TravelResearchOnline.com Blog

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 [...]

When last we chatted, I was grading my performance through the first half of the year. It had been a roller coaster ride of sorts, but the hard work was paying off. I have tried to find new ways to continue the upswing and reduce the downside. Some things have worked and others have not. [...]

I’ve made my decision—I have to lay this out in the open.  For months I’ve started writing my column on the subject but changed my mind.  No one in the mainstream media is writing about it so surely it’s just me.  I’ve tried repressing it, I’ve tried downplaying the severity of the situation, I’ve tried [...]

There comes a time in every sporting event I have ever seen (which I have to admit is probably way too many) when you know that a play about to happen is gonna be a big one. A game changer, momentum killer, rally starter, or one that you just know will have a big effect [...]

It’s hard to believe that our little travel club is approaching its one year anniversary. In fact, it feels more like we should be approaching our fifth or tenth year due to all the work and effort we have put into this venture. At times, it has been a rather bumpy ride and there have [...]

Advertising.  What works? What doesn’t?  As a business owner, I could spend all day on this conundrum.  I feel as if I’ve tried it all–newspaper, wedding magazines, bridal shows, local magazines, pay-per-click, radio, even television.  I haven’t seen any kind of response except from pay-per-click.  And we all know, that can get quite costly very [...]

We have passed the halfway mark in the year and it is time for my midterm exam. Where has the year gone? So many events have happened this year that have affected the industry and my business, not the least of which has been the economy. We have had the volcano in Iceland, the British [...]

Last summer, TravelQuest headed for uncharted waters.  We created a new marketing campaign that had social media at the heart of it and shied away from more traditional means of advertising.  A year later, we’re pretty happy with our decision. Traffic is up on our website, we’re hearing from more and more agents(remember, we are [...]

One of the biggest surprises of running my travel business is that I did not anticipate the percentage of time I would spend marketing. Not that I thought it was all about planning trips and cashing commission checks; I just did not realize how time consuming it was.
Personally I find the marketing piece one of [...]

Having been born in Tampa and spending the better part of my youth on the beaches of Clearwater, Pensacola and Panama City, I have a deep affinity and love for my home state of Florida. After 64 days of continuous oil and methane leaking off the coast of Louisiana, my beloved home state is now [...]