrity chefs andrestaurant reviews has enhanced theawareness of local and international cuisine,so much so that culinary tourism is now oneof the largest niche markets. People aretravelling specifically for the food experienceand/or the drink experience. And in thiscontext the world is an open book for thecurious traveller, who is only limited by theirown sense of throwing caution to the wind,experimentation, trying something new, andacquiring food ‘bragging rights’ (e.g. I ateants in Colombia). Of course the other sideof this relates to the traveller who wishes totry the local food in order to acquire a betterunderstanding of the people and the cultureand the ‘taste’ of the destination.

‘Bliss’ in culinary travel translates as the fullutilization of the 5 senses: sight, touch,smell, taste, hearing, as well as 2 othersenses. The 6th sense is exactly that: the 6thsense-consisting of that tingling sensation;that little voice in the back of your head thatadvises you NOT to do something; thatnagging doubt that what you are about to domay not be in your best interest (e.g.

drinking your 5th cup of Tuak (a home-brewed alcoholic beverage) in the IbanVillage in Borneo).

And the 7th sense in attaining culinary ‘bliss’is the sense of humour. Having fun with yourfreedom to do what you want, or doing theopposite of what your parents would adviseyou to do, or just doing something for thesake of doing it. For me, I think of the timethat I was alone in a Beijing restaurant,where no one spoke English and I don’tspeak Mandarin. In order to order thechicken and rice dish that I wanted, Iresorted to imitating a chicken and thenimitating the act of eating rice out of a bowlwith chopsticks. The server got the messageright away and broke into a laugh and asmile—and then so too did the entirerestaurant.

Culinary tourism can involve any destinationin the entire world, and even if they don’tserve their own unique local speciality, theywill certainly have their own version ofsomeone else’s specialty. I think of our nightin Kandy, Sri Lanka, where it seems thatevery restaurant in the city was closed,except for an international pizza chain

Guest article by Steve Gillick, Talking Travel

restaurant near our hotel. We ordered thepizza but figured that we should at least addsome local flavour—so we had TandooriPizza. It tasted like spicy cardboard but atleast it was unique to the location.

Here are a few of my more memorableculinary experiences:

Tibet: Sitting in Barkhor Square in Lhasa,Tibet we ordered Yak Burgers for lunch. Therich taste was similar to a regular hamburgerbut, as Yaks are the main work animal inTibet, we felt that this was more meaningfuland memorable than a regular western dish.

Mongolia: I arranged to spend the bulk ofone of my days with a Mongolian family intheir Yurt (Ger). The day before, in UlanBator I had been offered, and tasted mare’smilk (horse) which is a popular refreshment.Emboldened by the experience the next dayone the sons from the family went into thewoods with a rifle. I heard a shot and hewalked back a few minutes later with amarmot (a large rodent). This was going tobe our lunch. I had read that marmots aretasty, but they are also susceptible tobubonic plague so the thought of eating onecan get your 6th sense ringing and buzzing.Nevertheless, the ‘chef’ took the marmot,cooked it using a blow torch, then broke itinto small pieces for everyone to taste. And,needless to say, it tasted like chicken—a bitgreasy but not too bad. It was a matter ofrespecting the family that had ‘honoured’me with a fresh marmot lunch.

Xian: One of the tour participants and I triedsome famous Xian dumplings and thendecided to go the distance by trying theother city specialty: mutton soup. Weclimbed the stairs to a restaurant, filled withlocals, who paid very little attention to twotourists. We didn’t really have to sayanything to the server, as the only dishoffered in the restaurant was the soup. Thewaiter placed a basket of bread on the tablealong with two bowls and left…and wewaited, and waited. After about fifteenminutes we started to eat the bread—whichturned out to be a major faux pas. Wereceived some tsks from the nearby patronsand one of them signaled for us to watch ashe took a large piece of bread, broke it intotiny pieces, and put them in his bowl. Thenthe waiter picked up the bowl, poured themutton broth in and returned the completeddish to the table. So we did the same, andthe waiter came by almost immediately andreturned with two large (actually huge)bowls of greasy mutton soup. Mycompanion dove into the dish with gusto. Isampled from around the edges and whilethe soup was really good, I decided that agreasy lunch on an unbelievably hot day,with lots of activities still planned, wouldprobably not be a good idea. I may havebeen right as my companion spent the restof the day and night in his room; while Iscampered up the pagodas, bought somesouvenirs in the flea market and attended anevening cultural performance.

Fugu: Shimonoseki City, Chugoku, Japan.Fugu is the dreaded poisonous puffer fish—at least to North Americans. In Japan,especially in the west, it is a fairly commondish most popularly served deep-fried (youcan munch it for lunch), steamed, boiled (aspart of a dish called ‘nabe’) or as sashimi,eaten with a sprig of green onion. My friendwent to a market to buy a Fugu fish to sendhome to his family in Tokyo. Then he boughta small paper bag filled with deep-fried fuguand offered me some. It was quite nice.That evening we had fugu sashimi with our

dinner, as well as the opportunity to chatwith a fugu-certified chef—who actuallyshowed us how to remove the poisonousorgans. All in all it was a day of discovery, aswell as an opportunity to dispel the myththat eating Fugu is a life-threateningexperience. I’ve eaten it many times over thelast 9 years.

Mendoza: Argentina. If truth be told, themain reason for choosing to exploreArgentina a few years ago was theopportunity to visit Mendoza and Salta—two of the prime regions for the productionof Malbec wine—which is my absolutefavourite. In Mendoza we toured threedifferent wineries to see three differentmethods of grape selection, production andstorage. And we sampled about 15 differentvarieties of Malbec, learning new techniquesin wine tasting, meeting the owners of thewineries on occasion and getting a betterunderstanding of the vintage, year andsignificance of the ‘reserve’ label. In everyplace we travelled in the country afterward,we checked out the local wine markets,found some exceptional bottles of Malbecand returned with 20 for home consumption(and yes we declared them and paid duty onthem at customs).

Wineries, distilleries and beer and sakebreweries are always included on ourtravels, not so much for the free samples atthe end of the tour (really) but for thelearning experience. Whereas ten years agoI knew nothing about Whiskey, now I can talkfairly intelligently about blended whiskey,single-malt Scotches, Irish Whiskey and theanswer to that pesky question: ‘Why doesGuinness taste so fresh in Dublin but not-so-fresh in Toronto?’

Markets: No article on Culinary Tourismwould be complete without some mentionof the market-culture. This refers to thevenues where local chefs purchase freshfood for the day. I have adjusted a travelschedule on more than one occasion toensure that I am in town for the local markete.g. In Kochi, Kyushi it was the Sundayoutdoor market; in Villa de Leyva it was theSaturday market. Food markets allow forgreat opportunities to sample the localproduce as well as for photographs andvideos.

Attaining a state of culinary bliss hasbecome, for many travellers an integral partof the travel experience. Travellers todayare looking for that ‘what else can we do”when they travel and are catering to theirsenses (literally) to make the travelexperiences more holistic; more involved,more meaningful, and more memorable.

The following is a reprint from the Selling Travel blog. There seems to be a rise in anti-agent

rhetoric from sources that are unqualified and who lack insider knowledge and at the same

time a lack of instant retort by the trade to protect their businesses. Retorts were made albeit

days after the events and then made by trade associations versus TAs. As you read the

following don’t get too power hungry, but know when to bite the hand that doesn’t feed you.

Come on now. Stand tall and feel the power.

Travel agents for some reason have never really understood or grasped the power they have in the local

market place or the global world economy. The recent Woman’s Day article and the hiring firm’s profiling

of a travel agency job and the return to promoting travel agents in their ads by Carnival. What’s new with

all this? Nothing. It’s been tried and done before – and still travel

agents are back in their seats come Monday morning whereas

many suppliers are out of business and as for Woman’s Day

magazine their YOY 2012 – 2013 readership is down 4%. Hello!

This information is easy to find online and before reacting to

these jabs and this type of misinformation, due diligence should

be done.

Own Your Own News

As I have always suggested, each and every travel agent must

own their own news. For too long now, the trade has sat back

feebly and waited for their trade associations to hammer the

offending media and news feed. Although they speak on your

behalf associations do not feel the pain as you do. It’s on the

shoulders of every travel agent to defend their business and to

do it by first understanding their power and then offering a well

thought out, well written and business-like rebuff and not some

of the playground commentary we’ve seen and read. Work with

and support your trade association then focus on owning your own news. It should start at home in each

local community. You should be prepared as and when something hits the fan in an attempt to hurt the

industry and damage your business.

It’s Not Personal

First things first. Many of the comments posted

by travel agents to the various affronts are

obviously delivered from the heart. Fact is, this is

not emotional, not personal – it’s all business.

Travel agents, even in their heyday of 25 –

30,000 bricks and mortar agencies in North

America could never sell all the seats, berths,

cabins, rooms, cruises, tours, hikes or

adventures. The inventory is and always has

been beyond the selling capability of the retail

trade. This in turn forces the suppliers to sell

direct or make certain adjustments as to how

they do business, to stay in business. There is no

room for one business such as a travel agent,

calling down another business such as a supplier

who decides to change their business format. If

you have a problem with that, then start your

own airline or cruise line. The supplier – retailer

relationship runs the same way no matter the

industry.

The Power of Travel Agents

When the airlines reduced and removed travel

agency commissions back in the 90’s I was one

working on plans to counter their move by

directing business away from the offending

airline. At that time it was simply a matter of

choking off the supply of bookings. Had

thousands of travel agents and especially the

chain agencies understood this rebuttal and in

their own way moved on it, even for a three

month period to prove a point, the collective

trade could have reduced any airline to one

begging for mercy.

There were a few suppliers who jumped on the

no-commission bandwagon – one specific cruise

line even placed ads encouraging consumers not

to book with travel agents. The outcome was

simple. Travel agents dumped and shipped back

all the cruise line brochures, choked off the

bookings and the end result was that the CEO

and his team were fired, the cruise line begged

to be returned to the brochure rack, invested

over a million dollars to get back into favour

through a variety of travel agent engagement

programs. A similar event took place when a

travel insurance company in Australia decided to

thrash travel agents in print. The insurance

company recalled the ads but not without a last

word.

Onwards and Upwards

The retail travel agent as we know them today

has been in business since the mid to late 1800s.

Naturally as in any business and industry things

change and as we are all well aware, technology

has changed and will continue to change how

travel agents and suppliers sell and travelling

consumers buy. The job and role of the travel

agent will never disappear just as airlines will

never disappear. Will they change format and

design? Of course. Will business methodology

change? Of course. Will the travelling consumer

be able to purchase more travel online and

direct? Of course. Are there any opportunities

left for travel agents? You bet.

Plugging Into Your Power

Although it may seem trite, it pays to know your

roots and in doing so, it grounds you to what

selling travel is all about and the knowledge also

wakes you up as to the commitment made by the

men and women who built the trade some 130+

years ago til now and continue to do so.

Further study will inform you that you are part of

the world economy as the consumers you

attract, sell and close spend their money globally

and help build local economies. You are involved

in world tourism 100%. The end result of your

day-to-day work is employment for hundreds of

thousands of people around the world as they

service your clients. If you are receiving the

message, your role in the world is huge. You

have enormous power if you choose to accept it.

Reprinted from the Selling Travel Blog.

If it’s to be,

it’s up to me!- William H. Johnsen,

is the NAME,

Selling Travel

IS the Game…There’s more to be said about the title on your business card and how you label

yourself. This ties into the trade chatter about travel agents heading over the cliff,

bricks & mortar agencies crumbling under the weight of the host agency and IC

growth and as someone suggested, mentioned or set the thing in motion, the

term travel agent is obsolete. My response is: what a crock!

The title of travel agent has burned into the

trade of travel for over a century and a half.

The consumer knows what a travel agent is

and what a travel agency does. So what

should you do with this information that’s

handed down from parents to kids? Change

it? Why change a good thing when it’s been

working all these years? You know what

happens when you confuse the consumer

base – they go online and look for an online

travel agency! Not quite the outcome you

want or need.

…or, are you a

Transportation

Engineer?

Here’s the plan. Stick with the universal title

of TRAVEL AGENT - it is who you are and be

proud of your roots. Next… within the

framework of your agency, your niche and

your customer promotions, you can most

certainly add a marketing title that focuses

the client on your specific expertise.

You can be a Cruise Specialist, Adventure

Specialist, Culinary Tour Specialist… and you

can be these titles under the main banner of

travel agent. You can be a Travel Agency

specializing in Caribbean Cruises.

When you try to be too fancy-dancy you will

confuse your clients and lose your clients. A

travel counsellor, travel advisor, travel

consultant…are all decent titles and I have

personally worn each hat. BUT, you are first

and foremost a TRAVEL AGENT. Make no

mistake.

Stake your claim as the BEST travel agent and

travel agency in your community and

promote why you are the BEST. Be proud of

being a TRAVEL AGENT especially when

asked “What do you do?”

NE

W TO OLS

The Sharpie website!

In the world of all thingsdigital, sometimes it paysto pick up a Sharpie, andcreate something handdrawn. The why is this:hand drawn, has thesame effect as the handwritten sandwich boardsign. It just seems to pullpeople to read what’swritten – versus printed.

Oh yes, they have morecolours than black!

www.sharpie.com

THE “SKETCH YOUR WORLD” PROMOTION

I know it seems K-A-R-A-Z-A-Y-Y-Y-Y to mention picking up a pen of any kind to

create something, or anything related to the marketing of travel for that matter.

You may have a hidden talent, you may be artful, you may have a good eye for

colour and layout and if you do, then consider using those talents and put some

soul into unzipping your world.

No I wasn’t smokin’ anything when I

sketched out the travel image above. It was

a few minutes of zip-zap, then uploading the

image to Elements 11 and using Distort. Just

pulled and pushed and tweaked here and

there to change the lines. Job done.

Thing is, this is so easy to do and you might

even have the entire agency team have a go.

Or, if you want to unzip even more talent,

how about a Sketch Your World contest for

your clients?

Let’s step back in time when the desired

marketing outcome was to have your clients

visit the agency to enter a competition, drop

something off like a coupon, pick up a

brochure and so on. You know the phrase,

call, click or come in… well this is the come in

component.

Set up the Sketch Your World promotion, or

even better, a Sketch Your Dream Trip

promotion.

Gather all the entries. Scan them and post

them on your website. Create a story around

the promo’ and send it out to the media.

Have other clients vote on the best sketch.

You know how this works, you see it every

day wherever you look and shop and also on

TV.

The prize does not have to be expensive. It

can be dinner for two. To go deeper than

that is up to you and whether or not you can

attract a supplier to your promo. For sure,

you’ll want to contact the marketing arm of

the Sharpie company. Tell them what you

are doing and invite them to participate.

©Steve Crowhurst

Over time I have managed to horde a ton of marketing bits ‘n’ pieces that suppliers have

handed out at trade shows to help travel agents sell more of their products, or simply to serve

as a reminder to book this or that supplier and at the very least to keep the supplier top of

mind. Some crazy stuff has been handed out I must say – some of it still works, actually most

of it still works if you know how and when to use it. Let’s explore:

It’s a fact that many would be clients are

using computers in their day to day lives and

that computer is moving from a desktop to a

laptop, notebook, netbook and tablet in size.

The bells and whistles on these smaller units

are still there, less a DVD drive. Enter the

small and very useful 4GB flash drive.

DVDs: the flash drive with all your About Us

information will serve the laptop clients.

Those that still use a desktop will usually

have a built in DVD drive. That means you

can still send out promotional DVDs

featuring your preferred suppliers. Ask your

suppliers for 100 DVDs or CDs and complete

a direct mail. Include a one page overview

introducing the DVD and the product

featured on the DVD. If it is possible, add

your name and logo to the DVD and if you

have the capability, add your own video to

the beginning of the DVD.

Stuff: Also in my collection I had stress balls

and dice, kazoos, mouse pads, pens, rulers,

golf balls, sunglasses, ball caps, door

hangers, brochures, mini country guides,

breathe mints, mini staplers, water bottles,

coffee mugs… and on it goes.

I’ve seen so many TAs take these goodies

when offered and I always wonder that the

agent does with them. I have spoken to the

suppliers at the trade show booth to ask, if a

TA requested 100 DVDs or 100 of this gadget

or gizmo would you fulfill their request? And

the answer was a resounding YES if the agent

was going to use them in a promotion of

some kind. So the old media still works.

When you combine the old and the new

methods of marketing, the offline and the

online and you set one up via the other, you

will be creating what we call a blended

marketing plan.

The blended concept is something to study.

It means you can use your social media

marketing skills to introduce a good old

fashioned come and get it, promotion.

You can use a Facebook, tell-your-friends-

about-this referral program to fill the room

of your next consumer night. The offer

includes a take away. That take away is a

gorgeous DVD featuring a glorious video of a

dream cruise, tour or destination.

Included in the DVD cover slip is an offer of

Book Now and get… the “get” can be an

upgrade or a discount or a… whatever your

supplier is offering at the time you promote.

The Pen is Mightier than the Email… and

that is true in many cases. A pen is still one

of the most used and most appreciated

specialty marketing give aways. There are

some snazzy pens out there too and your

suppliers have offered them in the past. Your

baby boomer clients love them. Your

younger generation clients might prefer a

Sharpie or something similar.

The YouTube Way to the Heart… video is all

things travel. Your supplier’s videos are one

of the top marketing tools you should look

for. Get the ‘okay’ to proceed and copy the

best videos to a DVD of your own making.

Use a DVD that allows you to print on the

surface using Lightscribe or your inkjet

printer if it has the DVD printing option.

Now you can create a YouTube video

offering the DVD. Yes I know it sounds

convoluted but it’s not. It’s all about that

special offer… GET YOUR DVD OF GLORIOUS

PLACES TO VISIT AND WATCH IT ON YOUR

BIG SCREEN TV!

The Paper Business Card is old media… the

mini CD business card is new media.

Start collecting old

media and work

on your blended

marketing plan

that includes your

social media skills.

Until your baby

boomer clients have left the mortal coil

there is always a place for old media

marketing techniques.

Direct mail, press releases, flyers,

newsletters, printed matter… they still work

and anything that is tactile is attractive and

increases the pass-along effect, currently

known as going viral. Not much is new. Just

a change in format and delivery!

To unzip something more, something special, you are going to need to dig deep

and where you dig is very close to home. It’s all there in your client files. In your

CRM. In your face-to-face interactions with your clients.

Times have changed as well you know and

the information that you drive through the

business dealings you have when selling

travel is called DATA.

DATA is information that leads to

OPPORTUNITY if you know how to read it

and interpret it correctly. That said, you’ll

want to make sure you have the right

information / data first time around. This

requires asking your clients for more than

their name, home address and email. Today,

your data must include your client’s social

media habits and websites where they

explore travel.

The Postal Code Map

If you have not yet completed this map, add

it to your to-do list. You may have reporting

software that will print a report at a click – if

not then it’s time to download a blank map

of your area or the entire world and or you

could approach your country’s post office

website and use their tools.

It’s amazing where your business comes

from. If you are local and stay local then

you’ll know where your clients live. If you are

online and deal worldwide then you’ll be

very surprised with the locations that pop

up.

Here’s a terrific website to review – and if

you are stuck re a postal code – just type it

in and bingo! http://www.geopostcodes.com/

The Social Media Map

Most people in the world that are online are

connected to Facebook or similar. Bit of a no

brainer to think all your clients are on

Facebook. Then again, they might not be.

Your Facebook promotions then are missing

one or two major clients. Asking the “which

social network do you use?” question will

give you the answers you need.

The Product Map

Your CRM, accounting software, backroom

anything should be able to spit out a report

detailing the products your clients buy from

you. You will know in your head, however

when you see it onscreen or on paper as a

map or chart then the data makes more

sense.

You’ll want to count the type of product such

as cruise. You’ll want to list the cruise

supplier and the number of bookings made

with that company. Then you have the

sailings and itineraries. Also the month your

clients sailed. Can you see the imagery

building now? This map alone will deliver

enough data that will keep you engrossed. It

pays to complete a monthly review in this

manner and to make sure you do actually

understand your business. Many times,

through being busy, we think the number

was “this” when it was totally the opposite.

Stick to the mapping of your data and win.

The Location Map

Same as the product map. You need to know

where in the world your clients are travelling

too. Not in your head – mapped out.

The Vacation / Niche Type Map

This data set maps out the type of vacation

booked – cruise, tour, FIT… ITC… adventure…

you can set the rules to what you map.

Large travel firms have this type of data flow

happening all the time. Smaller agencies and

most agencies are small in terms of dollar

size. About 75% of all travel agencies are

writing $3-$5 million a year. Then of course

you have a small percentage of agencies in

the $10 - $20 - $50 million, others in the tens

of millions, but not many. So we focus on the

smaller agency as the big guys have got

everything they need and want and have had

it for a very long time. Smaller agencies can

copy to some degree some of what their

larger counterparts are doing.

The main thing is to get that data harnessed,

unzip it, think on it and then start to plan

your next marketing campaign. Naturally

your recording of the data you attract must

be correct. If not, you’ll be wasting a lot of

time going in the wrong direction.

Let the BIG guys chase the BIG DATA. You

stick with the basic, tried and true data that

comes from your primary sources and you’ll

unzip new biz!

Alright! Saddle up and hold on. The latest news

on and about the adventure travel market is

here and between the pages of this report it

suggests that four out of ten of your clients want

an adventure vacation.

That statement jives with other reports and

especially when it comes to your baby boomer

clients. They are nearing or already reached

their 60 something birthday and it seems at that

stage of life, many people need to recharge their

batteries and add some zip to their travels.

Not so much wishing to stand in front of a herd

of charging musk ox or wrestle a b’ar – however

something soft to medium as in white water or

walking trails or scaling one or two easy to reach

peaks would do nicely.

After you have read this report you can then start to look at your own client base and I would

suggest you survey them, or call them to a consumer event to review and discuss the adventure

that an adventure trip can offer them. Gain their insight. Ask “Where shall we go?” and then sit

back and take down the information. Next step is to create your Adventure of a Lifetime or

Adventures of YOUR Lifetime tour series.

You should know that some of your clients desire hard to extreme adventures, others prefer soft

adventure and then there’s the deluxe adventurer who would like to sip wine as lions attack their

prey a few feet away. Glamping that’s called. Leave that with you. Adventure travel is big - $263

billion big. I’m sure there’s some moola in there for you too.

http://files.adventuretravel.biz/docs/research/adventure-tourism-market-study-2013-web.pdf

 

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The newly redesigned Certified Travel Industry Executive (CTIE) program is a bold collection of courses and online training focused on the critical skills that today’s travel professionals need to succeed. Graduates will  learn  how  to  grow  their  business while  earning  recognized  industry credentials.  The  CTIE  certification  is  parallel  to  the  Certified  Travel  Counselor  (CTC) certification, thus, representing the pinnacle of travel  industry professionalism for seasoned travel professionals who are interested in advancing their career.  

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