Cheap Holiday Travel Packages Online

Surely, it's the Internet that has helped many people in finding the right way for their next holiday trip. The internet is packed with the information about most of the exotic destinations in this world. You can grab all sorts of information from its huge database like your traveling cost for the chosen destination, weather condition, when to visit, and all other necessary stuffs. You can too accomplish booking for niche holiday services that includes accommodation, information about flight timings, transportation service and traveling insurance along with other facilities.

Flights Information - within the cheap holiday deals you can find cheap flights for some of the world's top exotic destinations. The main fact is that know about the source from where you can get the best flight deals. Niche tour operating companies are now offering great deals on holiday packages related to many unique destinations.

Travel Insurance - this is the most important thing that you need to keep in mind while going for air travel to a long distance or to abroad. It's a necessary part of your holiday planning. Search for the cheap deals in the entire available holiday package and get ready with the travel insurance. You don't know when you will require this on the tour? You might be thinking that you can't simply afford it. But this is a totally wrong concept. Now a days you can also avail cheap travel insurance that can offer you great values if required during the tour.

Accommodation - this is a key art for any traveler while going for a certain place for his holidays. You can stay at many exotic accommodations during your holiday trip to some unique places. If cheap accommodation is what you are looking for then it is available. Cheap accommodations are now available online so you can do the bookings online.

While you are out traveling, you can take your laptop with you and enjoy checking your emails wherever you are. There are many hotels that have computers there for your convience but a lot of them will also allow you to plug up your computer at a cheap price. There are so many ways that you can save money now and traveling with your own laptop is just one of many.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eric_L_Knouse

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Travel Agency Worth

I agree with the experts that a shakeout is taking place due to the current economic downturn. If you have not positioned your agency at this time either to be a part of the larger travel organizations or to become a "boutique," then you might want to start thinking about your strategies for the future. Your key starting point is determining your agency's net worth.

There are four critical areas that comprise an adequate and accurate agency valuation plan -

- operations/resource management,
- market position/agency image,
- financial management, and
- business history

Future articles will include financial management, market position/agency image, and business history. Today let's consider -

Operations and Resource Management

Automation - Computers and Telephones

As a general rule, the more automated you are, the higher your productivity per employee and consequently the higher your profitability. Additionally, more time for agents to have face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact with customers means better service. Bear in mind that if you've been computerized for at least three full years, you are over the start up pains and the equipment is part of your routine.

What computerization was to a travel agency five years ago, telephone systems will be for the next five years. Your phone system will make or break you. Chances are if you have an old-fashioned key button system, your productivity is low and your ultimate valuation will reflect that. You should at least have PBX and ACD systems.

Personnel

Regardless of whether a buyer will be managing your business himself or hiring you to stay on as a contract manager, your personnel are the absolute key to success under new ownership. I have seen agencies sold and then watched half the staff leave the next day with their "following" because they were offered a better deal by another agency. The result is usually a bonanza for lawyers and the disintegration of your former business. You can generally avoid such a crisis if your turnover is low, staff experience levels are high, and you have a strong incentive program supplemented by a solid portfolio.

Other Resources

The travel agency business requires an incredible amount of detailed data and consistent, logical operating systems. The question is: Have you been able to maintain an organization that cuts smoothly through all these ancillary materials and procedures? For example:

- the latest work flow changes in your agency;
- staff telephone manners and the way you present your agency to the public;
- your quality control processes before documents go out to the public;
- updating the mailing list; and
- your system to follow up on hotel commissions

And what about your space? Naturally, a buyer will want to see his new business grow. If your space restricts that, or if your lease is about to be renewed at double the cost, any future projections will be impacted and your agency is worth less. Therefore, prior to sale you might want to check with your landlord as to a potential new arrangement with the new owner.

Good management

The common thread in the criteria above is organization. If historically and financially you have done well, but if the key to your success has been your absolute and autocratic management - i.e., all of the company's records are in your head - obviously, a new owner will not succeed. Therefore, good management not only shows in the results but in the ability to turn the reins over to new management.

Obviously a potential buyer is far more impressed by an organized, well-planned operation in which you can show your original business objectives, the current variances or changes in plan and your rationale behind it.
In all of the criteria above let me stress the most important common element - consistency - as crucial.

Do you really present a credible picture to the buyer? Do you have a dashboard that measures your activities and allows you to make mid-course corrections in the event one of your "instruments" indicates a problem?

Your answers to these questions will help determine your agency's net worth - and its value in the marketplace.

Travel business consultants such as Travel Business CPR will review and prepare your operation for sale on your behalf. Tharwat Abouraya, CTIE President Travel Business CPR - Bring Strategy to Life! http://www.travelbusinesscpr.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tharwat_Abouraya

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All About Travel Agencies

Congratulations if you have recently started a travel agency. But wait, your work has just begun. You require unleashing important tactics, to enable sustained and relentless business growth. Following are few easiest, fastest and quickest strategies to increase the sales of your newly started travel agency. Follow every enquiry with five steps of professional communication. One of the biggest mistakes that most of the new travel businesses commit is not constantly following every enquiry. The best way to begin with this is to have a sales team where every consultant without fear professionally communicates with the enquirer. Following are few simple steps of communication:

• A courtesy call to find what the inquirer feels about the information supplied to him
• E-mail extra information or tip rapidly about the prospect's trip.
• Further send them a letter thanking them for enquiring.
• Follow up call to find out their future plans and offer them further assistance. By this time, you successfully establish rapport with them; it is a right time to ask them about the booking details and a final commitment.

All these steps are interchangeable and the key is that they happen over the different mediums like phone calls, direct mail and e-mail.

Types of Travel Agencies

One of the main functions of these agencies is to act as an agent. This includes reservations, selling travel products and tickets and so on, on behalf of one or many suppliers. Usually, travel agents charge a small commission from the overall cost. Check out some different type of agencies:

• Commercial and Business Travel Agencies

Most of these agencies have a department of business and leisure travel. The need and requirements of one traveler and the other tends to vary in few ways, and therefore, dividing the duties in different departments helps either department to specialize, finding deals for the leisure travelers on one hand and better deals for business travelers on the other hand. However, there are few agencies specializing in business and commercial travel only. Incidentally, there are not a lot of agencies restricting themselves exclusively to leisure travel.

• Cargo Travel Agencies

There are few travel agencies specializing in shipping cargo. Certainly, and that is not completely relevant if you are planning to fly for personal or business reasons. Still, this shows in how many different areas an agency can specialize.

• Niche and Multi- Destination Agencies

If you want to divide it in just two types of agencies, you have niche and multi - destination agencies. Multi-Destination are out- bound travel agencies that are large offering flights to any place in the world. Niche agencies are independent focusing on a specific part of the world. Most of the niche agencies cater to the individuals who have families in that country or who go for business regularly. Consider individual preferences, trip objectives and needs while selecting a travel agent. Different types of agencies offer different type and level of services. If you are a regular traveler then you may want to use the services of large corporate travel agency having branches all over the world.

For any help on travel agency, check out the info available online; these will help you learn to find the corporate travel agency!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michel_Disusa

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Use a Travel Agency to Book Your Spring Break Vacation

Instead of deal directly with the airlines, has it ever occurred to you to use a good travel agency to book your spring break vacation? Airlines will quote you fares and book your flights, but that’s as far as they go. A travel agency can offer discounted fares, advice on spring break destinations, and may have a great deal or two for you and your friends. Spring break is barely two months away, so now is the ideal time to start looking for a travel agency.

If airlines are offering huge discounts to lure money-weary individuals into traveling, imagine the larger discounts that a travel agency can offer. Since travel agents purchase blocks of seats, they can pass on the savings to their customers.

There are numerous travel agencies, but there is only a fraction of those agencies that cater to the special needs of the student travel industry. Although you can use any travel agency to book your spring break vacation, why not choose a travel agency that specializes in student tours and spring break vacations?

Looking for the Right Travel Agency: Tips

Before you book your next spring break vacation, the travel agency must satisfy certain requirements. You may want to look into the following criteria:

· Full Description of Services – Does the travel agency introduce itself adequately to potential customers? Do they have contact numbers, student packages, discount programs, and do they explain the procedures for their spring break packages as well as clearly state their refund policy?

· Variety – Does the travel agency have a wide range of destination choices and do they have hotel categories that meet all budgets? Some travel agencies like to specialize in a certain number of destinations – USA, Canada, or Mexico; some cover the world! When travel agencies can book spring break vacations almost anywhere in the world, that means that they’ve been in the student travel industry long enough and are confident that they can offer far away and exotic destinations without any problems because they belong to a large network of travel professionals;

· Discounts and Deals – Does the travel agency extend discounts for group travel or do they have frequent hot deals to offer? The capability to offer great deals can mean any number of things: they have good relationships with major airlines, hotels and tourist organizations, they receive discounted rates from suppliers and they in turn offer these to student travelers, or they are booking so many flights and vacation packages that they earn free points or free miles. You could be offered a deal to the Bahamas, your destination of choice, because the travel agency happened to receive a deal from a Bahamas tour operator at the time you booked!

· Photographs – Wouldn’t it be nice to see what you are getting into? If you are going to a spring break destination for the first time, you would want to know what kind of hotel you’re staying at, wouldn’t you? It isn’t enough for the travel agency to say, “You’re booked at a 4-star hotel”. You’ll want to know the name and location of that hotel so you can look it up on the Internet or ask people about it, plus you’ll want to see the rooms, dining facilities, and recreational facilities. Some travelers have been dismayed to find out that the hotel had only one treadmill, as opposed to what the travel agency described as a “full operating gym”. Or that the travel agency said 12 tennis courts, when in fact the hotel did not have any, referring travelers instead to a sports center a mile away!

· Interactive web site –Instead of spending precious minutes on the phone asking the travel agent about destinations, packages and vacation amenities, it would be simpler to do the search yourself on their web site by giving you the option to select a city and a package. When you’ve found what you’re looking for, that is when you call and ask for details that weren’t covered on their web site.

· Flexibility – some travel agents require you to pay for their packaged vacations to be able to receive discounts, but some travel agents are flexible in that they allow you to choose only air, or only hotel, or both.

A good travel agency is well organized. This important trait is evident in the way they present travel information. For example, there are websites that are designed to specifically cater to students. They list the cities they serve with a brief article about popular attractions and then you click on a link and the screen displays what their package covers plus costs for the city you selected.

So if you’re using a travel agency to book your spring break vacation, look for an agency that’s efficient, organized and capable of offing some fantastic deals.

Jeremy Foster is a blogger and freelance writer who focuses on the travel industry and vacation tips, often discussing a particular aspect of the travel industry such as working with travel agents.

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