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The
travel industry is exploding with opportunity. Airlines, cruise lines, hotels, resorts
and other travel infrastructure are growing at
an unprecedented rate and the common thread
between all of the growth is distribution. Suppliers are looking toward the retail travel
agent community to create the future demand
necessary to continue the growth and prosperity.
Even with the current set backs caused by the
attack on the World Trade Center, travel is
expected to rebound with much gusto after the
war in Iraq. Now is the time to get involved.
Trends within the travel industry are evolving a
network of home-based travel agents and with the
Internet, came the opportunity for niche
specialization for thousands of travel agents
and their host agency partners. Today, a
home-based travel professional can expect to
make an excellent living. In fact, in a White
Paper written by Credit-Suisse in January,
home-based travel agents were identified as the
highest yielding distribution channel in the
travel industry. It went on to outline
home-based travel agents as the growth
opportunity of the 21st century and urged yield
sensitive suppliers (cruise lines, resorts, tour
companies and such) to pursue this market
segment as the most desirable distribution
channel. However, the White Paper was quick to
point out the difference between "card mill"
agents and real home-based travel agents.
The
domestic and international airlines have capped
commissions and then cut commission rates paid
to travel agents to boot. The U.S. airlines
completely stopped paying commissions to travel
agents in 2002 altogether. Many travel
professionals have chosen not to offer the
service of issuing airline tickets to anyone but
their established clients and then, only by
charging a service fee for the service. The
result has been the evolution of leisure
specialists that focus on a very narrow market
niche.
15
Areas of Great Opportunity
All of the changes in the
travel industry have created unbelievable
opportunities for agents that can focus their
efforts in niche areas exploiting the new
economic reality of the travel industry. This
has created 15 areas of huge opportunity for
home-based travel agents to earn extraordinary
incomes. These opportunities are fully
discussed and outlined in the current edition of
"How
to Start a Home Based Travel Agency"
and are "must" reading for any new entrepreneur
starting a home-based travel business. Find out
exactly where the opportunities exist and how to
exploit them.
A
Whole New Acceptance of Home-Based Travel Agents
Not
too many years ago home-based travel agents were
thought to be somehow less professional than their storefront counterparts. Today, they are the most
sought after segment of the travel industry by
suppliers that recognize the dramatic change
that has occurred over the past decade. Suppliers
welcome new home-based travel agents with open
arms and are anxious to help you get going. This
new found status is a wonderful entree into a
new career and you will find the travel industry
an excellent place to pursue your career
opportunity either full time or part time.
What Direction Should I go in?
As you pursue information on the
web you will find lots of sites offering you
opportunities for a fee. Many "card mills" will
make excellent presentations to try and get your
money. People will try to sell you training and
courses to become a home-based travel agent,
associations and industry groups will try to
separate you from your money and unfortunately,
there a quite a few scammers involved in the
Internet that simply want your money without
even giving you anything of value back. Travel
attracts scammers from all over the world.
Everything from Nigeria airline ticket scams
using stolen credit cards to people selling
phoney travel agent ID cards promising that they
will allow you to travel for free.
The travel industry is just like
every other business. Once you understand the
basics of how the industry works, you are then
in a position to make decisions about what you
need for your business idea. You will be able to
discern a scam from a real opportunity, to
evaluate a host agency's value proposition as it
relates to you and most importantly, avoid
getting scammed. "How
to Start a Home Based Travel Agency"
was written so that you can achieve these
objectives and is the very best way to invest in
your future in the travel industry. Tens of
thousands of travel agents have used this book
to launch their careers.
I encourage you to follow the
links in the Google ads that appear on this
site, as they include real offerings, card mills
and scams. Don't act on any of them until you
have read my book, but see if you cn start to
tell the difference. Best of Luck in your
business! |
