It’s all about your travel audience, not you!

If you’ve been following my Facebook posts, you’ll know how much of a video fan I am for selling leisure travel. I have posted several articles about the rising popularity of video – over two billion videos are downloaded every day on YouTube bla, bla, bla…

But what does it mean to leisure travel – not as an industry but as a retailer? If you take a minute to imagine a scenario where your customer wants a particular resort or destination and you’re able to show them a 3 minute video, chances are a decision will be greatly accelerated.

However, the type of video you offer can make or break the sale. Show them a self-promoting, overproduced slick piece obviously created by an ad agency with a big budget and in my opinion, you’re only a tiny bit closer to closing the sale. Show them a 3 minute piece of you at the resort describing naturally what they can expect and experience and chances are if the resort is right for them, you’ll close the sale.

I know…you don’t think you’re photogenic, you’re shy, a bad hair day or you think this might get expensive. Excuses! It’s not about production value or about you personally; it’s about you having experienced something that makes YOU, the voice of authority. Long story short, buy a $300 video camera, open a free YouTube account and take the camera with you on every FAM trip and vacation.

So you think this may be a good idea but are wondering where to start. I’ve taken an excerpt from Eric Harr’s book (details below) to illustrate how easy and effective it can all be if you follow his 7 practical steps:

1. Keep it Short & Sweet.
People, particularly in social media, have shorter attention spans. Studies show that attrition rate after 30 seconds is roughly 82% (unless the video is compelling or celebrity-driven).

2. Start Strong.
A Jupiter research study found that people decide — in the first two seconds — whether or not they will watch the remainder of a video. It’s important to capture their attention in those two seconds, but not necessarily with stagecraft. Strive to be compelling and give them a reason to keep watching. Have you ever watched thoroughbred horses break out of the gates? It’s so jaw-dropping that we cannot help but keep watching! Break out of the gates in your videos!

 3. Make One Point (and No More Than Three).
Nielsen reports that humans can only process, and retain, three simple messages in a short span of time. Do not overload the viewer with granular facts and minutiae. You needn’t make them an expert. Just pique their interest. Pick 1-3 concepts you want to convey and use anecdote, humour and colour to bring texture to your videos.

 4. Entertain, Inspire, Inform—or, Ideally, Do All Three.
Frame messages in the interest of the viewer. The fact is that people care less about your product, brand or cause than they do about how it improves their lives. Stay viewer-centric and seek to leave them informed, inspired, entertained—or all three. Humour is powerful, engaging and effective—if you can pull it off.

 5. Produce Share-Worthy Content.
This relates to the point above, but it warrants its own coverage, because it’s essential to understand in this “word of mouth economy”: in a single click, people can share your content farther and faster than ever before. Here’s a litmus test: Produce content you’d be compelled to share with your family.

6. Speak From the Heart.
People have sensitive antennae in social media. These channels were created as a very refuge away from corporate marketing. People know contrived when they see it, and it can do more harm than good. Speak in a “human voice.” Mean what you say. If you’re interviewing someone, ask them to be honest (even if it means they aren’t uniformly positive; it will be more credible.). If you try to message people, you will never reach a wide audience. If you win people’s hearts, you can reach the world.

 7. Have a Clear Call to Action.
Ask yourself: “What do I want the viewer to do?” You need to move people to action, otherwise you may achieve non-financial outcomes (video views) in lieu of financial outcomes (conversions/revenue). Tell viewers what you want them to do. And, if it’s possible to edit the video with a graphical outro, do so.

You must admit, it is common sense and it makes sense. A video of you telling clients what, in your opinion, their vacation might be like is what makes you an expert and “my travel agent”.

I’m going on too long here but spend some time on YouTube and see how that video can get you NEW customers. If you find any videos that you think portray the 7 points above, please share them.

Have a great weekend and keep travelling!

Cheers

Frank

Eric Harr is the new Social Media Expert for CBS News and the Founder & President of Resonate Social Media. His book: “The REAL TRUTH About Social Media: 8 Timeless Truths Uncovered & 8 Monumental Myths Revealed” is available online and in bookstores. For more information, visit: http://ericharr.com/.

3 simple questions to determine if Social Media is right for your small business

I’ve read and been told that all the metrics to measure social media results are in place. Maybe… but it seems to me you need a couple of experts and a stats department to interpret those metrics. To small businesses, it’s a lot more like alchemy; you really have to believe and be satisfied with the occasional glimpse of something shiny.

According to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Social Media Examiner, 90% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business. I don’t doubt its importance. I think that other than the large OTA’s that may have more insight, retail travel as a rule has a hunch that it works but simply doesn’t know how to measure it … simply!

I subsequently read an article on a recent MarketingProfs posting where writer Nichole Kelly, of Full Frontal ROI, does a great synopsis with “5 Tips to Prove that Social Media Matters”. Nicole’s first tip, as far as I’m concerned, is all most of us need to know unless you have that stats department I mentioned.

That is… “Social media isn’t a shiny new thing that needs to be measured in a “special” way. Trying to create special metrics for social media makes it far too complicated for “non-social media folks” to understand. If you want to get to the core of where social media is delivering value, translate its impact on sales (units), revenue, and costs to the organization. If you can’t measure social media’s impact on sales and revenue yet, you definitely can measure its impact on cost. Start there and build your way into the revenue model.”

Like most things, the KISS principle stands. To evaluate your Social Media plan, set yourself a timeline to determine if it costs more than what it generates. It’s a relatively new marketing tool that has yet to mature so give yourself a generous deadline.

Once you reach the deadline, evaluate the results by asking yourself these 3 simple questions:

1. Are any of my colleagues doing this well? Research their tactics and see what works for them and critically analyze if this would work for your business.
2. Should I hire someone to manage this? Weigh out the pros and cons, also consider control and industry knowledge.
3. Is it the right tool to reach my clients? Heads up on this one, most agents will tell you NO up-front because it’s easy and saves you work, time and money. Fact is, you haven’t got a clue what your clients want. Did you know that there are still agents out there who believe their clients don’t want to hear from them on email? They think the clients will consider it SPAM. It’s a wonder they are comfortable with the phone!

You simply can’t write off social media because you don’t understand it or because you don’t want to deal with it. Unfortunately, many small business agencies are not giving this the college try.

Are you? Let me know what seems to be working for you.

Cheers
Frank

Who’s in charge of Marketing?

In my last post, I outlined recent changes we made here at Travelwatch and I hinted at how survivors in our industry need to constantly tinker with their business. In this post, I’m limiting my comments to the marketing aspect of running a retail travel business.

In recent history most agencies have had to move away from selling air for obvious reasons. Now, many are rethinking the packaged holiday business based on shrinking margins and discounting (although somewhat curtailed these days). There’s also a group out there that argue that packages have become a commodity that is best serviced in volume and with a strong online/phone presence. I’m not sure I agree, I think you can still make a decent living selling packages but your marketing has to be right.

So where does that leave the main street, independent owner/manager shop?

A common move for most is to join a group/consortium/association. This is an excellent solution as long as you’re clear on your objectives vs. theirs. For example, is your membership simply a tool to generate sales for the supplier/owner of the group? Or are you there to drive overrides to the umbrella company that promises to share them with you (only after all expenses are covered)?

Let’s for the time being consider only the marketing aspect to determine if you are associated correctly or for that matter, whether it’s worth associating:

• What are the tools used – email, direct mail, traditional advertising and who is deciding on content?
• Is there an overall strategy and do they offer the flexibility you need to meet your objectives and target your customers, not just the group’s?
• What is the target market of the preferred suppliers that form part of that group and are they in line with your clientele?
• Are you sending disorderly email blasts or do you have a cohesive plan with a start, finish and measured ROI?
• Are you getting relevant (to your business) simplified stats, marketing advice or do they offer a mentor you can chat with?

When I talk with agents about a marketing plan, most don’t have one, think it’s not necessary, it’s too difficult to build or becomes obsolete as soon as you write it. I beg to differ. If you belong to a group, review carefully what you can use from their arsenal. Do your research and arm yourself with additional tools freely available on the market.  Check out www.travelagentapps.com (I know, it’s self-serving but couldn’t resist)

There is nothing wrong with these business models as long as you understand how you fit, how you can tweak it to make it relevant to your business and leave you and not someone else in control.

I recently dealt with a group where less than 30% of the agencies belonged to their ‘marketing solution’. Once I reviewed what they offered and what the cost/value proposition was, it was a no brainer! Great Value! Why didn’t the other 70% belong? They didn’t bother taking the time to understand it.

The days of suppliers giving agents everything from marketing dollars to computers to training to fam trips are gone. It’s time to rethink your business and get aggressive because the guy next door is!

Thanks for reading and my best to you and your family for the holidays,

Cheers

Frank

When is the right time to reinvent your business?

Continuously. Always. Never-ending.  Don’t sit back like I did!

Six months ago, I got my butt handed to me by my accountant. I had lost two major accounts, one was leaving the consortia business model because it couldn’t make any money and the other was acquired by a larger player with their own emarketing strategies and tools. End result – a sizeable chunk of revenue gone in 10 days!

So, what to do now?

I went out to lunch with an industry buddy and as I was crying in my beer, he told me a story of a travel agent he was speaking with the previous day. The agent was droning on about low margins and how he’s making half of what he made 15 years ago. When my colleague asked what his sales were at that time, he stated the agency was generating 3.5M. Asked what he’ll sell this year, he said 3.5M.

That was the head slap I needed. Time to streamline what is working and reinvent what’s not.

So, in six months we:

• Created a twice monthly agent-branded email campaign for only $50pm. It’s turnkey – 100% of the work is done by us. We had immediate success with several independent travel agencies and now, the TPI group has joined.
• Simplified and lowered fees for Easy Email, our self-serve email generator.
• By shifting the company focus to become a ‘Travel Portal’, we’ve been able to compile several exciting 3^rd party (and in-house)travel agent apps that only focus on improving an agent’s business.
• Built a new website to accommodate the portal concept and changed our logo to include our new tag line “Travel Content and Distribution” as part of our evolution.

As I look back on the six months, I’m amazed at the amount of work we got done. Thanks Kathy, Matt and Michelle! Couldn’t have done it without you, I promise not to sit back again.

If you get the opportunity, go to www.travelwatch.ca  or www.travelagentapps.com and sign-up (it’s free). We have several examples of travel agent software available now and more in the pipeline scheduled to come online soon.  Look around and let me know if there’s a product or tool you think might help you or your agent colleagues.

Enough about us!

Using the above agency as an example, a good place to start re-evaluating where your business sits is the revenue side of the P&L. Specifically, what were the revenue ‘buckets’ (leisure, business, groups, weddings, etc.) and how did they change over the years from 2007 to 2010? It’s a good place to start; the turmoil in global economies during this period is a good microcosm to illustrate the ups and downs. If you read the business papers, things might look like 2008 again soon.

I have a few other ideas that might help you focus on the right questions to ask yourself, specifically on the marketing side. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading,

Cheers!

Frank

Mailing list growth for the Travel Agent

Depending on the day and whom you’re reading, the efficacy of online marketing varies wildly. Some swear by the potential of social media, some insist it’s too hard to monetize or at the very least, track its ROI. One thing most everyone agrees to, is that email marketing (at least for the near future) wins – hands down!

Sitting around waiting for these answers to crystallize is not an option but creating new and maintaining old customers with regular contact (regardless of the medium) needs to be KEY to your marketing efforts. The client list growth tactics chart below, as compiled by Marketing Sherpa talks about effectiveness globally (i.e. not specific to Travel or Canada). Allow me to address some insights and best practices I have gleaned from a Canadian travel perspective: (see below – click to enlarge)

Registering during purchase: Hands down the most effective. They’ve booked with you, simply ask them if you can add them to your monthly (or whatever) travel interest publication. Of course they’ll say yes!

Registering for downloads: Tough one… this is a better model for B2B.

Online events and webinars: Again, better practice for the B2B crowd. As an agent, you need to advertise and ask them to register to build your list. Pricey but if the presentation is interesting enough, it may be worth it.

Offline shows: Great way to increase your retail lists! Many of my agents do trade shows like wedding events, cruise evenings, mall specials, etc. and collect quite extensive lists by asking consumers to subscribe on the spot. Segment them and email only about that subject (wedding for example) until you’ve built enough of a rapport to ask them to become part of your general travel subscribers list.

Mobile capture: Lots of apps available but hasn’t quite reached mainstream travel. I think it will be huge but not relevant right now – email me for more.

Email newsletter subscriptions: Most of our customers capture new clients this way. A bit slow but effective in the sense that they are predisposed to listen to you.

Paid Search: Good one but a full time job!

Co-registration Programs: Absolutely! Especially if you service a smaller market. Partner with non-competing businesses to send emails and facilitate subscriptions.

Social Sharing Buttons: Absolutely, and add subscription links in all your vehicles of communication

Send-a-friend: Probably the least effective but if your content is good, it works. Its in most templates anyway so no big deal to leave it there.

Not Covered in the chart but critical to Canadian Agents: Purge your back-office accounting systems. Most will export to a .csv file or excel sheet. Also, export your Outlook contacts and add them to your customer lists. Your best client is the one that already belongs to you!

This is by no means a defining list; I suspect everyone has their own method of generating subscribers, what method has been successful for you?

Feel free to comment or contact me for more details. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find out!

Behave!

Frank

Time Flies!

My last blog was in August of 2007 – that’s over 3 years ago. Yup, time flies!

I started blogging in 2006 and after about a year of posting to a minimal response, I decided to give it up. I lost my confidence I guess. I thought that what I was writing was of limited interest to readers’ and although that might well be the case, as a rookie blogger I expected everyone to stop what they were doing and comment on my posts.

I discounted the fact that most of my audience was working in the travel industry  - an all consuming effort from every aspect of the business. You are mired in endless details and slowed by dated technology so, who’s got time to read a blog?!

Countless details are still the case but times change, technology has improved and blogging is more mainstream so, let’s give this a try again (my old blogs are still posted – check out the right margin).

Quick update: At Travelwatch, we have spent the last 6 months developing our new 3.0 platform. We developed it in India, it was quite an experience filled with extremes that I plan on telling you more about in a future post. We also created our own Facebook page, extensively updated the website and revamped my blog. Busy 8 months!

In the meantime, the new platform enables users to take control of their own e-marketing with their own brand. It provides easy connectivity to social media and probably the most important aspect… it guarantees travel agents receive supplier advertising co-op funds.

I would love to hear any comments you may have on our efforts and hopefully, I have enticed you to stick around for the next blog, I plan on covering diverse subjects although mostly travel and marketing related items.

All the best

Frank

Everyone needs an elevator pitch

My shtick is marketing, not sales but a big part of being and staying in business is selling yourself, your service and your company. 

What is an elevator pitch?

Think of the elevator pitch as your personal 20-second television commercial. An easy to understand and concisely delivered summary designed to promote you and your services to potential clients. It should impress your listener enough to stay lodged in his mind, and open up the door for questions and a future transaction.  In spite of its name, the elevator pitch can be used anywhere your time is limited or where you don’t want to become a bore, such as a cocktail party or golf tournament or other social events that provide the opportunity for potential clients. Regardless of circumstances, it should take no longer than an elevator ride to the top floor of a 5 story building — hence the name.  

Here’s why you need one. Whether at a cocktail party or in your office, when talking to a new person you have a limited amount of time to create an impression so don’t waste it on trivial comments. Get to the point! Impress upon your listener in very few words that you are the one they ought to be dealing with for their travel arrangements. Once you got it pat, it will be remarkably easy to successfully introduce your pitch as most people want to talk about travel – be glad you’re not an insurance agent or a chimney sweep. 

To prepare your elevator pitch you need to form the ideas that you want to incorporate. Write them down, it should run no more than about 100 words. Read it aloud to yourself and make sure it sounds natural, not stilted or worse, a shopping list of services. You don’t need to memorize it word for word, but having a firm sense of its structure and key points will keep the impact and the words flowing smoothly.

The successful elevator pitch isn’t a job interview. It is important to paint a broad portrait of your service but the key is to outline the potential benefits to your listener. What’s in it for him/her? If you gear your pitch towards the listener’s needs, you’re more likely to gain their trust. My approach is to suggest a possible benefit and I immediately back it up with a sentence explaining how I can create that outcome. As a travel agent, you might try something like… “I make sure that my clients get the best service available, I have direct access to the heads of Customer Service with most of the cruise lines,”

In the example above, you quickly made it clear that you know your market, are well connected and able to deliver more than your competition. With a little work, you can create a compelling statement that ensures you are remembered but first, make sure you understand clearly what your USP (unique selling proposition) is – what makes you different and better than your competition or online booking service. 

Remember that this is not about selling a holiday, you are selling you and your company long-term so skip the details and stick to the essentials. Let your enthusiasm show, be dynamic use action words and don’t forget to close with a call to action. “I would love to help you enjoy your holidays more; can I give you a call?” If the contact information is not immediately forthcoming, don’t get pushy, back off and give them your business card and ask them to contact you when they are ready for a “good and professional” travel agent/service. 

When I am successful in getting contact information I ALWAYS make it a point to email them in the morning, thank them for their attention and ask if it would be ok to place their name on my mailing list. Play your cards right, exude success, be courteous, and soft-sell yourself, chances are you’ll do business.

Here’s my elevator pitch, let me know what you think… 

Opening hook: “We’re a pretty unique marketing organization developed specifically to aid the travel industry to make money by keeping and developing new clients in creative ways. 

Backing up the statement: We spent a lot of time figuring out the needs of the community and subsequently, we developed the appropriate technology and our full-service approach.  

Showing our credentials: Now, we use those tools to custom tailor solutions to each customer – we’re doing quite well making sure that our clients are able to compete in today’s market. Remember NAME, it’s cheaper to keep a client than to develop a new one! 

Soft-sell closing: Can I give you a call in the next few days to talk about your needs?” 

Enjoy the rest of the summer and behave,

Best

Frank

Another technology passed you by? Well… maybe not (yet).

Travel agents are just getting round to collecting emails for marketing purposes and now the guru’s are telling us email is dying and being replaced by RSS! For those of you that read this geeky stuff you have probably noticed that every article starts with a lengthy and detailed explanation of what RSS is and by the time you get to the point of the article you are fast asleep.

So lets not go there! Check RSS out at http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english  and view the 2 minute video. Its all you’ll need to get it!

So why should you care? Because it’s going to affect the travel industry and how we currently do business online. What it really means in travel terms is that your customer can subscribe to their favourite travel websites (probably three to five) and every time the website is updated, that information is fed to their ‘reader’. That way, instead of having to go visit the site or be peppered by hundreds of email updates, they receive a feed, stay up to date and read it when they want to.

I believe that over time, (1-3 years?), barring the invention of a better mousetrap, RSS will become the cleanest and most efficient way to communicate and customers will subscribe only to what interests them and unsubscribe from the rest. Still awake?

I don’t believe RSS will replace email altogether but in my opinion it represents some major changes. For example, it will adversely affect website visits and therefore change is coming for those of you that either sell of buy travel advertising based on visits. As an online marketing company our greatest enemy is spam and bugs. RSS eliminates this problem but it also further shifts the balance of power to the customer by limiting access. As a rule, when customers go RSS they unsubscribe from most other subscription based email.

Wakey wakey… what better time than now to harp, yet again, on the mantra of most of my marketing articles, Travelwatch website, blogs…  “the consumer is sitting in the drivers seat so the importance of the ‘relationship’ between you and your customer should be your number one priority.”

Develop and keep on developing your email list.  I can’t say this enough. If (or as) email begins to loose its direct marketing power as we know it today, ensuring that your customers are interested in what you have to say is best achieved by email. The ability to develop and maintain customer interest is an art, as part of our Touch™ program we hammer the point home that ‘because your clients are not always buying, you shouldn’t always be selling’! Stay in constant contact; make it fresh, interesting, educational and yes send them product/price deals but just not ALL the time. If you don’t have the time to do it then hire someone to do it for you but make sure you are front and center when your clients decide on an RSS reader for their travel information.

behave,

Frank

Social Newtorking, or just more of the same

What’s all this ‘Social Networking’ buzz about, we’ve been doing this forever!

According to Wikipedia a Social Network is a structure made of individuals or organizations that are tied by one or more specific types of relations and serviced by specialized software. In general, social networking services, such as MySpace and Facebook, allow users to create their own profile, upload a picture of themselves and can often create “friendships” with other users. In most social networking services, both users must confirm that they are friends before they are linked. These ‘Social Sites’ are now spilling over to the business world and many industries ar paying attention.

In the travel industry, we have long believed that one of the primary motivating factors in a client’s decision to travel to a destination/resort/hotel is influenced by what their friends say.  Think about the times you’ve used word of mouth to help you hire a contractor or pick a new restaurant. Chances are you’ve made some of those decisions based solely on the thumbs-up from a trusted friend. Even to this day, travel discussions at a cocktail party are almost compulsory chit chat. Couples and individuals recount their experiences and give opinions about a trip and the listeners carefully store away the comments for future reference.

We in travel therefore, see Social Networking as yet another techie label on something that has been happening for a long time. But is it.

New travel related Social Networking sites are starting to pop up with regular frequency. The sites are essentially forums for consumers to aggregate their knowledge to an already information packed website. The site then hopes to capture the client with booking tools and incentives at the very moment he is being influenced by the forums. Trip Advisor is arguably the best known; it claims more than 5 million reviews and more than 20 million unique monthly visitors worldwide. Trip Advisor now features various online booking services but it continues to be owned by Expedia.

Call me a cynic (Cynic!) but it seems to me, the more of these sites get created, the harder it is to keep things honest. It would be an easy matter for me to get all my hotel staff to write raving reviews of my hotel and post them, who’s to say who “Tracey from Toronto” is. I also get concerned about membership data going array but these are my personal issues and by no means do they necessarily reflect on Trip Advisor (I’d hate to get them mad at me), I simply question the concept of getting advice from strangers.

If you wanted to learn to fly a plane, would you go online and get consensus from strangers on how to do it or, go find an expert and take lessons. As my buddy likes to say “I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.”

So, back to the travel expert.

Let’s just say your marketing budget is not quite up there, how do you play the word of mouth game. Advertising copy might entice and editorial coverage might persuade, but word of mouth recommendation as we’ve discussed, more often is more effective than both put together.

Nothing, absolutely nothing works as well as chatting directly with your clients and asking for referrals. Try 5 calls a day, if your clients believe in you they’ll be happy to give you names and numbers. Just make sure you follow up and you can be up 10-15 new possibilities by the end of the day. Oh, by the way, do us all a favour, don’t have someone else call and don’t call at dinner time, you’ll be toast in no time!

Don’t like being that direct? Try building a questionnaire. It gives you a reason to contact your clients and it shows that you care and want to improve your business by asking their opinion. Call your clients or email them and ask for the answers you need to improve your services. In closing be sure to ask them for referral numbers or emails. Oh by the way… it just so happens we have an online questionnaire service. (I know… shameless!)

Behave

Frank

For Immediate Release

As readers of my blog, I wanted you to be the first to be aware of a marketing partnership that my company Travelwatch and Baxter Travel Media (BTM) have put together.

What this means to you is that through BTM, I’ll be able to gather even more information and statistics critical to the marketing of a travel business and be able to share my learnings and ideas with you through this blog and through an upcoming monthly column that I will be writing in Travel Press.

Please read our media release below…

Baxter Travel Media, Travelwatch launch marketing partnership
2007-04-04
Baxter Travel Media (BTM) and Travelwatch have entered into a marketing partnership that will see Travelwatch deploy Customer Marketing Manager (CMM) — a simplified, low-cost Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution for the North American travel trade.

“Travelwatch has a great suite of products and we’re pleased to be working with them to provide our customers with a set of affordable online marketing tools,” commented David McClung, president of Baxter Travel Media. “It’s a good fit for us. Travelwatch will enhance the tools already available in Travel Agent Central at www.travelpress.com.”

He added, “Our strength has always been our agent and supplier partners. What Travelwatch adds to the mix is an effective and seamless way for agents to enhance their relationship with their customer and conversely, provides a vehicle for suppliers to work more closely with agents.”

Travelwatch president Frank Orlando’s explanation of the Customer Marketing Manager solution is more succinct: “It’s B through B to C.”

Under the agreement, BTM and Travelwatch will be working co-operatively to market the Customer Marketing Manager solution to the travel trade across Canada. “Travelwatch delivers a simple three-step system that’s designed to initiate, build and strengthen the retail travel agent’s relationship with their customer by providing a range of ‘self-service to fully-managed’ e-marketing tools,” said Travelwatch’s Orlando.

Agents and suppliers will be able to learn more about and gain access to CMM and other Travelwatch services through BTM’s print and digital format publications (Canadian Travel Press and Travel Courier); via reciprocal links between www.travelpress.com and www.travelwatch.ca; on the double-daily news service, Press Today; and through BTM’s push e-mail product, Travel Alert.

“I think we are beginning to see a balance being struck between online and traditional travel services. We enable the traditional agent and supplier model to use the Internet as a tool to enhance its services to a level presently unachievable by today’s online-only business model. In my opinion, a personal relationship between client and a professional counsellor will beat client and computer any day,” continued Orlando.

To launch their new partnership, the industry is being offered a 30-day free trial of the Travelwatch product. Visit either www.travelwatch.ca or www.travelpress.com for more information.