Become a Home Based Travel Agent

An Interview with Nexion’s
President and General Manager, Jackie Friedman CTC, CTIE
By: Joanie Ogg CTC, MCC

Nexion has grown since we last got together in January. We negotiated a strategic marketing agreement with the GTM Travel Group in the first quarter of 2010, with a number of GTM agents moving into Nexion programs. We’ve also had tremendous growth organically, and now have a strong network of 2,600 professional travel agents.

Nexion was also just named for the third consecutive year on Travel Weekly’s Power List, where we moved up to #33 for 2010. In addition, we continue to grow our business by expanding on the many resources we have to help our agents succeed as independent travel professionals. For example, we recently launched a new reporting solution, geared toward our corporate agents, as well as a business newsletter specifically for our GDS users.

Of course, training and giving our agents educational opportunities continues to be in the forefront of what we offer to our agents.

Tell us more about these educational opportunities.

We focus on our agents’ success by offering a wide variety of training and education solutions to increase our members’ knowledge on how to sell our suppliers’ products, our processes and tools, and general business skills. Nexion University offers our members a one-stop shop to interactive and online training modules and scheduled webinars. Through Nexion University, our members can track their training transcripts as they take part in industry and Nexion training.

Nexion University continues to grow, based on feedback from our members. Just in the past three months, more than 700 of our agents have accessed an average of five classes each. We’ve also added resources such as sample customer letters and forms to help our agents run their businesses.

Nexion has also launched a destination webinar series called the Nexion Explorer Series to help our agents grow. In addition to educating our agents on Nexion tools and preferred suppliers, we saw a need to educate our agents on the destinations in which they send their travelers. As travel agents, as much as we like to, we can’t go everywhere, so this is the next best thing. Webinars so far have included Steve Wellmeier, executive director of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), and Carolyn Pope for Tourism New Zealand. We’re also talking with Israel, Hong Kong and Brazil for future series calls.

I know your events, including your annual conference, are always a hit. What’s in the works for this year’s event?

We can’t say enough about the momentum that our annual conference, CoNexion, and our Boot Camps bring. These events are a huge part of Nexion’s commitment to training and development for our agents and allow our members the opportunity to meet in person with fellow agents, our supplier partners and Nexion staff.

CoNexion 2010 takes place September 29 to October 1 in Miami. Our members can take advantage of many informative and interactive workshops, general sessions, panel discussions and networking opportunities, plus one-on-one time with 55 of our preferred supplier partners in a trade show setting. We also are offering several pre- and post-conference events, including four ship inspections and a four-property luxury hotel site inspection. Of course, what’s CoNexion without some fun? This year we have some surprises in store at our Feelin’ Hot, Hot, Hot Beach Bash Party!

Our conference is held just once a year, so there’s still an opportunity for professional travel agents to join Nexion and then come turn up the heat on their business at CoNexion 2010 this fall.

You mentioned adding corporate offerings to the leisure mix of resources at Nexion. Tell me more about this.

In June, we began offering our members a Web-based management reporting product, geared toward our corporate members. It offers complete automation of the report production and delivery process for travel agents, and corporate clients can have dynamic access to their data and custom report design features. Feedback on the new offering has been strong.

In addition, we have launched our “Nexion for Business” newsletter for corporate and GDS travel professionals, in addition to the regular monthly newsletter we send to all members. This business e-newsletter is sent every two weeks and also archived on our member portal. Each issue is packed with information from airlines, car, hotel, training, business travel updates and building your business.

How can travel professionals who are looking to join a host agency learn more about Nexion?

If you’re ready to increase your earnings and simplify your business, we encourage you to contact us through www.nexion.com or sales@nexion.com, or call us at 800-747-6813. We’d love to talk with you more about how you can accelerate your success with Nexion as your premier host agency.

Joanie Ogg CTC MCC
Joanie Ogg Marketing Group
Editor

Joanie Ogg is a thirty-five year veteran of the travel industry and has been involved with the independent contractor evolution since 1988. She is the principal of Joanie Ogg Marketing Group, which specializes in consulting and speaking on the topic of Home-Based Travel. She also provides marketing and sales for wide variety of products under the umbrella HomeBasedTravelAgent.com.

A demonstrated industry leader, Joanie most recently served as the President of the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents (NACTA) and TravelSellers. She and her husband Tom acquired NACTA in 1996 and sold it to The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) in 2000. Joanie’s tenure in the travel industry includes owning and operating one of the first successful host agency models. She has owned and operated several storefront travel agencies (both commercial and leisure), as well as a Hawaii wholesale tour company.

Her decades of success have garnered her numerous accolades over the years. Her accomplishments have been recognized by receipt of two Lifetime Achievement Awards from major trade groups, being named as one of the “100 Most Powerful Women in Travel” by Travel Agent magazine on several occasions, voted as “Travel Agent of the Year” by the readers of Travel Trade magazine, and has been recognized by many other industry organizations throughout her tenure in the industry. In 2008 Joanie Ogg was inducted into the CLIA Hall of Fame, an honor held by some of the most influential executives in the travel industry.

Joanie is a Master Cruise Counselor (MCC) and a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC). Joanie has co-authored two popular travel industry books for cruise specialists and home-based travel agents and has authored hundreds of travel trade articles. She has inspired tens of thousands of travel agents attending her presentations at trade events, cruise seminars, international trade gatherings and numerous local educational venues throughout the United States. With a time-honored background and forward-looking vision, she is often featured as a speaker at many of the travel industry’s major conferences and events. Joanie’s speaking talents are widely sought as a travel industry emcee by the most recognized travel organizations. She has emceed such events as Cruise-A-Thons, ASTA’s CruiseFest, The Trade Show, The Travel Institute Forum and all of NACTA’s National and International Conferences.


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