One way top travel agents stand out from the crowd is to develop a niche area of practice. Though we hear the advice to specialize,  the concept of niche marketing is often misunderstood. Niche marketing is a way of helping you focus on locating new clients, not a set of restrictions on your business offerings. Niche marketing is not necessarily about gearing your entire business to a particular type of travel, but rather about segmenting your marketing efforts to focus on particular groups of people.  Many travel consultants avoid it as a concept out of fear of having to turn away business outside the chosen niche or being too closely identified with the niche. Properly executed, however, niche marketing is a terrific way of locating and marketing to a group of potential clients in a highly effective and cost-efficient manner. Read the rest of this entry »

Developing and marketing a niche area of expertise is one of the best possible ways to differentiate your travel practice from the competition. As an expert in a particular theme or destination, you can quickly establish your travel agency as the only reasonable resource to which consumers should turn when considering travel in your niche venue.

Niche marketing is a way of helping you focus on locating new clients, not a set of restrictions on your business offerings. Niche marketing is not necessarily about gearing your entire business  Read the rest of this entry »

Developing and marketing a niche area of expertise is one of the best possible ways to differentiate your travel practice from the competition. As an expert in a particular theme or destination, you can quickly establish your travel agency as the only reasonable resource to which consumers should turn when considering travel in your niche venue.

Niche marketing is a way of helping you focus on locating new clients, not a set of restrictions on your business offerings. Niche marketing is not necessarily about gearing your entire business  Read the rest of this entry »

Getting noticed in a sea of travel suppliers, newspaper advertising, television commercials, online booking engines and the Travel Channel can be a challenge. However, one tactic that should be in every travel professional’s strategy quiver is a specialization.  Find a destination or a theme at which you are an expert and highlight your marketing of a niche.

Travel agents that have a specialization have distinct marketing advantages.  Firstly, it is easier to locate your market.  Specialize in Celtic ancestory, disabled travel, birdwatching or  skiing, and the location of your target market becomes instantly visible.  Your ability to reach out Read the rest of this entry »

Well over three years ago, TRO identified having a niche component to your business plan as being one of the characteristics of top travel agents. But, the concept of niche marketing is often misunderstood. Niche marketing is a way of helping you focus on locating new clients, not a set of restrictions on your business offerings. Niche Marketing is not necessarily about gearing your entire business to a particular type of travel. It is about segmenting your marketing efforts to focus on particular groups of people, however.

Niche marketing refers to the process of focusing a marketing effort on a particular theme or destination. Many travel consultants avoid it as a concept out of fear of having to turn away business outside the chosen niche, or being too closely identified with the niche. Properly executed however, niche marketing is a terrific way of locating and marketing to a group of potential clients in a highly effective and cost efficient manner. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of us in the travel industry have researched the trend reports for 2011. If you had to sum up a strategy for success, one word would apply: Specialization. Many travelers still reserve their weekend getaways or holiday packages online, but they also continue to rely on travel professionals for complex itineraries and destinations – and the trend is growing.

Specialization requires an in-depth knowledge of a destination that can come from education, personal experiences, or both. When I started my agency, Sodha Travel, it was (and remains) my mission to go beyond selling a tour package or customized itinerary to the Indian subcontinent. It is about familiarizing the traveler with the destination, setting realistic expectations, and most importantly, being an advocate. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is Part Two of the series “The 7 Characteristics of Top Travel Agents“

Each of the top travel agents that we interviewed for this series had a niche. That is not to say that they only booked one type of travel or only a single destination, but there was at least one type of travel on which they were the absolute experts and they did it very, very well.  It might have been a destination like Hawaii, or a theme like safaris or river cruising, but these top travel agents had made expertise Read the rest of this entry »

One of the reasons that people travel is to delve into their ancestry. Some merely want to see the country of their heritage, while others want to do bona-fide research into genealogy. The fascination with ancestry is a terrific opportunity for the travel consultant to do some suggestive, pro-active, selling. Engage potential clients in conversation about their ancestry and Read the rest of this entry »