Tour and Travel

Hands down, having a travel club really is your ticket to real luxury travel. Such a membership finally allows the average person the affordability to travel at ridiculously low prices that once were not possible. When you consider that you can easily save up to 80% off of retail prices on resorts, cruises, hotel chains and a long list of other travel services, there really is no question that you can save on travel if you have a membership.

Real luxury travel at prices you can afford is a smart decision for anyone who travels once in a while to the business traveler. The reason that this is has to do with the savings in great abundance, meaning that you can literally recoup the cost of the one-time payment after your first trip.

I actually joined one of these travel clubs because I saw the great value in such a vacation club opportunity. I bought it from a company who I felt I could trust because the founders were actually a couple of former Travel Industry Veterans who were sick and tired of the obscene high priced mark ups in the travel industry.

How such a membership works is simple. You purchase a membership for a one-time payment and you have immediate access to vacation related services at the highest level of quality (4 – 5 Star Resorts) that you cannot get anywhere else. Looking for a travel club membership? In today’s economy, everyone is looking to save money as well as on travel! Having such a membership will allow you to afford real luxury travel and at prices that the average person can afford.

All you do is purchase the membership and get online or call and you will be able to search using the exclusive travel gateway portal. If you would rather call and use the concierge to book your vacation, you can do that just as well. Get on board and start saving on your next vacation and never pay full price again. Having a travel discount club just makes sense! (Well, dollars really and a lot of them!)

Are you thinking of opening your own travel agency? If so, you need to keep a number of things in mind. Owning a travel business demands a certain level of skill and professionalism. It isn’t just a matter of getting a license and plugging into a program. So if you want to be one of the good ones, I strongly suggest that you take the following advice.

For starters, specialize in something. Know that one thing inside and out. For instance, South American travel or exotic adventure travel or eco-tourism. Find and study everything you can get your hands on in that thing. Become a genius. Too many travel agents will book you a cruise to nowhere or a flight to no man’s land and not know the difference between the two. The travel industry has become so vast, that it is just not possible to be an expert at travel in general. You will need to narrow your field. Your business may increase exponentially if you keep that focus on a few things. And you do those things well.

Here’s a second thing. Why not become a “notary public”? Why you ask? What’s the the relationship to a travel business? People travel for many reasons and sometimes in order to settle some special business they are in need of a notary. There are not many notaries available these days, so this is something you can offer your clients either for a small fee or gratis as a way thanking them for their business.

If you are required to agree to an exclusivity contract in order to work with a particular agency, do not do so. That agency is unable to force you into such an agreement and you do not have to. You will, of course, want to check with a lawyer on this one. Most would probably advise against signing such a contract. It may very well be against the law.

As a travel agent, you will find so much fulfillment. Like I said, good ones are hard to find so if you really know your stuff, you will be greatly in demand. People will actually come looking for YOU to book their trip. That means more money for you in YOUR pocket. That’s what it’s about, no? How many of us could use a bit more income? Especially in these days!

Congratulations on recently starting a travel business. But do not rest now. Your work is not done yet. You need to unleash key tactics to enable relentless, sustained business growth to occur. Let’s look at the quickest, fastest and easiest strategies to build sales right now for a travel agency starting off.

1. Follow up every enquiry with 5 multiple professional communications.

Burn this secret into your mind. To build any business to consumer relationship you need to accept that several contacts should be considered the norm and not the exception when dealing with your prospects. Three, five or seven contacts or communications with your enquirer virtually means a booking will result with you rather than a hit or miss one contact approach.

The biggest mistake most new travel businesses make is to NOT consistently follow up every enquiry. The best way to enable this to happen is to have a sales system whereby every consultant professionally and without fear is trained to simply have 3 or 5 or 7 communications after someone enquiries. I recommend you start with producing a simple 5 step sales system. Here is how you go about it.

An example would be where a quotation has been given to a prospect (Step 1). Of course you have attempted to close the sale professionally but we know it will be normal for many prospects not to book with you immediately. This is especially so for more detailed travel itineraries.

Step 2: A courtesy call to see what the person feels about the information supplied.

Step 3: Email extra tip or information quickly through about the prospect’s trip.

Step 4: Send a pre-prepared letter to thank them for enquiring and to offer them an incentive to come back in.

Step 5: Follow up call again to see how they are getting on with their plans and to offer to assist them further. Because rapport has been established now is a good time (if it has not occurred in earlier steps) to ask for the booking again and a final commitment.

These steps are interchangeable and the key is they happen in different mediums via email, direct mail and phone calls. Now consider if you are doing this versus another competing travel agency who does not follow up at all or spasmodically at best (which is the norm in the travel industry). So who will win the majority of customers most of the time?

So why do so many of us in the travel industry have no logical sales process for following up or staying in touch? Why do we make it such a hit and miss affair? Imagine the power of following up every single quotation and enquiry 100% of the time.

How to start a travel agency secret number one is easy really. It just takes some thought to how to implement this simple system into your travel business.

If I could convince you of the mightiest of strategies, the one that takes the pick as the first tactic I would introduce to any travel business, it would be following up every quote within 3 business days and to keep in touch with your prospects until they buy.

If you do this one simple strategy, train your team and have a written down, easy to implement system, your conversion rate of enquiry to booking will increase and sometimes by dramatic margins! Test it in your business and see for yourself.