by John Frenaye
Monday June 06, 2016

So, how’s business? I have talked with several colleagues and they are in the same boat as I am—in the summer doldrums. The phone is not ringing; the email inquiries have slowed to a trickle, the Facebook and Twitter interaction has dropped, and well… if I need to be honest, I am bored.

For me, it happens like this every year. Right after spring break, it begins to slow down and then will remain slow through the middle of September except for a flurry of last-minute activity in July for eleventh hour bookings on our August groups for a final fling of summer. For those that are big in the wedding-moon and destination wedding niche, June has come and gone! You may be seeing something different…

“Put them at ease and make them feel important.”

Integrity Selling: How to Succeed in Selling in the Competitive Years Ahead — Ron Willingham, page 7

We have a guest book at my house in Cooperstown, and more than a few friends come to visit us out in the country. The word that surfaces more often than not in the majority of insertions is the word “hospitality.” We love it when we read that particular…

by Richard Earls
Sunday June 05, 2016

Over the weekend I was helping a friend with a school assignment involving a marketing plan.  As a part of the exercise, she had to justify her business decisions by taking note of the demographics of Florida’s state capital, Tallahassee. In the outline to the assignment, the key demographics were listed as per capita income, population by gender, and age ranges.

As I worked through the project, it occurred to me how little help typical demographic statistics in reality are for a marketing plan. Certainly such numbers  are important criteria in early decision making.  If, for example, you are setting out to launch a travel practice in any given area, you want to know sufficient population is present with enough disposable income.  Beyond that, however, these…

Paul Wiseman leads Trafalgar with more than three decades of expertise within the travel and tourism hospitality industry, helping to grow the iconic Trafalgar brand through strategic partnerships across the U. S. His passion for travel was ignited more than 30 years ago having served as a travel agent within a leading agency in Australia. He expanded his travel experience through roles within regional airlines and tourism boards before joining Avis Rent-A-Car to head up travel industry sales.

He joined The Travel Corporation’s (TTC) family of companies in 1999 as general manager of Contiki Holidays, the worldwide leader in vacations for millennials. After moving to Trafalgar in Australia as managing director, he relocated to Southern California in…