IC TRAVEL AGENT April 2014 | Page 16

potential for upselling—appreciate the value of spending more to experience enhanced convenience—and also cross-selling—willing to try new destinations and new resorts as long as quality and value are not compromised. The Angel Fish Travel Theme: Three Little Fishies in an Itty Bitty Pool (in the summer time). Travel Image: Parent(s) and Kids(s) loaded down with luggage, wearing sunglasses, shorts and sandals in the departing airport and talking incessantly about what activities they will sign up for. Travel Type: Family Traveller. Everything is for the kids. Hotel staff better be kid-friendly and show it. Travel Communication: Before the trip: in-person and telephone. During the trip: Emails, texting and collect phone Calls. After the Trip: Letters. Travel Accommodation: Family-oriented allinclusives are perfect but will accept other ideas as long as there are tons of kid-oriented activities available (and some for the adults too). Menu choic es have to be kid-friendly. There’s no such thing as too many hamburgers and fish and chips. The Carp Travel Theme: Summer Time and “I Want it My Way”. Travel Image: Arguing on arrival with Fishing for summer clients… customs, lecturing the taxi driver, fighting for a better room at the resort, complaining about the air conditioning, grumbling about the temperature of the pool, criticizing the food, whining about the wine selection….you get the idea. Travel Type: Professional Anger Management Candidate. Mouth is almost always open wide, permanent frown on face, eyes say “go away”, but absolutely loves to travel as often as possible. Travel Communication: Everything that gets the message across. Letters to the manager, letters to the airline president, letters to you and your supervisor, letters to the tourist board, blogs, Trip Advisor review. Travel Accommodation: Mostly all-inclusives but will try anything once. The attitude is that everything is fair game for a complaint so why not experience it to add to the inventory of ‘don’t like this” The advent of summertime travel brings out all sorts of travel types and this is just one fun way to appreciate them. Segmenting your market and understanding that each and every person has their own travel wants and desires is very important… as is maintaining a sense of dedication to responding to your client’s needs, and maintaining a sense of compassion mixed with humour in working with those clients.