Did you miss it? | Travel Research Online

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Did you miss it?

A few nights ago in a final middle finger salute to NBC, Conan O’Brien had a 1.7 million dollar Bugatti Veyron decked out as a mouse. The car can do 212 miles per hour; I was thinking that in terms of speed,  the travel industry might have it beat.

Think about your daily life as a travel professional. Are you aware of all the different promotions? Which sailings will pay you and extra point commission? Did you remember that Sandals did their bi-weekly room re-classification? The point is that to survive in this industry, you need to be on top of your game. With so much information literally at our fingertips, sorting it out can be a chore. What are your favorites?

For me, and I am admittedly biased, I find that Travel Research Online is an incredible tool. Each morning, I check into the TRO Community (forums) to see what has happened after the East coast went to bed. There is always something of interest, and often something where I can offer my insight. Of course, I know when I need opinions or have a question myself, I can turn to the community for the answers I need from people I respect and admire. My second stop is the TRO main page. Every day, there is a new article that will impact some aspect of my travel life. It might be insight from Publisher, Richard Earls, the ongoing saga of the new Travel Agent Diary series, a supplier profile, an agent’s perspective or some insight from a veteran. (Here is a heads up…Larry Norman will have a column debuting on the 27th and later on in the week you will find out what is up with Lee Rosen since he  retired from TRAMS. Don’t miss these two.)  I also head over to Travel Weekly and Travel Agent Central to see what they have dug up overnight.

After I am caught up on the industry news, I venture over to see what my clients are reading. After all, I need to be able to discuss their concerns.  I do have Google news alerts set for various “travel” terms and scan them—my sources typically are CNN, the New York Times, and MSNBC. But the real meat of my consumer news comes from the FlyerTalk and Cruise Critic forums. You just know that if there is a brouhaha brewing in the cruise or airline industries, Cruise Critic and FlyerTalk will be all over it.

We work in a constantly changing environment and need to be on top of our games. As a character in one of my favorite movies said, “Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So, what are your favorite resources to keep you in the game? And what character said that? Leave a comment!

And, if you missed it, Conan’s bit was hysterical. There is always room in my day for a laugh…what about yours?

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  2 thoughts on “Did you miss it?

  1. Laura says:

    I’ve never watched Conan, but I gotta admit, that was pretty darn funny.

  2. Dean Greenhoe says:

    Since I’m corporate I read the BTN website religiously (Business Travel News or http://www.btnonline.com) in addition to what John listed.

    So does my friend Ferris Bueller so he doesn’t miss anything because the industry moves pretty fast.

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