This is another topic I’ve wanted to write about for some time. I remember reading about this mission some years ago, and today it’s become a reality.

Earlier this year, InterContinental Hotels Group, (IHG for short who owns Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and InterContinental among other brands) became the first hotel company to receive an LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) volume precertification established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).

Honestly, they could change their name to “Innovation Hotels Group”, which is a more accurate reflection.

See – In 2008 IHG launched the Innovation Hotel, an idea of what future hotels might look like if they used green technologies. Today, that idea has spread throughout the hotels in the chain who have registered for Green Engage. When the program is complete, all 4500 Hotels in the chain could save $300 million in reduced energy costs annually.

The company currently has around 1000 hotels that participate in the Green Engage program, which helps each hotel measure, manage and report their environmental impact. (You can find a current list of hotels here.) More hotels will become certified in the Green Engage program this year.

Hotels input their site data into Green Engage. Then, the system automatically generates reports and benchmarks against similar hotels across the world. Green Engage then advises both new-build and existing hotels on the specific actions they need to take to reduce their impact, depending on their climatic location. It’s not only a very bold program, but one that can make a huge impact. IHG is the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, with 650,000 guest rooms in 100 countries.

I first heard about Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design back in 2007, at the YTB National Convention. The plan was to make the YTB Home Office LEED compliant. That too was a bold plan, and we all loved the initiative, including the surrounding area which hopped on board with future plans of their own in the community. Unfortunately, YTB was doing too well at the time, and it freaked some people out. According to ignorance – Direct Sales Companies can’t do what we do without something being wrong with them. MLM is a bad place to be, especially when you’re successful and don’t conform to irrational people who for one reason or another not only detest our model, but have to shove their beliefs down everyone’s throat.

Instead, our success was attacked by a supplier who dropped us, viscous hate blogs and boards popped up smearing the company. And the best part – California pilfered $875 thousand in a bogus lawsuit they could never prove – but ended up getting a financial windfall in a settlement. (While the collective victims it claimed to protect got 0.005% of what the suit was filed for.)

Nope. Legal fees and pure ignorance in this case put the kibosh on YTB and environmental leadership because jerks will be jerks with their own fantasy that YTB and people like me are the bad guys.

Anywho…

I love innovative and bold companies like IHG and YTB. Not only is IHG (and YTB at before the attacks) able to show that responsible tourism can be done well, and with a profit – but they show a corporate conscious that unfortunately is rare. Although, I see more companies like IHG getting on board. And others should. Consumer research confirms that people are more interested in sustainability issues than ever before.

So, the next time you’re looking to book a hotel, try IHG’s portfolio of hotel brands including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

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It’s that time of year again – CLIA’s annual World’s Largest Cruise Night!

Every year in October, Travel Agencies from around the country round up clients in hotel rooms, office buildings, and even homes to promote what we’ve always considered “the best vacation money can buy” – a cruise. For Agencies it’s a great way to get a jump on sales for the coming year, and clients have an exciting vacation to look forward to.

CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) came up with the idea six years ago and both cruise lines and travel agents have fallen in love with the idea as a way to boost sales in what “was” traditionally the slowest month for travel sales.

Today, CLIA, cruise lines, and travel agents all come together in the month of October to make this time of year the single biggest cruise promotion of the year. Last years event generated $45 million in cruise sales and nearly $6 million in new commissions for travel agents.

This year, YTB Travel network teams up with “The Most Popular Cruise Line in the World” to bring both savings and cruise upgrades which are available on virtually all “Fun Ship” departures through December 2011. Carnival will not only be offering the Best Available Upgrades on the majority of their sailings, but up to a $200 onboard credit per stateroom for all Carnival Magic Europe voyages booked on October 13.

The best part of this sale is YTB and Carnival comes to YOU via the World Wide Web in a special webinar hosted Wednesday night at 7:00 pm Eastern, 6:00 pm Central to showcase the largest fleet of cruise ships available, from the largest selection of ports in the industry. A special rebroadcast will air during the evening, so make sure you log in at some point during the evening.

YTB and Carnival will feature “Best Available Upgrades” which are available on virtually all sailings through December 2011 – and when booked on October 13th, use Fare Code: PCN when booking. Carnival’s bonus offer includes the Best Available Upgrade PLUS up to a $200 onboard credit per stateroom on European sailings – just use Fare Code: OCL. The sale is valid on new individual bookings made on 10/13/10. Best available upgrade available on like to like categories (interior to interior, oceanview to oceanview and balcony to balcony). Promotion is applicable on all sailings between through 12/31/11.

Best of all this is a fun learning opportunity. Cruising is all about you. You can find adventure, culture and education or, relax the day away. Dine on fine cuisine. Indulge at the spa. Reconnect with family. Share romantic moments. All this, in the destination of your choice, for a few days, a week or more, on a cruise that’s right for you.

Do something that’s just for you. Join us tomorrow night from the comfort of your own home for the World’s Largest Cruise Night Carnival Sale event and take advantage of Carnival’s exclusive offers and special promotions.

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Our friends at PhoCusWright have come out with another report revealing that monthly traffic and conversion for travel websites is up in almost all travel categories in the second quarter of 2009, compared to the same quarter of previous years. (Air being the only category that’s down – no surprise there.) Each area showed increases in traffic during the first half of 2009 compared to 2008 and 2007 when the company researched Online Travel Agencies and Travel Suppliers.

According to a PhoCusWright Press Release, the month of June revealed that visitors were strong with year-over-year growth. Almost all categories were up such as cruise lines – up 19 percent and hotel chains were up 13 percent.

“The reliance that consumers have on travel Web sites has not weakened one bit,” says Carroll Rheem, director, research at PhoCusWright in a press release. “Online channels are attracting, engaging and inspiring travelers who recognize that this year is actually a fantastic time to take a trip. Consumers are certainly spending less, but they are not giving up travel, nor are they turning away from the Web sites that offer them the selection and convenience they value.”

There are also signs that Online Travel Agencies and Supplier Web Sites are enhancing their ability to convert online shoppers to actual purchasers.

Don’t get too excited however, there are still a considerable amount of people who visit but don’t purchase according the report. (It’s what PhoCusWright calls “leakage”.) Online Travel Agencies are lagging behind suppliers, who are doing a better job of converting visitors into purchasers over their Online Travel Agencies counterpart. However, the average of actual purchasers is growing in both segments as consumers get more comfortable with the ease and convenience of shopping online. Monthly online conversion rates ranged from 20% for a car rental supplier to 0.2% for cruises booked via an Online Travel Agency.

Online travel agencies have shown a slight increases in hotel and car rental visitor volume in the first half of 2009 compared to 2008 and 2007. The only category to show a decline in traffic from 2008 through 2009 for Online Travel Agencies was air – which is down 15 percent. Still, air conversion has increased significantly over the same time period, according to the PhoCusWright report.

“The online travel ecosystem now supports a diverse variety of transactional and informational sites—each playing a role in how consumers research, shop for and purchase travel,” adds Rheem. “For example, we found that visitation to planning and review sites drives dramatic differences in hotel conversion rates. Understanding the intricate relationships that connect all travel sites is essential to setting the right strategic path.”

Don’t know if you noticed or not, but our September Trip of a Lifetime Sweepstakes has a survey attached to it to find out more about our customers. This ability to collect data gives YTB an edge in finding product and destinations our customers care about, which in turn can convert online shoppers to actual purchasers based on providing products they’re actually looking for.

Technology – Ain’t it grand?!

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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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I can’t think of a better way to get going again after an extended weekend like we just had than hosting a “Travel Party”. I love weeks like this. Everyone is longing for more vacation time and looking to get back into that relaxation mode. The only difference I can see is possibly replacing “turkey” with “lobster” when it comes to stuffing ourselves. Short breaks like this, spending time with family, (mine who by the way are still here) and getting a break from traffic, time clocks, and office politics remind people how much they need a vacation. I love the sparkle in people’s eyes when the subject of travel or vacations comes up. It never ceases to amaze me how this subject is so universally loved by everyone. I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s told me;

You know, I’ve tried one of those vacations once…HATED it!

No, bringing up the subject of vacations is something everyone loves to talk about, and for some, you can’t get a word in edge wise. Not a big problem, but some do tend to go on and on about how much they just LOVE the destination they came from or the destination they’re looking to head to next. With the economy looming over everyone’s head these days both agencies and suppliers are looking for that edge to help increase both visibility and sales.

This week, both YTB and Carnival appear to have that answer. Apparently, Carnival was pleased with the outcome of last years 24 Hour Cruise Event and has come to YTB again to help boost last minute year end sales to help both our bottom lines. Back in October, CLIA held its annual “World’s Largest Cruise Night”, which in years past has produced fourth quarter sales for both agencies and cruise lines. Last year the month long promotion for CLIA produced some 17,852 cruise bookings, however I’ve yet to see any hard numbers on this year’s event. YTB’s own cruise sale last November produced 12,000 passenger bookings. (Although, critics like to cut the number of “passengers” in half.)

This Tuesday, December 2 at 7:00 p.m. in each time zone, YTB will host the World’s Largest Travel Party in several cities around the country.  All locations are teaming together to host one huge event. The cities include:

• Atlanta, GA
• Baltimore, MD
• Boston, MA
• Chicago, IL
• Dallas, TX
• Denver, CO
• Detroit, MI
• Houston, TX
• Kansas City, MO
• Miami, FL
• New York, NY
• Orange County, CA
• Philadelphia, PA
• Reno, NV
• Richmond, VA
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• St. Louis, MO
• Tampa, FL

At each location, door prizes will include one free cruise certificate (for guests only) and five tickets to YTB’s 2009 National Convention for Reps or Travel Site Owners. Rooms at the live venues will have a party atmosphere with round tables, fun music, snacks, and drinks. (No alcoholic beverages.) The Cruise giveaways for two are for guests only, and you must be present to win. There will be a short video entitled “Cruising, the Best Vacation Value” followed by a live feed from the YTB Home Office via streaming video. After the presentation a flyer with the December 4th Sail-a-thon Cruise Specials will be handed out in addition to the free cruise drawing for each city.

On Thursday, December 4th, there will be a live webcast from 5 -10:00 pm Central from the YTB Headquarters in Wood River, Illinois. Phones will be open all day till Midnight Central Standard Time as well.

RTA’s have an opportunity to invite friends and family over for this Carnival Cruise Night on December 4th to watch Coach, Kim, and Scott, along with many guests, through a live webcast sales event. There will be dozens of cruise specials and a live team ready to take reservations. Travel customers can also choose from 18 different Gift Certificate options available for online purchase through December 31, 2008. Certificates are valid for a 3, 4, 5, 7 or 8 day Fall Cruise for Two and most include all Government Taxes, Fees and Gratuities. ALL certificates are upgradeable if desired and are valid for up to 18 months. Upgrades are never a problem at the time of booking, simply pay the difference.

It’s nice to see Carnival and YTB teaming up again in this way. I’m not aware of any other supplier who teams with a single agency such as this, but then again, no other single agency has the potential to reach as many customers at one time as YTB does. It’s very unique to our model and our company.

It’s all in an effort to “Be Number 1 with The Number 1!”

Happy Sailing!

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I posted last week about Carnival’s Q2 Earnings Report, and found another article in Travel Weekly this weekend which goes right to the man in charge and puts Gerry Cahill in the hot seat. We found last week that Carnival is doing less direct business and relying more on Travel Agents to keep them afloat during the wave of feul price increases and muddy waters concerning the travel industry as a whole.

If you’re in YTB, you know about the informative call we had at the beginning of June with J. Kim Sorensen, (President, YTB International and CEO, YTB Travel Network) and Mike Julius, (Regional Vice President of Carnival Cruise Lines) to kick off Carnival Month. Our RTA’s also found that Cruise Month has been extended with Carnival alongside a special booking contest that was kicked off with both Kim and Ann Sedgwick, (Business Development Director with Carnival Cruise Lines) with our widely popular Cruise Night last Thursday night and the “All About Cruising” DVD we all downloaded. (First prize will be an all expenses paid 12 Day Mediterranean Cruise with air.)

The strong foundation and technology YTB has invested into providing us the very best resources for those of us out in the field are second to none, and many outside of the company (aka: clients) found this form of getting everyone together not only exciting but a very successful way to promote cruise sales.

Just why Carnival would do something like this with YTB was found in the Q&A with Gerry Cahill when he stated: “They can help us on the marketing side. They can also have the ability to reach customers we don’t reach.”

With thousands of RTA’s getting just 3 or 4 couples together last week for this Cruise Night, Carnival had the ability to reach tens of thousands of potential customers all over the country at one time which Carnival may not have been able to reach otherwise.

Talk about bang for your buck! One night, one company and you cover North America, Canada and the Caribbean to boot.

It’s good to see that Gerry Cahill’s business decisions are starting to pay off, and it looks as if he certainly knows what he’s doing as he stated in the Travel Weekly article “It’s not hard to do. We have the ability to track how much profitability we get from every channel and every agent. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist for that one. I did an analysis of what I think are the most efficient ways for us to distribute things, and I made certain decisions as a result of that.”

With the Cruise Night from last year being revamped and redone to help Carnival stay profitable and keep their place as “The Most Popular Cruise Line in the World” YTB is producing large numbers for Carnival once again. Sure, last week was a little different, but the goal is the same, and that’s selling our core product with our preferred supplier who “gets it”. Terminating your relationship with a company the size of YTB can be detrimental to your business health, so you simply implement minimum booking requirements to answer the “critics” who claim all we do is take advantage of the product, while still saving your bottom line and working with a company who has been a Pinnacle Award winner the last three years in a row.

Not bad for a “bean counter” if you ask me, and certainly not what some had forecasted a few months ago.

Carnival has been a HUGE supporter of YTB from the very start, and I’m pleased that the new management sees the value in what we as a company has to offer.

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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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