In my short five years in the Travel Industry there’s one thing that I’ve come to not only know, but expect from traditional Travel Agents:

They absolutely LOVE to complain.

In all the industries, all the companies I’ve worked for during my adult life, I’ve never seen an industry so quickly drawn to anger and criticism the way Travel Agents are. It’s no wonder so many of them have gone out of business. Currently, with two thirds unable to show a profit last year, one might suggest that a bit more focus on their own business would be in order – rather than spending time and energy on someone else’s.

Not Travel Agents. They relish the role of victim and have an uncanny way of finding something to complain about – even if it’s a half a world away.

I first caught wind of this iTrek story and promotion in Australia called “The Travel Agent Is Dead” at the beginning of the month. I didn’t think much of it, nor was it “news” to me by any means.

As we’ve come to expect, the industry can never let anything go. Quite the opposite. Since the initial story posted on March 8th, there have been numerous other articles on the progress, compounded with more bickering back and forth within the community.

As a result, more heals are being dug in on both sides of the fence that only heightens the hostility and anger – now almost a month old.

There soon appeared to be a tie with Travel Guard in this developing story, in which they proceeded to do some major backpedaling in order to save themselves from the wrath of the Travel Agent community. If you’re wondering how Travel Guard got mixed up in this mess half way around the world, they do some of the underwriting for iTrek. Enormous pressure (and blame) was bestowed upon them in order to “fix” this promotion once and for all.

After all the dust settled, I’m reading Travel Agent Central yesterday only to find that iTrek has decided to move forward with the promotion. While putting an end to the gala affair they initially planned for this promotion, they’ve decided to move forward with the film competition and prize awards, however, on a much smaller scale. We found this on their website home page.

THE RUMOURS ARE TRUE.

Unfortunately “The Travel Agent Is Dead”, is dead. The competition has come to a tragic and premature end due to the unprecedented hostile response from Travel Agents in both the USA and Australia.

There has been a biblical over reaction by Travel Agents to this marvelous competition. The pressure that was put on our Underwriter to withdraw support for this competition was of the highest degree and due to this relentless onslaught we are unable to continue with the campaign.

Biblical overreaction. Sound familiar? You bet it does!

I’ve seen far too many “relentless onslaughts” from this community over the years, to the point that it makes me sick to my stomach that we actually work in the same industry. It’s not only appalling; it’s embarrassing to see grown adults react in this fashion.

And that will eventually be their downfall – they “react”, they never “respond”.

And there is a difference.

In my humble opinion, Travel Agents as a whole need to get a spine and start promoting their value – rather than attacking and condemning everything that appears to stand in their way. It’s gone past the point of sad to the point of absurd. You just can’t get anywhere effectively by doing this type of bickering. With every problem lies a solution, but most can’t get out of the way, due to the emotional outbursts we see all too often. None of them ever appear to take the time to look at more effective ways to respond to any given situation.

Look at YTB. Sure, the hostility and public shame has driven some away, but our company as a whole is much stronger and far more resilient than they ever imagined. That’s the nature and the beauty of the Direct Sales and Network Marketing model. There’s power in our numbers, and no two people are going to perceive or respond exactly the same way. In stark contrast to the Travel Agent community, our industry spends far more time looking for opportunities to advance and improve – not blatantly attack and tear down.

In their defense, nobody likes being called a dinosaur or worse – dead. They see evidence of things changing around them every day. Look at the Travel Weekly Power List. Four of the top ten companies are on-line Agencies, producing a combined $45 BILLION in sales without any need or want for their fine services, which they proudly hold near and dear to their heart. And they should be proud of what they offer. Likewise there is a market for their fine customer service and support.

The problem as I see it comes from the heart – instead of using their heads. As a result, the emotions elevate and compound each situation instead of finding an applicable resolution that most everyone can agree on.

Produce another competition here in the U.S. for all the reasons why you actually need a Travel Agent. (Without any need or desire to even speak of iTrek.) With all their years of experience I’m sure there are some wild stories that could be told. Real horror stories and how they came to the rescue and aid of long time clients they’ve helped over the years. Not only could it be extremely informative but down right fun to watch if done in the proper spirit. And by proper spirit – I mean in a way that I’ve heard them talk for years – a Travel Agent is your partner – a Travel Agent is your friend – a Travel Agent is there to build a relationship with you. It’s the only way a Travel Agent can offer the perfect vacation or travel experience.

All features you just can’t get from a web site – bits and bytes simply can’t compete in that regard.

Promote your features, advantages – benefits as to why your worth every penny, while at the same time saving your clients valuable time and money.

What a novel idea.

Instead…what we see is more anger, with more fingers being pointed – this time from across the globe. All that does is push potential clients away. What’s even more amazing to me is their anger is directed at a company that the average American has never even heard of until Travel Agents decided to make a stink. Now, not only do more people know about them, but iTrek actually won more promotional leverage in a market that’s very keen on saving every penny they can. Based on what I’ve seen, who would want to work with a hostile and angry Agent like the one iTrek described? You couldn’t pay me to book with some of these “professionals” at this point.

At this rate and with their attitude, they will be dead when it’s all said and done.

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With YTB’s Sail-a-thon going currently running with Carnival Cruise Lines until December 5th, I can’t think of a better plug to promote the value of this cruise line. I’ve kept a close eye on our friends at Carnival over the years. Not only has this cruise line been a family favorite for cruising over the years, but I’ve also kept tabs on how they’ve been able to maintain and grow their fleet of ships. While the line has grown over the years, they have also refurbished a number of the older ships to keep them up to date with today’s growing market.

There’s a reason why Carnival is called “The Most Popular Cruise Line in the World” – and Porthole Cruise Magazine just gave the line eight more awards in it’s latest edition to help it maintain this title. Ann Sedgwick is obviously extremely excited about these honors and forwarded the press release to her list this weekend.

Here’s the release for you to not only read, but offer to clients about the value of cruising with Carnival Cruise Lines.

CARNIVAL WINS EIGHT PORTHOLE READERS CHOICE AWARDS, INCLUDING BEST VALUE, BEST ENTERTAINMENT AND BEST CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS

Line Has Earned Unprecedented 109 Awards Over Past 11 Years – Most In Cruising

MIAMI (November 20, 2009) – Carnival Cruise Lines, the world’s largest cruise operator, took top honors in eight categories, including Best Value, Entertainment and Best Children’s Programs, in the annual Readers Choice Awards sponsored by Porthole Cruise Magazine, the leading consumer cruise magazine.

The awards are based on surveys of Porthole readers who rated their favorite cruise line in a wide variety of product- and service-related categories.

Since the awards were established in 1999, Carnival Cruise Lines has garnered 109 individual honors – the most of any cruise line during this period.

Carnival’s 2009 Porthole Readers Choice Awards include:

• Best Value for the Money Line
• Best Children’s Programs
• Best Entertainment
• Best Shore Excursions
• Best Megaship (Carnival Splendor)
• Best Mexican Riviera Itineraries
• Best Theme Cruises
• Best Web Site

“To be recognized by consumers as the top cruise choice in so many different categories, particularly in areas such as children’s programming, entertainment and value, which are core elements of the Carnival vacation experience, is a truly wonderful honor,” said Ruben Rodriguez, Carnival’s executive vice president of marketing and guest experience.

Added Bill Panoff, publisher and editor-in-chief of Porthole Cruise Magazine, “Carnival Cruise Lines appeals to many different cruisers for many different reasons, which is why our readers continually vote them the best in several categories. From ships to onboard amenities to itineraries, the line continues to be a market leader and I congratulate them on their wins.”

Carnival Cruise Lines is the largest and most popular cruise line in the world, with 22 “Fun Ships” operating voyages ranging from three to 12 days in length to The Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, Hawaii, Panama Canal, Canada and New England.  The line’s newest ship, the 130,000-ton Carnival Dream, made its U.S. debut earlier this month.  Carnival also has one new ship on order, the 130,000-ton Carnival Magic, which is scheduled for delivery in 2011.

For additional information and reservations, contact any travel agent, call 1-800-CARNIVAL or visit carnival.com.

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Did you feel that? It’s the winds of change.

The NEW YTB booking engine came as an early Christmas present and the upgrade is now official in the US. You may or may not have heard about this and I’m only too happy to update you on advancements and upgrades from the folks in Wood River, Illinois, YTB Travel Network.

I’m sorry to inform some that “Being Powered by Travelocity” is no more. Our new platform is being serviced by Convergentware, out of Canada. (Thus why the beta testing was being done there.) While the relationships we had with both Priceline in 2005 and 2006 and World Choice (Travelocity) in 2007 and 2008 were extremely beneficial in helping the growth of our company, it’s clearly time to step up and not only own the client information, but provide better services to these clients via customer profiles.

Travel Agents are typically connected to one or more GDS systems. Today, travel content can be found outside of the GDS’s and directly via supplier websites or via direct links to suppliers’ back-end systems. (Which YTB is currently working on with its growing list of suppliers and vendors as these vendors create their own infrastructure to do so.)

This new product with Convergentware not only represents multiple GDS systems, (Global Distribution Systems) but they also seamlessly combine such GDS content with non-GDS content such as Web fares, Charter fares and Consolidator fares into one interface. There are air, car, hotel, insurance, tour, cruise and net fare modules for both client and business environments.

Convergent CRS Gateway is a back-end Centralized Reservations System (”CRS”) that is capable of searching and integrating data from the following five environments:

1. The Global Distribution Systems (“GDS”) such as Sabre, Galileo and Amadeus;
2. Travel suppliers directly via Application Programmer Interfaces (“API”);
3. Travel supplier Web sites;
4. GDS New Entrants (”GNE’s”) such as ITA Software;
5. Specialized or customized content via Convergent Publisher.

Convergent CRS technology is a global leader in automating these environments for the entire front-office to back-office reservations process which involves searching for relevant travel content, managing and attaching customer profiles to a particular reservation, and then book all the individual components of a travel reservation, including, but not limited to air, car, hotel, cruise, insurance and tour packages, ticketing specific components of a travel reservation that require ticketing in conjunction with reserving space such as air bookings.

Another nice feature I’m thrilled about is creating integrated quotes, itineraries and/or invoices regardless of where the travel content comes from. I can create and send a complete quote to a client and if they like what they see, all the client has to do is log in and pay for the trip I created for them.

How cool is that?! Talk about customer service.

The Convergent CRS Gateway powers all Convergentware front-end products such as Convergent Online and Convergent Professional. Add the power of Convergent Publisher, with its specialized content, contract and inventory management capabilities, and the Convergent CRS Gateway transforms into the leading customizable, centralized reservations system in the world. (Sorry, no more “gleaning” of travel bookings.)

Hang on…it gets even better.

You heard about the Worlds Largest Travel Party last week with the Worlds Most Popular Cruise Line in the World. This format was just a glimpse of things to come with MONTHLY Travel Party’s all across the country featuring suppliers and destinations each and every month that clients can not only book for themselves, with a Best Price Guarantee, but clients can also register themselves for monthly sweepstakes featuring a free vacation to one of these exotic destinations. Sweepstakes will range from 3-5 day weekend getaways, a 7 day all inclusive, or up to 14 days of bliss at an exotic destination that can be won only from the fine folks at YTB each and every month.

If you have not done so yet, I would highly recommend you subscribe to the Weekly Steals & Deals. (Found at the bottom right hand corner of our Booking Engine.) This is your first step in creating a customer profile and getting yourself registered for these sweepstakes. When you hit our web site, simply register with e-mail and password, and the Convergentware system will keep track of frequent flyer numbers, passport information, home/office and billing information, and other traveler information that you’ll only have to input once as the CRS does the rest.

By the way, are you as tired as I am over these “other companies” who send specials from Chicago to San Diego when YOU live in Atlanta? No longer a problem with YTB Travel Network as Convergentware Publisher will only find specials from your specified city in your customer profile. I don’t know about you, but I’m not all that interested in flying up to Chicago or finding that special to San Diego isn’t all that special from Atlanta.

And some have the audacity to claim we’re not serious about selling travel.

Hard to fathom, I know. But this is just the beginning. As other vendors and suppliers create the backbone to connect with this new platform, you’ll see more and more offerings and ways to combine great travel deals with the best prices, from one incredible travel agency.

And the cost to either RTA’s of YTB or customers for this advanced booking system?

Not a penny more. (In fact, it’s on sale right now.)

Congratulations YTB. You’ve proven yourselves to be a true innovator and leader in the Travel Industry once again.

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YTB was either moving forward with considerable growth and positive impact in the Travel Industry in 2007, or we experienced problem after problem – hit after hit, depending on which side of the fence you view our company. Travel MLM’s certainly had its share of attention in 2007.

Discount airlines and full fares alike also got considerable attention with meltdowns in 2007. You can find story after story about American Airlines, JetBlue, Skybus and United who went on the fritz. American Airlines was rated worst as of mid 2007 for leaving more than 15,000 passengers stranded on tarmacs without water or working toilets for hours. More recently, United Airlines has cancelled more than 1,100 flights since December 23.

I am aware of one airline, JetBlue, who responded by creating its own Passenger Bill of Rights and took responsibility for its own Customer Service. Unfortunately, this is an arrogant industry and many others have been slow to embrace the idea of putting the customer first. New York recently passedits own air travel protection act for flights leaving or arriving in the state. Airlines at JFK are required to provide water, refreshments and clean toilets if passengers are stranded on the tarmac for 3 hours. The Federal Government is also advising something called “Slot – Auctioning” to relieve congestion at JFK. A good thing right?

Not so much.

Many of the full fare airlines went to court to fight this act! Even IATA stepped in to tell the Bush Administration that their slotting idea was nothing more than an e-Bay approach. (I’m not well enough versed at the time of this post about this plan by the way to inform anyone if it is or is not.) It’s hard for me to even fathom this type of arrogance and lack of respect for another human being. While I’m not trying to discount some of the claims and issues towards YTB, at the same time fresh water and personal hygiene seem, at least to me, create new levels of concern.

Many on both sides of the fence are aware that Kim Sorensen was named in Travel Weekly in December as one of 33 most influential in the Travel Industry in 2007. Some however, may not be as familiar with another name on this list, Kate Hanni. Hanni contends that airline greed is the real problem and she is adamant in her belief that it will take a Government mandated Airline Passengers Bill of Rights to rectify the situation.

If the full fares want to move business operations to a third-world country where there are no working toilets and clean water, go right ahead. But this is America and here we have first-rate standards of hygiene. We also have a voice. It will be interesting to see how all this unfolds and if or when any “Passenger Bill of Rights” is implemented.

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Part of my New Years Resolution is offering better support to my growing customer base and team. I’ve recently retained a service that will help me communicate with both customers and team members. While I’ve always used a service like this, when I found AWeber it offered a 30 day free trial, and it took about a day to figure out it had all the features I wanted, and then some. So out with the old and in with the new! I’ve really enjoyed “playing” with how this works and what it can do.

- Give Each Customer a Personal Response
When a customer sits down to e-mail your company, it’s because he needs help. He chooses e-mail because it’s quick, but his request still warrants a satisfying and personal response! Companies eager to save time and money often take automation too far in their customer support. Each customer has a unique question, and deserves a unique answer. Even if you save time by copying and pasting stock replies, change the opening and closing to make the message sound less robotic.

- Be Clear, But Sincere
When responding to customers’ e-mail, be sincere and to the point. Before sending a message, try turning the tables. Ask yourself, “Would this answer satisfy me if I were the customer?” Take that extra moment to give your customer the help he deserves. It might mean the difference between a satisfied customer and a credit card chargeback!

- Offer Live Customer Support
E-mail has become an acceptable form of communication. But, live customer support is still necessary. The plethora of information available online can be overwhelming to customers, especially those new to the Internet! Single your company out from the crowd by providing customers with a real person to talk to. Live phone support is an invaluable way to foster trust. When your customer has reached the end of his Internet rope, and just needs help, your toll free number is the answer he’s looking for.

- Make Sure Your Support Reps Have All The Answers
The presence of phone support will do no good if your staff doesn’t know your product! Customer support reps should be warm and friendly, and willing to help with any aspect of your product. What a good feeling it is to talk to someone who feels confident in his product. It’s even better if he’s knowledgeable enough to solve your problem without transferring you all around the company!

- Provide Stand-Out Service; Gain Lifelong Customers
Too many e-businesses skimp on customer service, hiding behind web sites and message boards. Customer support is an integral part of every company, even those operating solely online. Be one of the few to offer stellar service, and gain customers for life!

PS - If you're involved with YTB, sign up for our FREE Newsletter. As a Website Owner or Website Seller, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB.

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