TravelResearchOnline.com Blog

As we celebrate our nation’s day of independence from Great Britain, it seems that the travel agency industry is also preparing (or should be preparing) to celebrate their independence. Independence from what you might ask. Well, if you have read some of my past columns, I firmly believe that we are undergoing a huge renaissance [...]

A shot has decidedly been fired across the bow of the ship of the travel agency community. While details are still slow in coming out, our “partner”, United Airlines, has taken the lead in a move that has been anticipated by many, including me, for quite some time. United has advised that some “select” agencies [...]

Hopefully you have a business and marketing plan in place. In writing. And in use! Hopefully you are constantly revising it to maximize your agency’s potential and profit. I have always advocated the very real need to have a limited scope of service (you need to create a niche) and I feel it is of [...]

As a whole, are travel agents complacent? Over the past few months, I have heard a lot of chatter about how it is a bad thing to be “average” and how you need to strive to be “better than that”. I fully agree, but as I look around, I sometimes wonder if that desire and [...]

Is something amiss in supplierland? Or is everything hunky dory? At TRO, we have discussed keeping a close eye on suppliers in case of financial difficulties; and while we are a long way from being out of this recession, that is still good advice. But this past week, a random post on the TRO Community, [...]

Have you ever made a mistake? Of course, we all have! Have you ever made the same mistake again? I know I have, and I’d bet that you have as well.
Making mistakes is fine, ordinary and expected—once. But when you fail to learn from that mistake, you run the risk of wasting time, energy, and [...]

Travel Research Online has covered many topics. We have Tweeted, Facebooked, MySpaced, and blogged. Last week, our publisher said that getting physically back into the community might not be a bad idea either.  And when you are out in the community, you need to be selling yourself and your business all the time. I tend [...]

As a business owner, I can guarantee that at some point (or points) you will make bad decisions. You need to realize that we are not perfect, and these imperfections only exist to make us stronger business people.
As you forge your way through establishing and growing your travel business—be it home based, online, or brick [...]

We have all heard the cautionary tale about loose lips sinking ships. In this Internet 2.0 age, it is even more important to keep that axiom in mind. Between Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, blogs, texting, YouTube, and whatever the next thing to come down the pike may be; we are in a precarious position and if [...]

What a week! The economy keeps on plugging away—up or down is anyone’s guess. Swine flu (oops I meant, the H1N1 Virus) makes its debut. Mexico suffers an earthquake. And oh yeah, our Vice President says he’d never allow his family to get on a plane or a subway! One almost hates to ask, “What’s [...]