With my business, I rarely do individual trips. But for the occasional, preferred client I will. Recently, I was working on a European FIT for a client with a … how shall I say this delicately…rambunctious child. Now on our group trips we can usually keep the crowd under control when we escort them, and other parents are keeping a watchful eye. But solo travel is another beast and I felt it best to make a point of it to my client. Make sure you keep an eye on junior. First, losing him would be horrible; but secondly, you never want to be painted as “that” tourist. It gave me pause to think and share the stories I had heard over the years about tourists…

It’s only human to focus on negatives. Heaven knows there are enough negative things going on in this world to provide plenty of opportunities to succumb to the Dark Side. There isn’t much you can do to change this fact, or influence other people’s behavior. You can however, decide to change your response to the world’s stimuli. You absolutely do not have to follow the pack and become a negative person. Being positive is an option.

It confuses me when people decide to re-orient their lives toward the positive immediately after a catastrophe throws their lives into a downward spiral of unfortunate turmoil. The death of a loved one can immediately affect people’s thinking. Disease has been known to straightened people out. Fires, floods and tornadoes have…

While working with some travel professionals on the topic of  “Expanding Your Digital Footprint” my research revealed a rather surprising weak spot. Most of the travel professionals were eager to know the best practices in social media, search engines, websites, newsletters and blogging. But many also quickly confessed to a deficiency of fundamental knowledge on how to get started. A general understanding of social media marketing, blogging, websites and reputation maintenance is present, but the actual mechanics of each sometimes seems elusive.

It is not hard to understand why many travel professionals have problems with digital marketing.  Most often, it is the technology we find daunting.  Our passions run to the travel experience, not technology and marketing.  To become really…