More than a year ago, the CDC set its bargaining position: Cruising couldn’t resume until all guests and crew members were safe. The rules the CDC adopted to enforce this position were to mandate a series of “simulation cruises” before any revenue-producing cruises could begin and creating a mountain of paperwork that each ship was required to complete.

The CDC said that the simulation cruises had to be cost-free for guests. It also required that the cruise lines craft individual agreements with every port that a ship visits, describing how activities such as quarantines and evacuations will be carried out. These rules stopped cruising dead in its tracks until about a month ago. Then, movement occurred Read the rest of this entry »

If there is a single question I am asked more often than others, it’s: When do you stop calling on a prospect who either (1) fails to answer your emails, (2) does not return your phone calls, or (3) tells you they are not interested. This is a valid question. But it is also one that every single sales professional tussles with regardless of their industry.

Let’s look at this quandary from a different angle… by taking a walk in your prospect’s shoes. Read the rest of this entry »

With the dominance of social media marketing, you might think that sending an old-fashioned email might be akin to a letter, right? Wrong!

When it comes to keeping clients and prospects engaged with your agency — email marketing is king.

New tech comes and goes daily it seems. Google+…out. Tik Tok…in. Snapchat…who knows. But you know what is always “in?” Email.

Maintaining an email list is no longer something nice to have, but it is imperative if you want to grow your travel business, and here are four reasons why. Read the rest of this entry »

“Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle.

You probably think of yourself as a travel agent, travel advisor,  a travel counselor or a travel planner or some variation thereof.  People entrust you with their vacations, their dreams, travel plans, their travel ambitions. You, in turn, access the tools at hand and make your clients’ dreams come true. Your tools are your experience, your relationships with suppliers, your sense of detail and customer service. Every now and then, however, maybe you glimpse that you are something more than a travel agent, counselor or planner. Sometimes you might just sense that you pass right over into the realm of the magician – that ability to transform travel from a trip into an experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the weekend UnCruise Adventures quickly modified three Pacific Northwest sailings after Washington State COVID protocols affected departure dates from Seattle. In place of a cancellation the company offered guests an alternative itinerary out of Juneau, covering guest airfare and hotels. Read the rest of this entry »

More and more people are getting vaccinated across the United States each day, and countries across the globe are starting to reopen for American travelers who are vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. As reported by the New York Times on April 25, 2021, tourists from America who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to visit the European Union over the summer. This is exciting news for all of us that have been waiting anxiously to begin traveling again. Read the rest of this entry »

Next week, Los Angeles and San Francisco will become the poster children for the vaccine movement. After leading most of the United States in new coronavirus cases at the end of 2020, in four months, both cities are down to the under two-percent threshold that places them in California’s lowest-risk Yellow Tier. The risk for being infected with COVID-19 in these cities is becoming increasingly unlikely. Their daily infectivity rates for the virus are now less than 2 cases per 100,000 for those tested. Read the rest of this entry »

Whether you follow horse racing or not, or even if you could not care less about another sports analogy, this past Saturday featured the 147th running of The Kentucky Derby. For you non-sports fans, this is a horse race held in Louisville, KY where much of the pre-race TV viewing comments are focused on the women’s hat selections in and around the track.

The odds-on favorites, where all smart betters placed their bets, were Essential Quality and Hot Rod Charlie. Rumor had it that one horse-racing aficionado placed a $2.5 million bet on Essential Quality. One would think he knew what he was doing. Read the rest of this entry »

Visit any of the forums frequented by travel professionals and you get a sense of how the bogey man might look. Variations on a theme betray our greatest fears, often summed up in a phrase like “I lost a sale to the internet.”  It appears “the internet” is stealing our sales. With nothing but 1’s and 0’s spinning in his eyes the monster’s algorithms apparently foil us time and again. What chance do we have against a dispassionate mind capable of manipulating trillions of trips a second?

Wait. I’m thinking what we have here is a case of mistaken identity. Like the characters in  the movie “The Usual Suspects” the Internet often looks like a culprit, but the identity of the real criminal is a bit more surprising.  Read the rest of this entry »

The signs are here. In most areas of the country, local jurisdictions are relaxing restrictions and beginning to reopen. Are we over it? Is it just like it was in May of 2019? Not even close, but we are slowly moving to the (and man I hate this phrase) our new normal. Some cruises are sailing right now in parts of the world. France is opening the doors to the vaccinated. Here in Maryland, there are more vaccines than people wanting them. Signs are pointing in the right direction, and I have an idea about how to get your clients dreaming about travel once again. Read the rest of this entry »