TravelResearchOnline.com Blog

Experienced travel agents seek out good group leaders. In its most common incarnation, a “pied piper” or group leader is provided with a free or “comp” travel opportunity as both incentive and as compensation for organizing and recruiting others to travel as a group. In some instances, however, the group leader acts as a focal [...]

An important component of building a successful travel practice is the network of people with whom you come into contact. Although your own circle of influence may be small, it grows exponentially because your friends, family, neighbors, acquaintances, teachers, and co-workers all have circles of influence into which you can market. These relationships provide opportunities

As a travel planner, you know all of the “shoulds”: you should develop a marketing plan, you should email clients on a regular basis, you should have a newsletter…. there are a lot of “shoulds.” In fact, coming up with a list of things to do is easy. Accomplishing the list is a bit tougher. [...]

Cross marketing refers to the practice of working with a non-competitive retailer to enhance business opportunities for both parties. Any compatible product  is a possible theme for cross marketing purposes, and travel presents a great opportunity because of how easily it can be linked to almost any theme.
Retailers make excellent cross marketing partners because they [...]

Clients have short memories.  Unless you find a way to stay “top of mind”,  clients can easily be distracted by the first pretty travel opportunity that walks their way.  With every newspaper travel section, television commercials and consumer magazines filled with travel advertising, your clients will see lots of different avenues to fulfill their travel desires. [...]

Your clients have your office number, your email address and your cell phone number. They know your office hours and how to get in touch with you after the doors have closed. But how accessible are you? Is there any possibility that your clients feel they are actually bothering you when they want to research [...]

Running a travel practice and achieving year over year growth is no small task. In fact, the very nature of travel consulting makes our business one of the most challenging. Nearly daily, I speak with travel agents on two extremes of the growth curve. On one side is the agent whose business is flourishing and [...]

Yikes! We are almost half-way through 2010.  The “new car” smell is gone, and so are five months of the year. It’s time to do some late spring cleaning, to revisit key aspects of your marketing plan and benchmark how well the year is progressing. The year is not too far gone to re-energize your efforts.Â
Marketing plans are [...]

This week we are looking at 10 fundamental marketing principles that will provide a basis for consistent and successful marketing efforts. The next two principles seem easy to understand and implement, but in fact, observation indicates they are among the most difficult lessons for travel agents to integrate into their practice. The best of intentions [...]

Marketing drives sales. Marketing sets the expectations of the consumer and thereby preconditions the attitude with which the potential client approaches the travel agent. As marketing raises the profile of the travel agency in a target community, it serves the dual function of both acquiring new clients and retaining former ones. Marketing creates a relationship [...]