Become a Home Based Travel Agent

Murray Lundberg

An Interview With Community Member
Murray Lundberg
By Tom Ogg

When did you start your travel business?

My entry, perhaps more accurately phrased as "evolution", into retail travel sales just began 3 years ago. I had been involved in the tourism industry as a motorcoach driver/guide in Alaska and the Yukon Territory since 1990, though, and meeting cruise ships, and booking tours and excursions were all part of that job. Even the motorcoach driver/guide job was part of my evolution - I had been driving highway transport trucks in Vancouver for 13 years, then a vacation to Alaska and the Yukon in 1985 made me realize where I needed to live.

What did you do before getting into the travel business?

In 1997 I opened my first Web site about the North. Initially focused on history-related subjects, my growing network of Web sites moved towards tourism, which provides a much better revenue stream from affiliate deals and advertisers. In 2005 Sixth Star, an agency in Florida that specializes in placing speakers on cruise ships, contacted me and asked if I could do the sort of thing I do online, on  a cruise ship stage. Although I truly believed that cruise ships were not "my style", I agreed to sail on the Radiance of the Seas for a 7-night Alaska cruise out of Vancouver. To say that I fell in love with cruising is an understatement!

Do you specialize in any market niches?

To shorten the story up, in late 2008 I got a call from a businessman in Whitehorse, Yukon, where I live. He was opening a brick-and-mortar agency under the Expedia CruiseShipCenters banner, and wanted to know if I would be interested in signing on as his first Independent Consultant. The timing of the call was perfect, as I was about to get married and retire from tour driving. I decided that this would be the perfect extension of what I had been doing, and joined with the idea that I would work one day per week. However, I very quickly became full-time.

How did you become successful?

Although I consult on and book any type of travel, my passion and my focus is on Alaska in any form, and small ships around the world. Through Web sites such as YourAlaskaCruise.com, I am always working on spreading the word that I am one of the experts in that niche, and it has worked very well. Each month, a higher and higher percentage of my bookings are Alaska and/or small ships. One of the advantages of that is that the amount of research needed to put together a quote is very small - most items are firmly in my head or in cut-and-paste notes I create for the various components of a trip. Not only did my gross bookings increase by 28% last year, my per-hour income increased at a much higher percentage, as a quote that may have taken me an hour to do 2 years ago can now be done in 15 minutes.

You have been using ebooks and video in your business. How has it worked for you?

E-books were added to my list of promotional tools four years ago, and have been very successful both for marketing and as a revenue
stream of their own. The most successful is a mile-by-mile guide to the highway that people from cruise ships drive when they rent cars
in Skagway, Alaska. It was initially just an informational page on my ExploreNorth Web site, but as its popularity grew, people started
referring to it as "Murray's Guide", so I registered MurraysGuide.com and made it a frequently-updated pdf that can be downloaded for $5.

Living in the Yukon, how do you reach out to find new clients?

As well as the e-books, I also run 3 blogs, a Youtube channel, a Facebook page and 2 Twitter accounts, but I am about to give up on
Facebook and Twitter - the Rerun on Investment seems to be zero. Youtube is of ever-growing importance to me as I shoot more and more and link from my various Web sites. With all of the Web-based tools available now, living literally in the middle of nowhere is not an
issue in building my business, and in fact may be an advantage in gaining credibility as an expert in traveling to the middle of nowhere.

Can you share your “business bucket list” with us?

The future I see for my business is very basic. While I am pleased with the number of bookings I did in 2011, I want to increase the
value of each of those bookings by doing more and more in my niche. Already in 2012, I have turned down queries as they were low dollar value in areas that hold no interest for me. I never quote on cruises less than 7 days anymore, and if someone states that they are
shopping several agents I do not even respond.

What changes do you see coming in the travel industry?

The biggest challenge I see for travel agents is certainly the growing number of people to whom price is more important than quality, and who will suck a good travel agent dry for information and then go online and book within the discounter of the day to save $20. The key to avoiding that as much as possible is, in my opinion, to get potential clients on the phone and work at developing a relationship with them. A simple statement such as "my wife Cathy and I have a special connection with the Amsterdam as we got engaged on her as she sailed from Ketchikan" when giving a consultation/quote can be a significant factor in
getting the booking.

What advice can you offer to other agents?

I see many agents getting drawn into the newest and hottest trends in an effort to grow their business. I suggest that all agents need to
define what they want their business to be - what they want it to be next month, at year end and in five years. That first step will allow
them to properly analyze the marketing/promotional efforts they get involved in. Being on Twitter may be a complete waste of time for
many agents, as it was for me. In the final analysis, only you can decide what's right for you and your business, and what "success" means.

Murray
Cruise Explorer Travel
The Small Ship and Alaska Specialists
http://www.cruiseexplorertravel.com/