Dear Travel Agent,

How many of you have had one of “those days,” when from the time you woke up everything goes wrong, no matter what you do? How frustrated that makes you feel! You try to think hard and believe that if a door is being closed, it is because another one is going to be opened. But how to not to take it personally and feel like you, and only you, are having a bad day and the sun is shining on everyone else except you?

They say to take a deep breath and try to calm down. I tried this, but I relax better when I scream at the top of my lungs, and ask God what is his plan.  Unfortunately, God doesn’t answer, so I keep screaming until my throat hurts or a neighbor complains (first come, first served!)

Yes, I want to feel sorry for myself, but no matter how bad the things that have happened seem, we need to step back, forgive ourselves and move forward. It is 5pm somewhere in the world, and if you have good wine, come on, go ahead and have a glass. Put your feet up (with or without a glass) and make your peace with God.

Tomorrow is another day. Write down how you feel, write down things you felt you had control over, and the ones you did not. Think about what you could have done to change, and if today was one of “those days” – out of your control, and nothing you could have done would have worked. Just be nice to yourself, and as a good friend would tell you, tomorrow will be a better day!

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Dear Travel Agent,

How many times have we all been approached by people surprised that travel agents “still” exist, despite living in the internet Google/Expedia world?

This is a rhetorical question. But the answer is very simple. How much do you value your privacy?

For those who follow my blogs, you know that I compare the profession of travel agent to that of a doctor. As a doctor, privacy is more than expected. Travel Agents will not sell or “lend” private information to any other party, and all conversations take place via email, phone calls and/or text messages, and are private and not disclosed to anyone.

Remind prospective clients and clients that if you were to “sell” their information to other parties, if you could make money that way, you could sell any airfare, hotel or even tour for below the quoted price. Your “profit” would be made on their information, and that could be priceless.

There is nothing is this world for free.
Everything has a price tag attached to it.

Remind them that the next time they go shopping online and send their information, others are also getting their priceless personal data. All the security installed in their computer is being compromised by their own action.

The privacy between client and travel agent is priceless AND working with a travel agent doesn’t cost more when you compare apples with apples.  Remind them that buying through the internet doesn’t give them the empathy, answers, or even offer the excitement that working with a competent Travel Agent offers.

I hope you are dealing with smart travelers, and forwarding them this blog will be enough for them to understand your real value!

Feel free to contact me and follow me at:
Facebook @travelwithrosana
Instagram @travelwithrosana
Twitter @travelRosana
Blogs @ http://www.TravelWithRosana

 

Dear Travel Agent,

I hope you are starting to enjoy the spring season! As we know, spring starts in April in the northern hemisphere of the planet, at the same time as the southern hemisphere starts to experience the beautiful changing of colors of the autumn, or fall.  The end of June starts the summer in the northern hemisphere, and winter in the southern hemisphere.

Countries closest to the equator experience very little change in terms of temperature: Ecuador, Uganda, Kenya and other countries. (Please see world map.) For example, as most of Ecuador is in the southern hemisphere, June to September is considered to be winter, and winter is generally the dry season in warm climates. Spring, summer, and fall are generally the “wet seasons” while winter is the dry (with the exception of the first month of fall being dry).

Why am I telling you all of this?

There are two big factors that can influence a prospective client’s decision to visit different countries:

1.  With climate change, as we can all witness, even though it may be spring season, in many countries or parts of countries it is still snowing. So, make sure you don’t promise sunny weather in April when you have no control of delivering on that promise.
2.  The seasons and weather (rainy or dry) will determine if it is high, low, or even shoulder season for travel. Prices change completely. When is very inexpensive to visit a country, make sure your prospective client is aware of the weather he/she will be experiencing. For example, while offering a beach lover Australia in August just because the price is right, you will be looking for lots of complaints.

It is smart to have a disclaimer that we can never guarantee good weather during the time of travel, but some homework from the travel agent is required to make sure the client will enjoy the vacation based on his/her expectations and the value of the tour package.

Feel free to pick my brain for more ideas on how to provide the best information to your prospective clients.

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Instagram @travelwithrosana
Twitter @travelRosana
Blogs @www.travelWithRosana.com

 

 

 

Dear Travel Agent,

As my followers already know, I like to compare travel agents with doctors. Some doctors specialize in an area of medicine, and others prefer to be a general practitioner.

I want to talk about advantages of being a travel agent with a specialty:

• Chances are, you know the destination better
• You are able to offer a better value for the price you quote
• People are more likely to recommend you
• It is easier to target your network
• You can have a better focus in advertising
• Your specialty is something you are personally passionate for

However, if you decide to specialize in a very narrow aspect of travel, you will have a smaller audience. For example, a travel agent who specializes in doing wine tasting only in Mendoza, Argentina would not have as broad of a specialty as one who specializes in wine tasting around the world. So, for example, people who love Malbec could offer the experience of comparing the tastes of the Argentinian Malbec and the California one.

You could broaden that to an even larger audience by offering tours for wine and different spirits in different countries, with classes and blind taste tests.

A nice way to promote certain destinations to an undecided group interested in travel that includes wine and/or other spirits, is to have an event and offer different bottles of wine/spirits from different countries. Do a blind taste test by covering the bottles. People in the group give points for taste, and the winner could be the country or destination the group will visit.

Creativity is the name of the game!

Feel free to pick my brain for other ideas for becoming a specialist in an aspect of travel, and how to promote your specialty to groups.

Follow me @

Facebook @travelwithrosana
Twitter @travelRosana
Instagram @travelwithrosana
Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com