by John Frenaye
Monday March 23, 2015

There used to be a time in the travel industry where you put an ad in a newspaper and you got business. For years when I had a storefront agency, I had a weekly ad in a local paper—it was a black square with a destination written in white letters with our phone number. It was simple, consistent, and worked. When the Internet came about, it we changed it up and added our URL. And it worked. But today…not so much.

It has become so much more difficult to market to today’s consumer and I will blame the Internet. In the pre-Internet days, we relied primarily on print, radio, television, outdoor and direct mail for the information…

If you are unhappy with what is going on in your business, it may not be your business that is failing. You may be failing at "doing business." You may not be giving your business an honest chance to fail.

Business involves a number of activities that need to be coordinated on a regular basis. Are you being attentive to these activities?

  — Travel Research Online
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by Richard Earls
Sunday March 22, 2015

Marketing is both a noun and a verb.  Much like the word “lightening,”  the one word denotes both the act and the action.  Recently an agent explained to me how difficult it was to fund her marketing efforts.  Without the funds to market, she could not bring in customers and without customers she would never have the funds.

Marketing is, however, not just something you buy.  It’s something you do.  Certainly you can spend vast amounts of money on marketing, but for most service businesses, you can also bootstrap your way into the minds of your local community.

I have always been most fond of the type of marketing that is all about sweat equity rather than…

Lisa Norton is Vice President of Brand Management for Emerald Waterways North America. Lisa joined Emerald Waterways in October of 2014. Prior to joining Emerald Waterways, Lisa was SVP of Marketing at Vantage Deluxe World Travel, and before that she was Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Grand Circle Travel. Lisa began her travel career as an administrative assistant at Boston based charter operator Trans National Travel. While there she expanded her responsibilities to include group sales and marketing. 

 Lisa left TNT in 1990 and joined Grand Circle Travel as a Product Administrator. During the course of her career at GCT she played various roles, from buyer to circulation, sales, and marketing. Lisa is…