Here’s an article worth reading. The New York Times, the “Grey Lady,” the “Newspaper of Record,” which has long been a cheerleader for the “you can do everything faster, better, cheaper on the Internet” crowd, has finally discovered what a lot of us have known for years: If you want good information and the best deal possible, contact a knowledgeable specialist travel agent.

The article, by Seth Kugel, is called “Is the Best Travel Search Engine Around the Corner?” Check it out. It deserves some commentary, which I provide below the fold.

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One of my goals at the Home-Based Travel Agent Forum in Boston (which was a lot
 of fun, by the way!) was to educate travel agents on the value of remembering 
clients with inexpensive gifts, either as bon voyage presents or as holiday or
 birthday gifts.

I don’t know if there are any studies to back me up on this, but I’d be willing to 
bet that travel agents get more positive results from giving small, thoughtful
 gifts than they do by rebating (kicking back some of their commission in the hope
 of competing on price, which is never a good idea).

On a fam I took with OSSN a few months ago our group leader proved to be an 
expert in this ploy. I still remember how she swooped into a shop in Juneau (it
 was an Alaskan cruise) and, because ours was the last ship the port would see
t hat season, cut a deal to buy the entire remaining stock of dish towels. They
 were dirt cheap, but because they had an Alaskan motif they made excellent 
(and useful) gifts for her frequent cruisers while promoting Alaska as a
 destination!

My company, the same one that publishes the Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course,
 also publishes a range of travel books, some of which are “naturals” for travel agents 
to use as promotional gifts, bon voyage presents, or holiday remembrances.

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Delivering travel documents to your clients offers a great opportunity for travel agents to win share of mind with their clients. Many agents do a little something to make the occasion special. They hand deliver them. They add a nice gift. They take the client out for lunch.

Here’s a challenge for all of you: Try to top this.

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Have clients heading for New York? If so, a visit to the Ground Zero memorial in lower Manhattan will no doubt be high on their list. Unfortunately, they are likely to be disappointed.

You see, while there is no admission fee and the memorial is open to all, access is being limited for security reasons and timed tickets are required. The demand has been so great that tickets need to be booked months in advance. So if your hapless clients show up, they will be turned away. Fortunately, you can help them. You might even be able to make some money while you’re at it.

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It is conventional wisdom that the last sailing of the Alaska season (roughly mid-September) is not the ideal time to head into the Inside Passage and many travel agents will reflexively steer clients to earlier dates.

However, there are reasons some of your clients may be interested in sailing then. They may want to celebrate a birthday or anniversary or maybe they know that there are some great deals to be had at this time. Or perhaps this is simply the time they can get away from work or other obligations at home.

So don’t dismiss late-season Alaska out of hand. Remember, too, that there are some definite pluses to going at this time.

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You’ve probably seen a QR code, even if you have no idea what it is. QR codes
 are those funny looking square symbols that look like miniature examples of 
black and white “op art.” You’ve probably seen them in newspaper or magazine 
ads or on signs in malls. They are sort of like bar codes except that QR codes 
are designed to be read by cell phones and not check out scanners.

QR stands for “quick response” and as smart phones catch on in the United 
States (they’ve been around forever in Japan!) QR codes are becoming more 
and more common.

So how do they work and why should you, a travel agent, be interested?

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Most of us are perfectly happy to book a couple on a nice cruise, especially if it’s on a luxury cruise line.

But what if you could turn that booking and every other one like it into a  group? If you say that’s impossible . . . well, your probably right. But with the right mindset you may be able to create more groups than you think you can.

First of all, there’s what I call the “you want friends with that?” ploy. I hope those of you who have my course are already using it.

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