TravelResearchOnline.com Blog

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 [...]

Public speaking is an optional, but also a highly recommended, tactic in a strong public relations program.   Every association in town, every club, church group, every business class or travel class at your local community college, enjoys having guest speakers. A tried and true tactic for a public relations strategy is to offer your expertise [...]

You can be a “thought leader” in your community.  The public has a keen interest in all things related to travel. If you seek them out, you are likely to find many opportunities to interact with hundreds, perhaps thousands of consumers in your community through an intelligent public relations campaign.
Publishers and editors of magazines, newspapers [...]

If you have now chosen the distribution channels and tactics you wish to use in 2010, it is time to begin to tie your Marketing Plan back into your overall business plan and budget. You want to make sure that your Marketing Plan is realistic with regard to your budgets and overall capabilities. You want [...]

Business plans are important. Organization is essential. Clarity of expression and correctly assessing markets: priceless. But not a one of these is worth anything without ACTION. Be sure to write an Action Plan (how and when) along with your Marketing Plan (what to do). Too many times we over-plan and over-perfect and in the process [...]

For the topic of social marketing, I am going to largely repeat my earlier article on the subject. My opinion has not deviated a great deal since I first looked at the potential of Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media as marketing channels for travel agents. Some agents report good results. Actually, only [...]

Is there any more confusing marketing decision than how to conceive, build and deploy a travel agency website?  What information should be included? What are clients expecting?  How to keep it updated?  Should it have a booking engine?  How much should the agency spend given the amount of business that the site generates?  How should [...]