After looking around the internet the last few days, I’ve come to the conclusion that not much has changed since I went off on my Super Bowl run. While it was nice to get away, move off in another direction, take a break and actually enjoy myself, I see that some are still stuck in a rut. While there is always something going on in this industry, there are certain people you can count on for dragging their feet, kicking and screaming bantering about the same ol’ same old.

If you’ve been following the industry with me, we know how much turmoil is going on in the industry right now. Sure the economy has a lot to do with some of the issues going on and only the strong will survive. (Some might even thrive in this environment.) Back in November Liberty Travel decided to close a number of it’s poor producing Agencies, and while it’s CEO is adamant about leaving on her own terms, Cathy Pelaez will resign at the end of the week. Mid November Cruise Value Center closed it’s doors overnight, leaving cruise customers without a lifeboat to rescue them. And Friday will also be the last day of full operation for TripTailor and Vacation 59, as Sabre closes it’s wholesaling business.

US Airways posts a $220 million loss, Continental reported a loss of $96 Million, and JetBlue lost $49 million. Car Rental companies are being sued after filing bankruptcy and with the credit crunch slashing new car orders. Royal Caribbeans profits fall 98%, and Starwood drops by 46%.

Joystar is yet another black eye in the industry these days after it’s Agents file a petition for “involuntary bankruptcy”, and cruise lines have to fight courts in order to switch bookings to other Agencies so the agents can actually get paid. And while both myself and Travel Weekly wrote about an agent who broke into IHG system, stealing more than $163K in hotel bookings, we find yet another North Carolina Agent who stole some $512k from NCL, and $70k in chargebacks from Blue Sky Tours.

So what’s the problem you might ask?

Isn’t it obvious, it’s MLM.

It never ceases to amaze me how some people can be so obsessed about an issue that they can’t gain a proper perspective of the entire industry. MLM is the only model that has any type of issues like we have referenced above and if they rid the industry of this pariah, everything will be hunky dory once again. Depending on their mood, or possibly what position suits them at the time, they will either proudly accept or deny the role of “MLM Expert”. If challenged or called out by someone such as myself about how little they know, they deny it, as referenced in the comment section of my ariticle concerning IHG last week.

“I never professed to be an expert except in my own travel business.”

I have no idea who John is trying to kid here. He’s been attempting to tell me how things are since October 2007 here on this blog, while both myself and time has now shown that his comments some 16 months ago were certainly proven wrong. Along the way, we’ve seen posts like “Black Gold”, and one of my favorites from the industry itself, “The Cookie Jar”. And through it all, he just keeps coming back for more embarrassing moments while his followers hold him up in honor and appear to be proud of his antics of flipping the bird to Christians, and having links to other blogs with explicit titles and a niche subject matter concerning animal intercourse.

Pure class if you ask me.

What’s even more astounding is how blind the industry is concerning how clueless, foul and dirty this man is. As sad as it is, the industry does consider him an expert. I have not yet decided or figured out if the industry is either proud of his antics, or just so desperate about their own situation, that they simply look the other way whey he strays out of bounds like he does. (Based on what I’ve come to know about cynics and zealots, I tend to favor the latter.)

I’m only aware of one blog, board, or forum that John doesn’t have something to say about either YTB or MLM. That one forum would be WAHM and based on the subject of Work at Home Mom’s, I’m thankful that he at least knows his sexual orientation. However, the rest of the internet is fair game for this snake as he slithers all day long from site to site, and posting and promoting his hideous blog. This promotional tactic of linking back to his blog he uses, is ridiculed as sleazy when someone like myself would do the same, but for him, he’s obviously above reproach since his cause if more important than mine or YTB’s.

And now, oddly enough, just after denying his self proclaimed expertise, he’s elevated his own mind to writing about the MLM model in both TRO and getting his buddy George Dooley to post an article in Travel Agent Central. The basis of the article is not an actual warning about supporting MLM’s but the “hidden costs” of dealing with MLM’s.

It’s a been a topic of conversation for some time and try as they may they keep on promoting this bogus notion that YTB costs them money. The problem with this idea is that one of the sheep that follow John actually works with a supplier that’s offered on YTB’s booking engine. What’s comical about this relationship is that the employee that works for Pleasant Holidays calls himself “No Moron Here” but he keeps on contradicting what John is attempting to promote. It’s fun to read and I wrote about what his employer has told him in the past about his own misconceptions and fears about our company. We got a glimpse of what suppliers are actually saying behind closed doors some time ago. For as much whining this guy does about MLM’s he was told point blank that he didn’t have a say in who his employer does business with.

“The MLMs don’t bring in enough business to worry about them.”
“We don’t treat them the same way as our traditional agencies.”
“We will take their bookings (money) and supply them our product.”
“Stop worrying about them.”
“You are not to discuss the MLMs with the agents or agencies.”

Since his misconceptions have been cast aside, he lowered himself to forming relationships with other zealots who are just as clueless, angry and bitter as he is. The problem however, is that once again, he’s given incredible insight concerning the truth about supplier and MLM relationships. Take a look down towards the bottom of the comments section and what this employee from Pleasant Holidays wrote.

I guess a buck is buck and when they don’t have to put any money into YTB, they can still scrounge a few bucks off the so few bookings you morons place.

So while John attempts to convince everyone that YTB costs suppliers money, a supplier himself provides a rather unique Freudian slip and let’s the cat out of the bag that suppliers don’t hire YTB, suppliers don’t provide Co-op advertising to YTB, and suppliers only pay YTB for what YTB produces. That’s my friends is a model that suppliers NEED in an economy such as this, and the smart suppliers that actually get that concept such as Carnival Corporation, Globus, Trafalgar, MSC Cruises, Apple Vacations, Disney, and many other preferred suppliers reap the rewards of our business model. I can’t remember the last time Pleasant Holidays was even mentioned in a Travel Compass, a training call, or at Funshine. They do sit on our site, but nobody pays any attention to them because nobody from the company is promoting their features, advantages, and benefits. In all honesty, how much would it cost the company to get on a conference call the we provide, or hop in front of a camera for a video that we produce?

But no…they would rather spend thousands with a bunch of struggling Agents who demand co-op dollars in order to promote them with no guarantees of any return of their investment, when one call, or webinar would drive traffic and sales to help thier bottom line costing them virtually nothing.

I know this type of promotion from John frustrates many of you in YTB with the false claims and misrepresentation of our company and our model. I don’t know why he does it either, but you have to take it with a grain of salt, and be thankful that the truth about our model is known by the suppliers that not only understand our model, but support us. For those who don’t, they end up on the sidelines like NCL and eventually end up looking for answers somewhere else, when the diamonds in the rough are right under their noses.

Some may never get it, but with the Convergentware upgrade released late last year, some already have and many more will realize very soon just how powerful our model really is. As YTB continues to expand this solution to cruises, tour opperators, and other offerings with direct connections, trust me, thier eyes will be wide open and there will be very little anyone can do to promote otherwise.

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In all the years I’ve been cruising, I have never seen prices better than they are right now. What’s even more amazing is that when fuel surcharges hit about 9 months ago, prices were never higher. So why the HUGE drop?

Simple…supply and demand.

I’ve known for years, (even before I ever got involved with YTB) that there are certain times of the year that prices are better than other times of the year. For example, starting in August, through November you can find by far the best fares going to the Caribbean. A couple things happen starting in August that cause sales to slump. One is the school year starts, and most families have already taken their summer vacation, but more importantly for the Caribbean is hurricanes and the fear of being stuck in one during a cruise.

What most people don’t realize when it comes to hurricanes and cruise ships is that Lines keep a very close eye on what’s going on, (they do have all the modern amenities to track weather patterns) and can steer clear of any danger. We were in the Caribbean during Hurricane Lenny in 2000, and again during Hurricane Francis in 2004. Both times, we were diverted away from harm, and during Francis, we ended up out at sea for a couple extra days before is was safe to come back in.

Can you imagine? Stuck on a luxury cruise liner for 6 days with nothing to do but eat, sun, swim, massage, and gamble at the craps table? I use this video all the time for anyone who thinks their going to be rocking uncontrollably out at sea during a hurricane. People just don’t realize that the likelihood of being stuck in one are slim to none.

Today, just in case you haven’t heard, the media has been screaming for some time on how bad the economy is. Again there is fear that is keeping people at home instead of going out and enjoying a vacation. But because people are staying home, cruise lines, resorts, and hotel rooms are empty. I have team members in Vegas, and I was also listening to the radio a couple days ago. The airport is barren, with a small fraction of the traffic flying in and out of there than there was even 6 months ago. Las Vegas, rates are down in some cases more than 50 percent. Some of those four-star Las Vegas hotels that used to go for $200 to $250 are in the $80 to $120 range.

I was putting my newsletter together this weekend and wrote about Trafalgar who is offering 2009 Europe vacations at unbeatable round trip airfares to Europe starting as low as $459 per person (plus tax) for 56% savings!

Even Disney is offering gift cards or they throw in 3 extra nights with the purchase a 4 night stay. DISNEY!

The entire industry is offering deals in an attempt to intice people to come out of thier homes, and I’ve got to say, the smart ones are starting to take notice of the value that is out there right now. Vacations and trips that were totally out of reach a year ago are starting to fit into budgets and some (not all) are starting to pull the trigger.

Some deals are just too good to pass up, and I’ve been able to talk to clients who are starting to plan, at times more than a year from now to take some trips that are within reach financially. Other times, like my neighbor who asked about Disney just 4 months ago and found it too expensive, is now looking at the 7 night package for the price of 4 with her family. (It pays to have client profiles on file folks!)

I’m even looking at packages for desinations that were always places we wanted to go, but with prices so low right now, the timing couldn’t be better to start putting them on the books and saving thousands.

Opportunities never go away, they simply go to those who are smart enough to take advantage of them. For those of us in the Travel Industry right now, you’ve got some of the best deals out there right now.

With this hurricane concerning the ecomomy out there in the media, it’s your job to help clients understand the reality of the situtation. What thier being told isn’t nessasarily true, and the timing couldn’t be better to take that dream vacation and save thousands in the process.

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The updates and upgrades keep coming from the YTB Home Office. Fresh off of Funshine East ’07, YTB’s Travel Trade Show held Friday and Saturday, October 5-6, in Orlando, FL, another major update has been made to the back office on the travel side of the business, YTB Travel Network. This new look and feel matches the updates and upgrades made back at the National Convention in August in St. Louis.

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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