Selling Travel June 2016

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10/29/13 2:18 PM


THE HOW-TO MAGAZINE FOR TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS 4

EDITORIAL

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TRIPKIT – The Travel Institute

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SELLING SEASONS

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ANCILLARY SEASON

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DAWG SEASON

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TRUMP SEASON

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SOCIAL SEASON

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20 E-GUIDES TO HELP YOU SELL MORE TRAVEL

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VIDEOBLOCKS

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CLASSIFIEDS

The DESIRE to travel starts early and continues throughout one’s life – are you marketing to Generation Z?

Share your money making ideas in SELLING TRAVEL. CONTACT Steve Crowhurst steve@sellingtravel.net 250-760-0893 www.sellingtravel.net

Publisher: SMP Training Co. www.sellingtravel.net

Contributors Steve Crowhurst, Anthony Dalton, Steve Gillick.

Attention Suppliers: Advertising in SELLING TRAVEL reaches the serious business-minded travel agent. Promote your products and services using Selling Travel’s unique promotional formula – you write the articles on how to sell your own products offering step-by-step selling tips, tools and techniques that you know have worked for your agency accounts. Full page rates range from $300 to $425 based on number of insertions. Remember, if you can’t sell it to them, they can’t sell it for you! Please note that Selling Travel, owned and published by SMP Training Co, is not connected in any way to Selling Travel magazine published by BMI Publishing Ltd., and based in the UK. The latter publication focuses entirely on destination and travel/tourism product training and is circulated solely to the UK and Ireland travel industries. To benefit from this resource visit www.sellingtravel.co.uk and be sure to subscribe.

SELLING TRAVEL is owned and published by Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. All Rights Reserved. Protected by International Copyright Law. SELLING TRAVEL can be shared, forwarded, cut and pasted but not sold, resold or in any way monetized. Using any images or content from SELLING TRAVEL must be sourced as follows: “Copyright SMP Training Co. www.sellingtravel.net” SMP Training Co. 6171 Strathcona Place, BC, Canada, V9T0A1 Note: Steve Crowhurst is not responsible for outcomes based on how you interpret or use the ideas in SELLING TRAVEL. T: 250-760-0893.


SALES & MARKETING TIPS, TOOLS & TECHNIQUES FOR ALL TRAVEL TRADE PROFESSIONALS

Steve Crowhurst, Publisher

SELLING SEASONALITY Tis the season to sell travel. In fact, tis the season every day to sell someone, somewhere. Another fact coming up: it’s not just the four seasons we know as winter, spring, summer and fall that will cause customers to call you. In and around those four basic seasons, you will find some countries have the rainy season, the tornado season, the mosquito season, the dry season, the windy season and gawd forbid, the tourist season! The trade itself has other seasons too… off, shoulder, mid and high season. There’s another one too, the Ancillary Season! Some of your clients like the storm watchers, will want to travel during tornado season. Others prefer the stormy season and like to watch huge waves roll in. In America its Trump Season and I show you how to profit from the word trump. There’s always a season and always a reason to travel. You just have to get your destination weather charts out and study which way the dollar is blowing. As always, your excellent photography will help support your sales and marketing activities. Let’s get busy, and don’t forget you have a series of e-Guides you can purchase from The Travel Institute that will help you move ahead in most things related to selling travel. Here’s to your continued success! Best regards. Steve Crowhurst, CTC, CTM Hon. steve@sellingtravel.net www.sellingtravel.net


START YOUR TRAVEL CAREER Start with Travel industry fundamentals that can lead to an exciting career in the travel industry! The Travel Institute offers strong foundational training in the form of its popular Travel Introductory Program, the TRIPKit. The TRIPKit curriculum is contained in two college-level textbooks (preview here) and their supporting workbooks to help you master the fundamentals of the travel industry. Travel Career Development is the cornerstone of the program. Adopted by a number of college programs, you will learn the art of selling travel, the keys to servicing customers, the variety of experiences you may be selling, as the diverse career path available to you. Exploring the World examines the physical and cultural angles of geography, plus a regional breakdown describing specific destinations and their attractions. Chapter summaries and discussion questions help expand your learning. This course is the foundation from which you will build a successful travel career. You will see the world as world travelers see it – a kaleidoscope of places, people and experiences waiting to be sampled. You control how quickly you study the material. The Reading Guide for the course offers plans for nine, eighteen and even 33 weeks of study – but ultimately you decide your study schedule. Upon completing your studies, we include the Travel Agent Proficiency (or TAP) test so that you can earn your first industry-recognized designation before seeking a position. This tells employers that you have mastered basic industry knowledge. You also benefit from 3 months free trial of membership with The Travel Institute, providing you with free ongoing online, instructor-led training on various topics.

“The TRIP KIT contains professional material and text books that are designed for agents who are new to the travel industry. While I have a passion for travel and a long career in the industry I am not a professional educator, so why would I try to recreate what already exists?” -Rhonda Stanley, VP Talent Development, The Travel Agent Next Door – (CANADA) “We use the TRIPKit extensively, and as a training program, also benefit from the instructor manuals and test question banks. In checking out other training resources for new travel agents as far as we can tell there is no equivalent to this basic travel agent training material.” -Heather Kindred, Program Director, Travel Leaders of Tomorrow

Order your TRIPKit Today!


Hey, It’s always selling season!


Whether you are new to selling travel or you’ve been selling travel since 1889 (!) there’s always a reason for the season and every season in between. It pays to study seasonality and to prosper from the changes in weather patterns in various countries including your own. There are seasons ‘at home’ that cause your clients to leave town and there are seasons in other countries that cause your clients to want to travel at that time too. So many seasons, so little time. Let’s check them out.

Right. Start with our own seasons. In North America we have the usual four: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.

the 14-day trend so that I can forecast, within reason, what’s about to come my way.

These seasons have been with us a long time and we know them to arrive during a certain month, give or take a few days or weeks. We also know now, today, that the dates and months of these seasons are changing / have changed. Some seasons are arriving earlier than expected. Other seasons are more severe in their heat or cold. The duration of these seasons might be longer / shorter.

You too can check the weather in and around your location plus overseas at the destination you like to sell. It’s important to know these things when it comes to marketing your niche destination.

If you make notes on the seasons in your part of North America you might find that some of the dates shown in your supplier’s brochures are falling outside of what we know to be a typical high season. The effect of this would be higher pricing at a time when the seasonal weather is not as good as promoted. You can hear it now: “What happened to the promised sunshine?” or, “Where’s the snow?” The Weather Channels All weather channels and apps are your friends in need. I have to say I like to check

The Last Minute Push By studying 14-day trends in weather, you can create your own selling seasons around the current changes in weather. For instance, your research shows a two week span of sunshine in the UK. You create a marketing piece email it, post it, blog about it and overall get the message out to your UK loving client base. This is a new take on the “last minute club” that primarily pushed short notice low cost travel. Now you can use the “last minute” idea based on weather pattern at the desstination you like to sell. So, two-weeks of sun, or snow and you have a clientele ready & waiting with bags packed and eager to go sightseeing in London in good weather or skiing in Whistler when the snow is falling.


The Customer Seasonal Chart

The above chart can be found on the www.scribd.com website. Click the chart for the exact page. You might wish to keep a copy of this chart close by and make your notes as to how seasons change in your agency. The way you record this is as and when your clients book to a certain place. The travel patterns of your clients become your selling seasons. Creating a chart of when your clients travel and where they travel to is an excellent way to forecast the coming year’s selling seasons. Few travel agents do this, so if you do it you’ll be ahead of the game in your area. By having this information readily available you can market locally and attract your competitor’s clients who have wanted to travel to the destination you are promoting, but their agent has not made contact.

The Year Round Selling Season Some products such as cruising now offer you a product and a destination / itinerary for every month on the calendar. If you want a year round product then perhaps cruising is your segment to study. You can also structure a year-round selling season based on the above chart. Plot your preferred destinations / areas to sell each month and then select the product from your list of preferred suppliers, or go with your niche / specialty. The result will be a sales and marketing chart that tells you when to start promoting your first product and destination. As you progress through the year you will know ahead of time what you doing, marketing and selling. This is one way to beat the stress of in-the-moment marketing techniques.


The chart opposite is missing a few countries / regions so you’ll have to factor those in. We have China listed, so perhaps you can use the same columns for Japan, or Thailand? Well perhaps not. Different area of the world and China being so huge it will have its own seasonality depending upon where you’re sipping your tea. Japan is of course well known for its spring time Cherry Blossom displays and that’s one season you cannot, should not ignore. At the other end of the year the fall colour season is well known along the north eastern seaboard of Canada and USA and again there are so many countries with glorious fall colours too. Make a note. Tis The Season Do you like Christmas? Well consider that yet another season to sell. Yes there are many who will be spending their Christmas at home with family and following their religious doctrines. Others will want to travel overseas to see their families at this special time of year. And then there are still others who celebrate their religious event on a different date. The “season” usually referred to as Christmas or for the very sensitive when it comes to political correctness – The Great Gift Day… i.e. no mention of anything associated with religion. Check the religious seasonality of your clients and find out when you can send them away on vacation, before, after or during the Christmas holidays or their own religious holidays. Coming up is a season that hits the TV screen every so often. Genealogy.

The Genealogy Season I love this season. People looking for people, their own people and it takes them on a journey to the next state, province, county or around the world three times! Have you watched the “Who do you think you are?” programs or the “Genealogy Roadshow” series? If you do or have you would notice the main supporter and advertiser is Ancestry.com. I have used this website to find my own routes and once you start it is open season all year long and for years after that – you can never stop searching and that nugget of information is a travel agents marketing gem. Your marketing theme for this season is: “Where do you think you’re from?” riding on the theme of the “Who do you think you are?” show.

WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE FROM? If you are searching for your long lost relatives and now know where they came from, there’s only one thing left to do… …GO THERE! Let us arrange your personal journey to find the exact place your ancestor’s came from. Call us today!

The Same Last Name Group is another angle for arranging genealogy tours. Imagine a bus load of Smiths all searching in the same town! Could be fun? Might be financially rewarding too.


The Low, Mid and High Seasons If you go with the standard seasons for pricing products you can use the words (low, mid and high) in your marketing to attract more sales. The Threat Technique: Here you’ll make mention to Book now BEFORE the rates go up! The Mid Price Idea: Focus on the middle. “Want the more than low cost and less then high season? Well, now is the time to book. Off season rates still apply!” The High Season Sale: Not everyone wants to pay low dollar. A deal is a deal however there comes a time when a little extra comfort is nice to have. A better view would round out the vacation. An upgrade would make everyone feel better. Your marketing approach here would be as follows: “Go for it. Pay the price and enjoy a fabulous vacation that you’ll remember for decades to come. You deserve it.” The Season for Supplier Offers This season pops up when a supplier needs to fill the tour. Take advantage of these special offers and promote them as “look what I’ve discovered just for you!” Could be a two-for-one, an upgrade when buying a certain seat or stateroom. Free air might be included with a specific category. You know how it works. The question is, are you taking these offers to your clients as your own? You cannot claim to be the supplier and you cannot claim the offer as yours, however you can mention them this way: “Look what I found for you! Book your category A cabin on this cruise and I can arrange an amenity upgrade of the following…” The focus is on YOU having discovered the offer, just for your clients.

Be careful how you word what you’ve found. This type of announcement would make for an excellent post to your social media outlets. You can use the offers as a lure to attract your customers and prospective customers to make a call and or visit your agency.

There is a season for all travellers, all you have to do is find out which traveller prefers which season. You can use the word season too. Factor it into your headlines. “It’s the season to save!” “It’s Caribbean Season!” Think about where you can promote your seasonal offers and prepare your marketing piece way in advance of the date you need to send it out. Study the seasonality of your preferred destination and when it’s hot there and snowing here… you’ve got a winner!

STOP SHOVELLING AND START STROLLING The snow season is coming, and that’s when you should be going…

…here!

Put your shovel away and call us today! Over to you for this one. Come up with your own wording and layout ideas.


List of Seasons Here’s a list of seasons to get you started. Add to the list as more seasons come to mind. You could invoke any season you wish. It’s your call. The cruise season. The Amazon Season. You go for it.

Here it is:

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” ― Albert Camus

              

Adventure Baseball Boating Cherry Blossom Cricket Drought Dry Fall Fishing High Hiking Hockey Hot Long Winter Low

              

Mid Midnight sun Migration Monsoon Mosquito Off Rainy Romance Sasquatch Shoulder Soccer Sports Spring Storm Summer

Once you have your list of seasons you can then use the seasonal keywords in your slogans and generic marketing text. The word ‘season’ itself conjures up a thought in the consumers mind as they query: “…is it?” “…am I missing it?” It puts some doubt in the consumers mind that they might be missing out on this season of… whatever it is. A Man for All Seasons The play, the movie, the book, the blog… who knows where this might end. Is it the theatre season? The show season? Come on you can do better than this. The Seasonal Quote I always wonder why there are so few quotes in the present day. For sure we can go back to the 16th century and find a quote that still rings true. But not too much happening in the current season. Ah ha! A no quote season. But I found one that received some clicks.

Sometimes a decent quote laid over a supporting image can sow the seed of travel. Look for a quote or two that you like and see if you can tie them into a promotion you have in mind. Of course a quote from Hamlet and a trip to London might be the ticket. Theatre season. London season. Something there you can package for sure. Right then. And suddenly it is the season for ending this article. You have the ideas so now you can run with generating your very own seasonal extravaganza and coming up with your reasons for seasons that will work for you such as the seasons that happen at your preferred destination. The season for Carnivals might be one. The goat herding season might be another, the season of the great migration of wildebeests and reindeer, caribou and whales. I’m telling you there are so many seasonal moments where you can generate a seasonal income it is mind boggling. The Seasonal Travel Agent Last but not least. If you are part time and trying to generate an income you might find it better to go full time and focus your entire energy on the project. Plan first, have plan B and C and do the math. Don’t go before you know – that would be the season of the crash and burn. We don’t like to do that in the business of Selling Travel. 



It’s that time of year. It’s the season for travel agents to pucker up and make pals with their airline buddies, find out who is allowing travel agents to sell airline ancillary services when booking a customer’s seat and claim a commission for doing so. The challenge here is in trying to find out the W5. There are articles in the press that talked up the selling of airline ancillary services however when I asked the author of the article to tell us which airline and how much they’re paying travel agents. It’s been a few weeks and no response!

The best way to think about the Ancillary sale is to consider it an FIT booking. In other words, you are building your clients flight and adding a variety of components to it. At the time of writing this page there have been more than a few articles in various trade newspapers and magazines about travel agents selling airline ancillary add-ons and profiting by it. Go Local for Information Make contact with your airline BDMs and ask the question about you selling their add-ons and what the commission is. Here’s some information I found out. The Ancillary Sale Your GDS probably has the ancillary sale factored into the booking system. If it does then you can book any of the “extras” and your GDS will create an EMD. (The Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) is an International Air Transport Association (IATA) standard for electronically documenting ancillary revenue; that is, all other sales and transactions between airlines and passengers besides electronic tickets.) Read more here.

For the old guard in the biz’ this is the equivalent to the infamous MCO.

Once you’ve sold the flight from A to B at the airfare that suits your client’s needs and wallet, then you can start to sell the add-ons, the ancillary products. Keep in mind that old one-liner about “Would you like fries with that?” “Would you like any of these options with that?”          

aisle seat  a better seat assistance  extra baggage blanket  additional bag champagne  dinner reservation larger seat  hotel reserved seat  transfers special meal  limousine travel buddy  sightseeing window seat  duty free massage  haircut  travel insurance

A little tongue in cheek but you get the idea. The only way to find out what you can addon to the seat you’ve just sold is to contact your preferred airline and double check. At the same time you’ll need to know whether or not you will earn a commission on the


total “package”. Also check your GDS should the optional list be there, waiting for you. There is information to the fact that you must book the ancillary products at the time of the initial booking if you wish to receive a commission on the ancillary sales. The Extra Fee Backlash When airlines started to unbundle their products and charge fees for everything that was at one time included or free, there was a consumer backlash. You might expect the same from your clients as and when you start offering ancillary products despite the fact that the airlines are known to charge. To overcome any customer push back you should create a script you can use when you engage a client. Here’s one you can change to suit: “Well that’s the flight booked, now let’s talk about making your flight a more comfortable one. As you know each airline has a schedule of upgrades and we can now sell them. This means I can put together your entire flight including the extras saving you another call to the airline. Now, the seat at that price is the skinny one, I’m going to suggest you upgrade to the next level for a larger and more comfortable seat as that flight is seven hours in duration…” Over to you. You can work on the script with your fellow TAs and discover a few ways to pitch the products and fee-based upgrades. Keep in mind this is a comfort over cost sale. Some clients will want to save money, however they will not thank you for the blood clot they have upon landing!

The Comfort Over Cost Sale We know that so many clients just cannot afford to spend more than they have budgeted for their overall trip. The fact is however that their outbound flight is the maker or breaker of a great vacation. You know it yourself, that to have a great ride to the airport, a smooth line up and speedy process through security, passport control, check in and boarding all make for a terrific start to the vacation. A tight seat and a bag of peanuts for a seven hour to eleven hour flight does not continue the great feeling you had a few moments ago. Comfort is important for peace of mind, being able to sleep, read, use one’s laptop and chit chat with a travel partner. Comfort over cost… keep it in mind. You will have a very happy client return versus a law suit for a health problem. 

Here’s an interesting read. Click ‘n’ go.


Hundreds of slogan ideas to help you attract more business. Publishing July 1st 2016 and available from The Travel Institute.



Around here, people know others by the dog that walks beside them. Your clients for sure have dogs and they travel together. So here’s a clever idea for a book by National Geographic. The Dog Lover’s Guide to Travel. So, if you’re a dog loving travel agent and you speak the language, then here’s a brand new season just for you. Suggest you read the book first and then start thinking on how you can market yourself as the DOG & U Travel Specialist. The guy on the left is thinking, “Germany! I’m in!” and that’s great. Now, where can you send your clients and their dogs based on the breed? Ah ha! Needs some study I know, however it’s one more angle to generate a sale. Here’s what you do next. You make contact with your clients and survey if they are dog owners and then ask if they like to travel with their dog. The easiest excursion will be dog and owner travelling within the home country. Then for those long trips overseas, well why not ask about your dog lovin’ client’s bucket list for their pooch? Like the chap on the opposite page he or she may want to visit the old country. There are dog shows for the well-groomed and there are pet friendly places world wide and even cruises where pets can sail along.

National Geographic’s ultimate resource for traveling with your furry friend features hundreds of dog-friendly places to pamper your pooch, from doggie daycare to canine cruises.

Apparantly, according to CruiseCritic the Queen Mary 2 allows pets to travel and there’s also a company offering a Meow Meow Cruise and working on a Woof Woof Cruise. I tell ya… if it’s to be done, it’s being done. Just have to be first and fast. Fast beats slow. Come up with your own pet travel ideas.

Make it Dawg Season where you live. Check it out and see if your clients are up for it. 



Whether you are supporting Donald Trump in his effort to reach the White House doesn’t matter here. What does matter is whether or not you have made good on the recognition of his surname across all media and the amount of airtime his last name is receiving. The word trump is a word you can use to market yourself and your products. It’s in the dictionary. Mr. Trump doesn’t own the word – yet. So you have time to jump on the bandwagon and use the word “trump” in your marketing. Why do this? Simply for the clickability. Let’s check it out. The word trump as of today, is well known and attracts the eyes of more than a few million readers each day. To weave the word into your marketing headline is a great way to attract attention to your products. I wrote about using the word amazing when The Amazing Race took off some years ago. Amazing cruises, amazing adventures… the combinations were unlimited. Now you have a new word to play with. Let’s check out the actual meaning of the word trump: 1. To trump is to outrank or defeat someone or something, often in a highly public way. 2. A valuable resource that may be used, especially as a surprise, in order to gain an advantage. 3. Originally trump implied a deceptive form of victory involving cheating, but that sense has been largely lost, though it's still around in the term trumped up, meaning something that's been falsely made up. A politician may face trumped up charges that could ruin his career. Don’t worry about the third item as it dates from 1690! Not too many still living who would know the meaning of that time!

Slogan Ideas “We’ve come up trumps!” “Our pricing trumps the competitions!” “Let us be your trump card when it comes to searching for travel specials online.” It’s in the cards! You’ve come up trumps!

You get the idea. Use the word where you can and where it makes sense in the way it suggests you have, or your customers have won out, got the best. Important to note – you cannot link the word to the man running for the US Presidency and if you mis-wrote it (that would be a political statement similar to mis-spoke!) you could be in trouble. Stick to using the word purely for its ability to attract and tie it in to your niche or whatever it is you are selling. Over to you. See if you can trump what I’ve suggested with your own slogans. 


The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis


Pitching your wares online is the way to go. It’s fast, reasonably accurate and has the potential to promote your message to a far wider audience than just your existing clients. Social media is good. How much of it you use and when is the question you need to answer. If you are into selling seasons, then a seasonal social blitz might work for you. Check out this infographic from https://leveragenewagemedia.com – click the graphic to visit the page. The infographic is free to share.

On the next page is the text version of the infographic and I have highlighted keywords and phrases that should have meaning to your social media selling season. When you select your social media outlets look for some of the words I have highlighted.

For instance photos and videos are related to selling travel. Words like “discovery” are related to selling travel. Sharing links means your content could go viral. Put all of this together and you’ll discover the best social media sites to promote your products.


Social Media Comparison Pinterest  70 million users  Social site that is all about discovery  Largest opportunities are in decor, crafts/DIY, cooking, health, and fashion  Users are 20% male and 80% female Twitter  289 million active users  Micro blogging social site that limits posts to 140 characters  Largest penetration in the US but spreading slowly and steadily  9,100 tweets happen every second Facebook  1.5 billion monthly active users  Mobile is Facebook’s cash cow – 1.31 monthly active mobile users  Mobile ad revenue makes up 76% of all ad revenue ($2.9 billion in Q2 of 2015)  Users share 1 million links every 20 minutes Instagram  300 million active users  Social sharing site all around pictures and now 15 second videos  Many brands are participating through the use of hashtags and posting pictures consumers can relate to  Most followed brand Nike Google+  300 million active users  Social network built by Google that allows for brands and users to build circles  Not as many brands active but the ones that are tend to be a good fit with a great following  Hangouts and Photos have been separated from Google+ but posts remain as ‘streams’ LinkedIn  380 million users worldwide  Business oriented social networking  Participating corporate brands giving associates a place to network/connect  79% of users are 35 or older

Your Social Selling Seasonal Plan The first thing you’ll need to consider is the product you would like to sell in each of the four seasons. Make that ‘product’ and ‘destination’ as the two go hand in hand. Refer to the seasonal chart in this issue of ST for ideas. It would seem from the data that Facebook is still the most used and with its mobile push and the desire for users to post more videos this would seem your number one choice for a seasonal video. Instagram and Pinterest are photo centric sites which supports travel and therefore you could factor in both of these sites IF you have the content to post – and that goes for Facebook too. Twitter as I often report is the “follow me” social outlet and for travel, that means (to me) that you use Twitter for when you are travelling and actually want your clients and anyone else who might book with you, to follow you on your trip. You’ll make this happen by tweeting along the way and uploading images of what you are looking at in real time. Then, before leaving to return home, you message that you’ll be hosting a live event – details to follow. That’s when you show your images and sell the audience on booking and travelling with your agency.

The infographic shown here is from 2014. There’s plenty of 2016 data you can research and apply the concepts I’ve mentioned here. One of the things that jumps out when you do investigate using social media is the push to use video. If you are not a videographer just yet, start learning. If you are, then start using it and start with a simple webcam video of you saying “Hi!” and introducing yourself as the ultimate travel agent in your community. 


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No other travel speaker / trainer has written and published more articles, e-Books, and magazines on new business generation for travel agents than Steve. With well over 375 published articles in CT, 20+ E-Books and 50 issues of Selling Travel, he has given you a source of timely and cutting edge tips, tools and techniques to help you sell more travel.


Someone asked about my former magazine IC TRAVEL AGENT and what happened to it. Well I was publishing three magazine with similar content and decided to go with Selling Travel as that is what everyone does regardless of being in a retail location or working from home. Here’s the entire suite of issues with plenty of home-based selling tips. Click the image to view them online.


You should be in movies! At the very least shooting video… Or… creating your travel videos with the help of

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Forget static images. Sell travel using video.


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