Most of you will have by now read Travel Weekly’s assessment of May 25, 2009 entitled YTB: What’s true and what isn’t. The “National Newspaper of the Travel Industry” published this piece in advance of their upcoming 2009 Power List. Get ready YTB recruiters: my guess is that you are about to be handed another piece of marketing that will again be worth millions.  The unverified numbers reported by YTB’s home office to Travel Weekly’s team of crack accountants, auditors and fact checkers even now are being scrutinized for inclusion on the 2009 Power List. 

But the May 25th TW article is in need of a few points of clarification.  Read the rest of this entry »

If you Google “YTB”, as any potential YTB recruit might, here is the entry that the search engine will serve up to you as the top search result:

YTB International, Inc. was recognized as the 26th largest seller of travel in the US in Travel Weekly’s 2008 Power List, based on 2007 annual retail value …

That is some pretty powerful recruiting material. After all, Travel Weekly is “The National Newspaper of the Travel Industry” according to its tagline.  Travel Weekly’s  “About Us” page indicates that Travel Weekly provides “all of the late breaking news, analysis and research that travel professionals need to succeed.”  In the case of YTB, in fact, Travel Weekly has provided more – it has provided the credibility YTB has needed to succeed.

In writing this editorial, I am breaking some rules of good etiquette.  I am quite frankly criticizing a competitor, and therefore my motives could be deemed suspect.  I’ll take my chances.

Put simply, why does Travel Weekly and its very serious and competent editors continue to provide YTB a platform from which it is able to more capably market itself to the detriment Read the rest of this entry »