by John Frenaye
Monday February 16, 2015

I was catching up on some long-overdue reading this weekend and came across this fantastic headline in the Kansas City Business Journal—“Millennials are driving the comeback of travel agents.” How awesome is that?? But as many of us knew, we never really went out of fashion in the first place. Nonetheless, it is good to see that others are recognizing us as a viable industry and not a dying one!

The study referenced in the article brought up a few interesting points that I wanted to run by the TRO readers.

More millennials (1980-2000), as a percentage, are using traditional agents than Baby Boomers (1946-1964) and Generation X (1964-1980). The study cited that the Boomers and Generation X members are fairly set in their travel ways…

My Internet provider once bought a competitor, and the switch made my life miserable. There were plenty of problems with the connection from, let’s call them “XYZ,” and my techno-life became problematic.

Newspapers jumped on this bad news, and when I read the words “XYZ” in the headline, my attention was drawn to the article. It said, in effect, "Hey bub, if you are the recipient from this bogus treatment, I'm talking to…

by Richard Earls
Sunday February 15, 2015

My early recollections of the world of brands and business have to do with the companies with which a five year old first has contact. I can remember that Esso put a tiger in our tank and that my Keds tennis shoes would make me run a little faster and jump a little higher. The personality of many companies had to do with their cartoon mascots whether that was Mr. Clean , Green Giant or a leprechaun whose marshmallows were lucky charms.

Those were the days recalled by  "Mad Men." Brand identity and communications then were pretty much a one-way communication from the company to the public. The brand delivered information to the public through television or through the newspapers and…

Jeff Adam is an Australia, New Zealand, South Pacific and Africa specialist, hailing from Adelaide Australia. Jeff moved to the USA prior to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games to promote travel Down Under. He has been instrumental in creating the travel industries most comprehensive training program for Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Fiji, Cook Islands, Papua and New Guinea titled the South Pacific Travel Symposium and went on to assist the Travel Institute (then called ICTA) in updating their Destination Specialist South Pacific program with pertinent travel information. His presentation style is both educational and entertaining, leaving all who attend excited at the prospect of traveling to Australia, New Zealand the South Pacific and Africa


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