TravelResearchOnline.com Blog

In almost every aspect of both your professional and personal life, you instinctively know the value of practice and being prepared. Actually, it’s not instinct at all. The desire to be ready to handle difficult questions arises from early failures to prepare. Practicing answers has saved many a school boy and many a relationship. At a certain age you learn the value of preparation, but often only after failing multiple times at a question you absolutely know is coming. There are some questions  it makes sense to develop answers for well ahead of being asked. You know they are coming, you know the penalty for failure, and yet you let other matters take precedence until it is too late and you instead decide to improvise.

For example, here is a reasonably predictable question that some large portion of the population will be asked several times a year – Does this dress make me look heavy? Read the rest of this entry »

When you say the word “resilience”, can the phrase “travel agent” be too far behind? If nothing else, we are resilient and able to adapt on a moment’s notice. It has been proven time and time again. Airlines cut and then eliminated commissions and we adapted. Wars, disease, violence and pestilence all impact our business by no fault of our own; yet we rebound.   Apparently we are doing something right.  But, it does seem that each time we turn around, there is another hurdle being thrown in our way. Read the rest of this entry »

Everywhere you go people are staring at their phones!  Look around. It’s happening at the mall, the car wash, the supermarket check-out line–people of all ages are all looking at their laps, mesmerized! What’s going on to make us all act like teens? Will we ever see a time when we talk to each other face to face again?

For good or bad, our communication habits have transformed as rapidly as technology has enabled them. Now, the norm is to not only have a phone, but a web enabled personal media device. What?? Read the rest of this entry »

It seems like just yesterday!
30 years ago today, I was 21, fresh out of college and anxious to get into the “real world.” It was 1980 and unemployment was at 8%, interest rates were soaring, and fortunately, we were not technically attuned to every terrifying moment of the recession.

I graduated with a triple major, Spanish, English, and secondary education, but teaching was not what I wanted to do. Not right away anyway. Because I was fluent in Spanish I was offered a job in international banking at an Atlanta bank, but that seemed way too serious. (Ah…the regret I feel sometimes about passing that opportunity up.)

I wanted a fun job! I couldn’t be a flight attendant because I couldn’t see the length of the plane without visual aid so I chose the second best job… Read the rest of this entry »

Ajay Prakash is the CEO of Nomad Travels, a travel agency located in Mumbai, and is the newly elected President of TAFI, the Travel Agents Federation of India. Ajay is also the Deputy Chairman of the WTAAA – World Travel Agents Association Alliance, a not-for-profit entity incorporated in Belgium which is a global alliance of travel agent associations from Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. TRO thought it would be interesting to see how the life of a travel agent in India might compare with U.S. counterparts.

TRO: Ajay, give us a bit of your background.  What is your history in the travel industry?

AP: I came into travel on the rebound – via  the theatre and teaching. For years I struggled – writing, adapting and directing plays for the stage until it became clear that that way lay penury and starvation. For a couple of years I taught English literature to undergrads until the chalk dust from the blackboard (no e-learing then!) started to play havoc with my bronchial passages. Then I joined Air India as a Sales/Marketing executive and worked with them for 8 years before I came to the conclusion that big corporations and I were not really made for each other. That’s when I quit and set up Nomad Travels in 1988. We have 10 employees, half of whom have been with me virtually since I started Nomad. We do corporate and leisure outbound and we delight in doing inbound travel into India.

TRO: Tell us what it’s like to be a travel agent in India?

AP: It’s not easy! There are 2900-odd IATA accredited  agents in the country and over 100,000 registered non-IATA agents. Airline commissions have traditionally formed a large part of agents’ revenue, and those seem to be disappearing. The market’s been vitiated by extended credits and incentives being offered by the big boys while the small to midsize independent agents find themselves being marginalized as they are disenfranchised by some airlines who are leaning more and more towards consolidators. Recently BA withdrew ticketing authority from close to 1000 accredited agents across the country. 16 foreign airline have abolished base commission, while they continue to pay hefty back end commissions to aggregators. The whole IATA agency program and its value to agents is being questioned. Low cost carriers and OTAs have grabbed a substantial market share. Airlines routinely undercut agent/GDS fares on their own websites. We live in “interesting” times.

TRO: How does being a travel agent in India differ from being a travel agent in the United States? Read the rest of this entry »

Some people re-arrange their bedroom every month or so. Military families move after every tour of duty (or so it seems). These people know how to get out of a rut. And as difficult as it is to admit, I am in a rut and I need some change.

I feel my business has been stagnating for a while and I’ve decided to take a new direction. How many years can you keep doing the same thing with approximately the same bottom line? Being a one woman show and wearing many hats, it leaves little time to think about the next step. I recently spoke  John Peters of Tripology about how to grow my business and which direction to take. He had some very good ideas for me. Because there are only so many hours in the day, I feel as though I can’t possibly take on any more business, therefore I’m not able to make more sales or commission. Read the rest of this entry »

Excuse me, dahrlings, but…
Later Slater Is My Hero

Overnight, Steven Slater is the service sector’s Captain Fantastic. Waitresses, sales clerks and travel agents are hailing the feisty flight attendant for doing what none of us have the gumption to. (And, from what I’ve seen, some of you have pretty significant gumptions.)

Not only did he totally slate that passenger’s dumbass behaviour, he escaped the scene in a Bondian flourish, grabbing beers on the way.
Read the rest of this entry »