A few weeks ago, I wrote a column on “fake news” in the travel industry. The media had resurrected a story about a tragic death in Mexico of a young woman who was found dead in a resort swimming pool. The story came to light for a second time because a lawsuit was filed. There was rampant speculation about the cause and one of the causative actions was leaning towards the resort utilizing tainted liquor. Not so fast!

After the lawyers made the accusations, the Mexican government went to work.

In the latest sampling by the Federal Commission on Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris), laboratory tests of the alcoholic beverages of the hotel Iberostar Paraiso del Mar were found to be normal, ruling out allegations…

I once spotted a headline that read, "Young entrepreneur has business bean for marketing coffee."

The article was about a ten year old "yoot"*** named Stephen who was running a three person business from his front lawn while learning about the rudiments of turning a buck. Little does he know that what he was learning will serve him well for the next 50 + years.

**** (youth/youngster) - if you haven't seen the movie My Cousin Vinny, do yourself a favor and rent it before it goes out of…

What type of formal sales and marketing training have you undertaken? If you look at most professions, the sales people are continually taking sales courses on a regular basis. In travel, however, sales and marketing often take a back seat to destination courses and product knowledge. Too seldom do you see real sales and marketing training in our industry.  Even at industry trade shows, "sales seminars" usually end up being more product knowledge in disguise. How important do you think formal training in sales and marketing is and how have you invested in it in the past?
When something goes "wrong" in a proposal to a client, you can often trace the problem back to the sales skills necessary for a…

Hailing from Auckland, New Zealand, Katrina Roberts is one of the top performing travel agents for Cook Travel, a boutique travel consultancy that specializes in Business and First Class travel. Having spent the last 16 years in New York City, Katrina handles business and first class travel for large scale corporations, law firms and advertising agencies, both in New York and in New Zealand, and even the travel of various celebrities; from Nick Cannon to Paula Abdul. She got her start as a travel agent fresh out of tourism school, which led to her spending the last 14 years specializing in travel to the South Pacific as an International Tour Leader with Cook Travel.