Midwest Night Travel

Just as you have many different options when selecting where to travel and what to do when you get there, you also have a variety of choices when selecting the travel agency that will help you to design your perfect vacation. When you are looking for the perfect travel agency to help you with all of your travel needs, it is first important that you understand the basic types of travel agencies from which to choose and significant differences in terms of the services they provide to a vacationer.

Before looking at different niches of travel agencies, one large distinction exists. Do you want to work with an online-based travel agency, or a locally-based travel agency? Depending on how either type of travel agency is run, you can have a vastly different experience. With an online-based travel agency, you can often receive service 24/7 and book your travel at any time that is most convenient to you. You will be able to retrieve information from many online-based travel agencies “on demand,” or exactly when you request it.

With a locally-based travel agency, you can often form relationships with particular travel agents who will also be your main point of contact for any future travel that you plan. In addition, the agents in your locally-based agency will be able to maintain information specific to your desires to help them to provide suggestions for future vacations. These are only a few of the distinctions between online and local travel agencies.

One recent innovation great for the customer is the emergence of travel agencies who provide both of the above – the personal service of a local, walk-in office with the 24/7 and technological convenience of online access to all your itineraries, account information and options for self-service booking when you want it. Look for a national brand with a history of providing reliable service and customer satisfaction; these companies are most likely to provide you with the best of both worlds in travel agency services.

Once you have determined whether you will use an online or a local travel agency, there are additional options from which to choose. The first option to consider is the level of service an agency will provide. Travel agencies can run the gamut from full service to self service. Especially with online travel agencies, information may simply be provided to aid in your travel decisions while leaving much of the leg work to you. If you prefer a travel planning experience that allows you to seek out all of your own information and make all of your decisions and reservations independently, a self service travel agency will be your best bet.

Full service travel agencies, whether online-based or locally-based, offer the exact opposite scenario. They pair an agent with you to provide all of the information you need, when you need it, and to be on hand to help you with all of the travel decisions that you make. In addition, they will handle all of your bookings and payments and logistics, sparing you the need to do so on your own. In between self service and full service agencies are other options that offer a combination of do-it-yourself plans and planning that involves the step-by-step guidance of a travel professional.

The second option is the type of travel an agency may designate as their specialty. Some travel agencies work only with domestic travel planning. They can assist you with any need you may have related to travel within the United States and its possessions. Other travel agencies work specifically to aid travelers in planning overseas travel. A further narrowing of this niche can occur when a travel agency focuses only on one particular area of the world for the travel services they provide, such as Europe or the Caribbean. You can also choose travel agencies that focus only on one particular type of travel, such as cruises or multi-segmented trips. It can be very important for you to decide whether you would like to partner with a niche travel agency, or a travel agency that is more broad-based.

The third option is the type of traveler an agency may specialize in assisting. Some travel agencies only work with a specific demographic of travel. For instance, you may choose a travel agency that caters to single travelers. This type of agency may work to put together travel packages and tours specifically geared towards singles instead of couples or families. Other travel agencies may work with just that – couples or families. Whether they focus on providing romantic destination options for two, or kid-friendly destinations for the whole family, this can be a popular niche for travel agencies. Finally, a travel agency may choose to focus exclusively on business travelers instead of leisure travelers. They may have options available to offer that are particularly suited to travelers who need different amenities and more flexibility in scheduling.

In conclusion there are many services a travel agency provides to make your life easier when planning a vacation or business travel. Most importantly, the agent offers years of expertise and knowledge of other travelers’ experiences from which you can benefit.

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The Impact Of The Recent Terror Attacks On The Travel Industry And It’s Importance Of Travel Insurance In The Current Scenario

If you want to travel abroad, you also have to bear in mind possibilities such as terror attacks along with travel hazards now, and not just the normal issues that crop up like booking tickets, visas, and so forth. This is becoming more important now as the world has been shaken up with terrifying terror attacks recently – take the terror attacks in Mumbai for example. Thus, when you are planning foreign travel to any country in the world, you should not forget about something which is imperative, and that is travel insurance. We have still not recovered from the impact of the recent terror attacks that shook up Mumbai. Such terror attacks were unprecedented in India. Plenty of globe trotters visit India when they think about foreign travel. They don’t travel abroad to other exotic country but visit India because of its lovely tourism as well as excellent hospitality industry. However, who could have ever thought that travel hazards could appear in the form of terror attacks here?

The travel industry in India has suffered a deep scar because of these terror attacks and the subsequent travel hazards. No one wants to travel abroad and risk his or her life. The impact of the terror attacks in India is already being felt. Business travelers, for whom foreign travel is a regular feature, are canceling their flight tickets. In fact, the world is no longer a safe place to travel abroad as it used to be. Life threatening travel hazards can affect anyone anywhere. However, if we have the assurance of travel insurance, then we won’t need to feel scared about foreign travel. In the current scenario of terror attacks, travel insurance gains primary importance, especially for foreign travel.

Terror attacks are not restricted to countries like India alone. We are all aware of the 9/11 terror attacks in the US. When there is loss of life because of terror attacks, then that loss cannot be replaced, but losses during foreign travel can surely be covered, provided you have the right travel insurance plan. Today, with the rising threat of terror attacks, you can have terrorists right inside your hotel. To combat that, you can opt for terrorism insurance.

Even your best-planned foreign travel tour or travel abroad trip can get disrupted with travel hazards and emergencies. Even if there are no terror attacks, your foreign travel vacation or travel abroad trip may not be a smooth ride. Travel hazards could range from anything like loss of baggage to medical injuries while you travel abroad. You have no idea what kind of travel hazards may attack you. You may fall sick, hurt yourself, injure yourself while driving, or need medical treatment. All these travel hazards can prove to be very costly. You can say goodbye to all these problems and travel hazards during your foreign travel with the right travel insurance policy. If you choose a good travel insurance plan then you can relax all through your foreign travels. Your travel insurance plan takes care of all kinds of travel hazards. If you want to stay safe from the time you leave home, travel abroad and return back, then go for a good travel insurance plan. Many travel insurance companies in India offer travel insurance plans designed to address travel hazards and help in foreign travel. It is a good idea to weigh the pros and cons of different travel insurance plans and find out which travel insurance suits you best for your travel abroad vacation.

Get travel insurance plan that provides the best coverage including baggage loss, medical evacuation, and travel abroad trip cancellation. Now you can travel abroad in peace without any worries!

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Tourists

The origin of the word “tourist” date back to 1292 AD. It has come from the word ‘tour’. A number of experts have defined the term:
“Tourists are the voluntary temporary travelers, traveling in the expectations of pleasure from the novelty and change experienced on a relatively and non-current round-trip”.
“Tourist is a person who makes a journey for the sake of curiosity for the fun of traveling”.

Tourists are:

-Persons traveling for pleasure, health and domestic reason.
-Persons arriving in the sea of sea cruise.
-Persons traveling for convention.

Tourism – the first commercial venture.

A religious Englishman called Thomas Cook in 1841 arranged, for a fee, a one –day rail excursion from Leicester to Loughborough for 540 members of a temperance league. Thus the first bona fide travel agent was Thomas Cook.

While Cook himself did not make a profit on this first venture, he was a man of vision and was convinced that there was a need for a skilled “travel arranger”. So by 1845 he had become the first full-time travel agent, operating train excursions from Leicester. The next year he chartered a train and steamer for an excursion to Scotland for 330 people. In 1851 Cook arranged ocean steamship travel and accommodations for more than 1,50,000 visitors to the World Exposition in London and in 1856 he operated the first escorted “grand tour” of Europe. Tours to Europe and Middle East were also conducted and, in 1872, the first around the world tour was conducted.

Tourism as a Service Industry

Tourism as a service industry comprises of several allied activities which together produce the tourism product. Involved in the tourism product are three major sub-industries. They are: -
1. Tour operators and travel agents.
2. Accommodation sector (hoteling and catering) and
3. Passenger accommodation.

According to international estimates, a tourist spends 35% of his total expenditure on transportation, about 40% on lodging and food and the balance 25% on entertainment, shopping and incidentals.
The product in this case is not confirmed to travel and accommodation but includes a large array of auxiliary services ranging from insurance and entertainment and shopping, demand generation, in addition to the consumer motivation, is also heavily dependent upon powerful persuasive communication both at the macro (country) level and the micro (enterprise) level. The participants in the process of this service business can be illustrated by the figure below.

Some of the pointers to nature of tourism as a Service Industry

1. Tourism accounts for nearly 6% of world trade.
2. Bulk of tourism business is located in Europe and North America. , with 1/8 of the market being shared between the other regions.
3. The highest growth rate in tourism in recent years has been in the third world.
4. Tourism, like most pure services, because of the character of inseparability, exemplifies a product, which cannot be sampled before purchase; the prospective consumers have to travel to a foreign destination in order to consume the product.
5. The major players in the tourism market include a number of intermediary companies. Some of them transnational in character, some of them exhibit
vertical integration, both backward and forward, acquiring interests in all major sectors of this service industry.

The Tourism Product- Factors Governing Demand.

Because of the unique nature of the nature of tourism product- it being an amalgam of the characteristics of a destination and the infrastructural as well as managerial efforts of the promoter, the determinants of tourists demand emanate from both individual tourist motivations and the economic, social, technological factors. Some of these are:

• Income Levels

In the last 30 years, disposable incomes around the world have shown upward trends, thus allowing more money for activities like leisure travel. Smaller families have meant higher allocations per person in the family. More and more women are entering the workforce and in real terms the cost of travel has fallen. The dramatic rise of tourism in the last 50 years can be attributed in a large measure to the combined effect of more leisure time and rise in both real and disposable incomes.

• More Leisure time:

Increasing unionization of labour right from 1930 onwards has reduced the number of working hours per week. Changing managerial orientations towards human resources have increased the levels of pay and paid vacation time in most developed countries. Now people have longer periods of leisure, which could be allocated to travel.

• Mobility

Better transportation and communication services have made the world a smaller place, and have brought both exposure and awareness of distant lands to larger sections of potential tourists across the world. Faster modes of transport have cut down on travel time, making it easier for people to economically plan and execute trips abroad.

• Growth in Government Security Programmes and Employment Benefits:

The growth in government security programmes and well entrenched policies of employee benefits mean that quite a large number of families may have long term financial security and may be more willing to spend money for vacations.

Tourist Classification:-

Tourists can be classified into the following seven demand categories:-
1. Explorer: – Very limited in number, these tourists are looking for discovery and involvement with local people.
2. Elite: – People who favour special, individually trips to exotic places.
3. Offbeat: – These are filled with a desire to get away from the usual humdrum life.
4. Unusual: – Visitors who are looking forward to trips with peculiar objectives such as physical danger or isolation.
5. Incipient mass: – A steady flow, traveling alone or in small-organized groups using some shared services.
6. Mass: – The general packaged tour market, leading to tourist enclaves abroad.
7. Charter: – Mass travel to relaxation destinations, which incorporate as many as standardized, developed world facilities as possible.

The Travel Decision:-

The average tourist is faced with considerable uncertainty regarding the decision and may have only scanty ideas about distant destinations. His evaluation of alternatives is also limited to the extent of this awareness about possible destinations. The stages of travel decision can be described as: -

1. Travel Desire:-
The first step where the need to travel is felt and the pros and cons are thought about.
2. Information Collection and Evaluation:-
This stage involves the process of finding out the trip from travel agents, books and acquaintances . information so collected is evaluated against criteria of cost and time constraints, alternative possibilities, relative attractiveness of destinations, perceived ‘safety’ o the alternative destinations etc.
3. Travel Decision:-
This is the decision phase involving selection of destination, travel, mode of accommodation and activities to be undertaken.
4. Travel Preparation and Experience:-
This involves tickets, bookings, travel, money and documents arrangement, clothing and undertaking of the travel.
5. Travel Satisfaction Evaluation:-
The whole tourism expenditure is constantly evaluated before, during and after the experience is used to influence future decisions.

The marketing concept for the travel and tourism industry is profit driven and customer centric (unlike sales which are volume driven and target centric).

Service Marketing Triangle

Service marketing is unique in many ways in the travel and tourism industry. There are 3 players in the transaction process:-

- Company: A travel and tourism company listens to the customers and evolves/develops the travel/tour package and it communicates the attractiveness and the utility of that very tour package directly to the customers. Here it (the company) performs external marketing. The company makes promises to the customers.

- Providers: They are a travel company’s internal customers constituting employees and agents. The company does internal marketing with the providers educating and motivating them about the idea of the particular tour package which they can offer to their customers. This is done to enable the providers to effectively carry out the service transaction process. The providers make provisions for office space, accessibility and connectivity. The company enables promises to be kept by this infrastructural association.

- Customers (Travelers): The customers are the reasons that the travel company exists and for whom the company has designed the traveling and touring package as well as set up the infrastructural facilities and spent money on employee development programmes. Here the providers are the only ones who interact with the customers, like the travel agents interact with the customers and not the company. The agents perform interactive marketing which is on-time, all-time, every-time. This is the most crucial aspect of service marketing in the travel and tourism sector. Those agents have the responsibility of ‘keeping promises’ made and enabled by the company. The providers (agents) are responsible for the perceived quality level of the service transaction. This underlines the uniqueness of service marketing.

Tourism Products:

1. Accommodation
• Hotels
• Motels
• Boatels
• Flotels

2. Destination

• Natural Scenes
• Historic Excellence
• Artificial Beauties
• Social Cultural Excellence

3. Transportation

• Infrastructural
i. Airways
ii. Railways
iii. Roadways
iv. Waterways

• Local

i. Local transport

4. Tour operators

• Travel companies
• Travel agents
• Guides

5. Shopping

• Handicrafts
• Handloom
• Books

Marketing mix for tourism product:

The designing of the marketing mix variables in case of tourism is significant as it helps the marketer in conceiving the right ideas, particularly to raise the acceptability of the tourist product by stimulating and penetrating the demand. Framing of a proper marketing mix is significant because it helps the tourist organization in accomplishing the objective and projecting a fair image.

Product Mix:

Tourism is a composite product with components like attraction facilities and transportation. Attraction deserves an intensive care. It includes natural site, places of historic interest, events and cultural attraction.

The facilities compliment attraction. The facilities include accommodation, food, transportation and recreational facilities. The transportation component includes the vehicles and infrastructure. Innovation in the tourism product helps raising the sensitivity. The users of the service are looking forward to better and improved product.

The provider of the tourist is a travel agent or the package tour. A well conceived and designed package tour, covering a wide range of tourist attraction at an economic price, helps in attracting the potential tourist.

The travel agent performs numerous activities such as hotel arrangement and accommodation, site seeing arrangement, domestic transport arrangement, air travel arrangement etc.
In a true sense the tour agents and the travel agents are the vehicles who can give a fillip to the tourism industry, provided they are well trained.

Pricing:

Pricing of the tourist product is complex. Geographical location of the destination, seasonality and varying demand affects the pricing decision.
In India the pricing strategies become important for promoting or contracting the tourism industry, since more than 40% of the total population are below the poverty line. In order to develop the tourism industry more and more potential users are to be transformed into actual users.

When a tourist proposes to visit a particular place, the total cost of his traveling also include the expenses incurred on transportation, accommodation and communication.
Liberal pricing strategy is found to be a productive pricing decision, particularly in case of tourism industry. The pricing strategy which includes low income group people, student and retired persons can be more effective. This is possible if the government concessional and subsidized infrastructural facilities to the potential tourist below the average income.

The different pricing methods generally used are cost based pricing, demand based pricing and competition based pricing.

Promotions:

The promotion mix includes advertising, publicity, sales support and public relations.
The purpose of promotion is to make available the information to the user. Advertising the sales promotion can be effective when supplemented by publicity and personal selling.
Radio, TV, newspapers, cinema and printings are some of the important vehicles for traveling of messages. Effective slogans raises the effectiveness of advertisement.

Another important component of the promotion mix is public relation. It helps in projecting the image of an organization. Public relation and publicity include regular articles and photographs of tour attraction, use of TV and travel journalists to promote editorial comment.
Public relation officer plays an important role. He should be efficient, active, impressive, intelligent and well-behaved.

Good image projection can be made if the PRO manages the affair like a professional. It is said that word of mouth is the best form of publicity. The word of mouth promotion is an important tool in tourism marketing.

Place:

The tourist centers should be located at suitable points if the tourists spots are natural there is no question of selection. In a vast country like India with a divergent socioeconomic and cultural patterns, the promotion of domestic tourism encourages unity in diversity.
Infrastructural facilities, transport and communication are important for development of tourist centres. The site selected should have natural surroundings, increased accessibility and improved amenities. At the same time it is also important that the ecological balance is not disturbed. Since growing ecological imbalances leads to pollution, some important steps like promoting afforestation, promotion and beautification may be undertaken in countering the side effects of atmospheric pollution and maintaining ecological balance.

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Cutting travel program fat without compromising strategic objectives

The global economic downturn is hitting business travel where it hurts: According to a new survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), more than 70 percent of U. S. travel managers plan to spend less on corporate travel in 2009. The results represent a sharp shift from an earlier ACTE poll (Sept. 2008), which found that only 33 percent of U. S. travel managers were planning on cutting travel spend in the year to come.

While the ACTE survey may have focused on the U. S. , the challenges faced by travel buyers and travel managers cut across all sectors of the globe. From reducing travel to tightening travel policy, and from renegotiating with suppliers to adjusting travel behavior, travel program stakeholders are intent on cutting trips and curbing expenses.

The silver lining to the financial storm clouds, says Kathy Jackson, executive vice president.

Story highlights:

* Travel buyers and managers now able to make changes that were impossible in the past

* New role for account managers in understanding and supporting client business drivers

* Changes to travel policy, approval process, traveler behavior are leading savings mechanisms for cost-conscious companies

* Demand management and online technologies are key supports

For Global Client Management at BCD Travel, is that the economy is enabling travel buyers and their respective teams to make changes that, quite frankly, have never been achievable in the past.

The challenge, adds Jackson, is to save on travel spend without compromising on business objectives: “As hard as it may be to foresee, the recession will not last forever. Companies will need to emerge from the downturn with plans for growth and solid business relationships in place- and travel is a crucial element in supporting growth and retention initiatives. “

Teri Miller, senior vice president for Global Client Management in the Americas for BCD Travel, sees a major opportunity for travel management company account managers in the current situation: “Account managers need a deep understanding of the customer’s business drivers to enable them to anticipate and add value, rather than react. As an example, if a client is closing manufacturing plants in three countries, our account manager will explain how travel patterns will shift as a result, illustrate what effect that may have on supplier contracts and provide a plan for optimizing potential impact. “

What steps are BCD Corporate Travel clients taking to combat the recession?

Companies need to look beyond the big-ticket items, says Jackson, and filter adjustments through every component of a trip. “It may be tempting to focus exclusively on air ticket costs, but for some programs, air may make up only as much as 20 percent of total T&E expenditure. Our account managers, often with the support of a consultative engagement from Advito [the independent consulting branch of BCD Travel], help clients focus on the total cost of trip, including hotel, ground transportation and even restaurant costs. “

A list of some of the decisions in which BCD Travel is supporting its clients’ recession-management travel strategies is below.

The choices and decisions being made represent a major opportunity for companies to make lasting beneficial changes to their travel programs, says Jackson: “As with any diet, success is incumbent on making change a way of life, not a 30-day wonder regime. “

Changes in travel policy

Growing corporate cost-consciousness is manifesting itself most prominently in the refinement and enactment of more stringent travel policies. Among the common cost-cutting elements BCD Travel is seeing: shifting from business class to coach class (variations include mandating coach class for all travelers regardless of hierarchical level and increasing the business-class flight-time threshold); down-tiering hotels (i. e. , three-star instead of four-star); mandating the use of public transport rather than taxis; and retaining frequent flyer miles for business travel rather than personal travel.

BCD Travel is also seeing an increase in the use of rail and low-cost carriers within EMEA, says Felix Vezjak, senior vice president for Global Client Management in EMEA: “Companies are much more likely to accept what were formerly seen as inconveniences (i. e. , secondary airports) in exchange for savings. However, particularly in the case of low-cost carriers, companies need to ensure that their travelers always use the preferred booking channels (online booking tool and agency) of choice to ensure adequate reporting and security tracking. “

For further suggestions on refining and enforcing travel policy, see our Feb. 2009 article “Reliance on compliance. ” Changes to travel approval process

Whether it’s instituting an official approval process where one might not have existed or – as is more common – making existing processes more restrictive, this cost-cutting method is winning wide-spread support among BCD Corporate Travel clients as an easy “quick win. “

As part of a concerted travel-cost reduction effort, one of BCD Travel’s global clients, which has over US$450 million in annual travel spend and more than 325,000 employees worldwide, changed its travel approval process radically to incorporate the following:

# No travel unless approved by a vice president on a single trip basis (<150 VPs in the company)

# No last-minute travel (under seven days’ advance purchase) unless approved by an executive vice president (<15 EVPs in the company)

Demand management (travel reduction or travel freeze)

More and more companies today view demand management as one of the biggest opportunities they have to control or reduce costs without compromising their overall business goals and requirements.

Among the possible steps companies can take to reduce travel demand:

# Eliminate all non-client-related travel

# Freeze attendance at industry conventions and conferences

One BCD Travel client refers to internal meetings as the “mother of all travel,” and has implemented the following methods to reduce the travel they generate:

# Prioritize video/web-conferencing for internal meetings

# Reduce number of meeting participants (all participants must be on agenda)

# Require meetings to be planned around travel, rather than vice versa

# Eliminate hotel nights before and after the meetings

# Choose meeting venues based on total cost, including travel and employee time spend

Travel management company as educational and staffing resource

BCD Travel has played an important role for several major clients in helping educate travelers and travel arrangers on a range of subjects in order to improve their ability to support the companies’ savings initiatives. For some clients, BCD Travel account management has provided workshop sessions for travel bookers; for others, the company has created “Tips and Tricks” documents for cost-savvy travel that clients have made available to all travelers.

Some clients have also had to face internal downsizing, resulting in the loss of key travel personnel. In one recent case, following the departure of the travel manager, BCD Travel has been able to dedicate a resource to that role. The account manager has also supported the client by conducting analyses to forecast further headcount reduction ahead of online adoption drive. This headcount reduction has been written into the budget for 2009.

Increased use of online booking tools

In order to save on transaction costs and streamline processes, companies are increasingly mandating that all domestic or point-to-point travel be booked online. Online tools can also play an important role in supporting changes to the travel policy and to traveler behavior, says Miller: “Companies can modify booking tools to ask travelers about the necessity of a trip or offer alternatives to the journey before proceeding to booking. “

Program consolidation

Finally, says Jackson, the economic downturn may present a significant “carrot” for companies that had been looking into consolidating their travel services regionally or globally: “Consolidation of multiple country services into a multinational service center, for example, can represent considerable savings in resource and process costs. However, companies must be sure that their organization is prepared to fully support consolidation in order to fully achieve the benefits. That means asking questions like, ‘Do we have a consistent travel policy in place that spans the markets involved? Are there language constraints that would be met by the service center?’”

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Choosing a travel agency to handle your next vacation as opposed to dealing directly with an airline presents numerous benefits. Here are a few of the benefits you enjoy:

Wealth of information

Because of their experience and wide connections with people in the hospitality industry, travel agencies are in the best position to provide sound advice when it comes to the following points: off peak and peak travel times, budget travel, hotel and meal deals, excursions, shopping bargains, and other tourism-related topics. Much will depend on your preferences. For instance, are you interested in a golf holiday, a fishing trip, a museum jaunt or a spa type of vacation?

Discounted fares

Travel agencies and online travel agencies are great for bargain hunting and usually get the best deals from their network of contacts. They also purchase air tickets on volume, consolidated tickets, enabling them to buy air tickets at considerably higher discounts.

Extended network of suppliers and providers

Given that travel agents deal every day with hotel managers, restaurant owners and managers, bed and breakfast supervisors, tour operators, limousine companies, and other people who offer a specialized service, they know who and what are offering better prices and when. So travel agents have a wealth of information on just about anything related to travel, and because they network with other travel agents, they get to exchange valuable tips. Consider yourself fortunate if you happen to be dealing with a travel agent who seems to know “just about everyone” in the travel industry and who can offer you the discounts that she reserves for preferred clients.

Group discounts

If you tell your travel agent that you and your friends want to travel together or that you’re taking your family of four on a Kenyan safari, he or she might be able to slash off more dollars from your air tickets because you will be travelling in a group. Sometimes, when you buy three adult tickets, travel agents will let your four-year-old travel for free or at a much lower price. Travel agents can, at their discretion, extend courtesy discounts to groups. The more seats are bought and the more rooms are booked, the higher the discounts they receive.

Perks

Travel agents also have access to suppliers and service providers who hand out “bonuses” or perks. These are the nice extra incentives that say, hotel managers would give to agents so that the next time the travel agency has a large group of travelers, they choose the same hotel. Meal vouchers are another example that travel agencies have a constant supply of to give to loyal customers. For example, if you and your friends like to visit Las Vegas a lot, your travel agency may give you slot chips worth $50. 00 to use on machines, or free passes to a stage show or concert. So you see, it does pay to develop good relationships with travel agencies especially if you’re a frequent traveler.

Specialization

Some travel agencies specialize in certain types of travel and cater to a certain age group or specific professional groups. Some travel agencies have more strengths and capabilities than other travel agencies. One travel agency may know the ins and outs of Eastern Europe or may know what the best budget restaurants in Tokyo are. Other travel agencies may cater specifically to retirees, students or government officials.

When a travel agency handles a large account like a mid-size company whose executives travel weekly, you can be sure that travel agency is in a position to offer significant savings on plane tickets or hotel reservations. If you have a friend who works for a large company and his company uses one travel agency, you could ask him to request the travel agency for special deals. Because travel agents are grateful for the continuing patronage of their company clients, they will most likely share tips on how to travel on a shoestring budget for the executives’ children.

Don’t let one unfortunate experience with a travel agency discourage you. Find another. If you deal with the airlines directly, you’re just another caller to them, whereas if a travel agent calls the airline on your behalf, the airline will recognize the travel agency as a regular customer and hence would be more inclined to extend courtesies.

What you need to do before calling a travel agency is to decide:

· Specific travel dates

· Where you want to go, where you want to stay and whether you’ll need a car or rail passes

· If you’re willing to travel on a restricted ticket or as a standby passenger

· What activities you’d like to do once you arrive in your destination

By giving your travel agency complete information, she can be more efficient in helping you plan your next vacation.

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Guide To Prague City Breaks

Knowing where to go in Prague while on a break either during traveling through or stopping and staying is to know something about the city itself. Prague is the Capital of the Czech Republic and a famous historical city as well. Prague is known for hosting events like the Film, Music, and Writers Festivals as well as Fashion Shows. There is more money going through Prague than most places in all of Czech.

Prague Hotels & Sights

Prague has a wide range of hotels offering luxury and budgeted stay. The famous hotels of Prague are Corinthia Panorama, Corinthia Towers and Hotel Hilton Prague. Not to mention Prague has some of the most inspiring architecture around, one such is the St Martin Rotunda with its beautiful rounded design and historical significance. What about the grand Prague Castle and the glorious St Vitus’s Cathedral with its many spires and stained glass windows. Both of these will inspire even the most hardened of hearts and give you a memory you will never forget.

Prague City Break Attractions

There are other magnificent Churches you can visit while you are on your Prague city break, the Church of St Nicholas that brings the old world style and modern glamour in one. Then there is the view of the Wenceslas Square or the Prague Gardens such as the Petrin Park. The bridges in Prague are something else that should not be missed one fine example is the Charles Bridge.

The Neo Gothic towers of St Peters and St Paul, here you can see where myth and legend meet history are viewable by anyone and everyone as the first seat of Czech Princes and Princesses. You will also want to visit the Astronomical clock dial, which was made in 1410 by Mikulas of Kadan and Jan Ondrejuv called Sindel. There is also the National Museum to visit, the Rudolfinum or House of Artists and of course the many art galleries. You can find yourself basking in history or mixing it with the modern world.

Getting Around Prague

While on your Prague City Break you might find yourself wanting to spend more than a few hours wandering around and need a place to stay. Well with the new Ruzyne Airport only 20 km northwest getting there is easy, public transportation made up of trams and Buses or car rentals you can get around Prague easily and efficiently. There are many hotels in Prague to choose from Corinthia Panorama, Corinthia Towers and Hotel Hilton Prague to renting an apartment.

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Visitor to Sapa in summer can feel the climate of four seasons in one day. In the morning and afternoon, it is cool like the weather of spring and autumn. At noon, it is as sunny and cloudless as the weather of summer. And it is cold in the evening. With no advance warning of a thunderstorm short and heavy rains may come at noon on any summer day. Subsequently, a rainbow appears, transforming Sapa into a magic land, which for years has been a constant source of poetic inspiration, lights up the whole region.

The best time to witness the scenic beauty of Sapa is in April and May. Before that period, the weather might be cold and foggy; after that period is the rainy season. In April and May, Sapa is blooming with flowers and green pastures. The clouds that settle in the valley in early morning quickly disappear into thin air.

Sapa has many natural sites such as Ham Rong Mountain, Silver Waterfall, Rattan Bridge, Bamboo Forest and Ta Phin Cave. Sapa is also the starting point for many climbers and scientists who want to reach the top of Fansipan Mountain, the highest mountain in Vietnam at 3, 143m. Hoang Lien Mountain Range is also called the Alps of the North Sea area since Fansipan Mountain is not only the highest peak in Vietnam, but also in the Indochina Peninsula. The pyramid-shaped mountain is covered with clouds all year round and temperatures often drop below zero, especially at high elevations.
The first thing you notice when approaching the resort town are some detached wooden mansions and villas perched on a hill top or hillside, behind thick pine forests and almost invisible on this foggy morning. Old and new villas with red roofs now appear and now disappear in the green rows of pomu trees, bringing the town the beauty of European towns.

Fresh and cool air in Sapa is an idea climate condition for growing temperate vegetables such as cabbage, chayote, precious medicinal herbs, and fruit trees such as plum, pear…
Sapa is home to various families of flowers of captivating colours, which can be found nowhere else in the country. When Tet, the Lunar New Year Festival comes, the whole township of Sapa is filled with the pink colour of peach blossom brought from the vast forests of peach just outside the town. Sapa is regarded as the kingdom of orchids. Here, orchid lovers are even amazed by the choice, when trekking in the forest filled with several hundred kinds of orchids of brilliant colours and fantastic shapes, such as Orchid Princess, Orchid of My Fair Lady’s Shoe. Some orchids are named after lovely singing birds such as the canary, salangane’s nest, and more.

Sapa is most beautiful in spring. Apricot, plum and cherry flowers are splendidly beautiful. Markets are crowded and merry, and are especially attractive to visitors. Minority groups come here to exchange and trade goods and products. Market sessions are also a chance for locals to promenade and young men and women in colorful costumes to meet, date or seek sweethearts.
Visitors to Sapa will have opportunities to discover the unique customs of the local residents, enjoy the pure foods, and explore the charm of the Ethnic groups in Vietnam. . . . Vietnam package tour Sapa travel Mekong tours

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Millions of tourist visits Jammu Kashmir situated in India every year to see its fascinating tourist destinations,exotic wildlife, heritage sights. Jammu Kashmir has been famous for its natural beauty since time immemorial and has been aptly described as “heaven on earth”. The city of Jammu is known for its temples, Srinagar is famous for its houseboats while Kashmir is known for its scenic beauty and has often been referred as the “Switzerland of the East”. Some of the major pilgrimages centers of the nation are located in Jammu Kashmir, the two most important being Amarnath cave and VaishnoDevi shrine.

The state has lot to offer to its adventure loving visitors ,like trekking, mountaineering, skiing, paragliding & parasliding, cycling, water sports,angling, hand gliding and hot air ballooning. Jammu, Gulmarg and Sonamarg are few places where these activities are carried out.

Places to visit Patni top, Dal lake, Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Leh, Ladakh, Katra, Bahu Fort, Raghunath temple.

The hotels in Jammu Kashmir range from deluxe/luxury hotels, five star hotels, budget hotels to business hotels and economy hotels and also Dal Lake Houseboats are of all categories. If you are planning to travel Jammu Kashmir then visit our website kashmirhotravel. com to make online booking for hotels.

Special offers:

Magic of Kashmir (4 Nights and 5 days in Heaven)

Srinagar Short and Sweet Package

Contact us:

Ph: +91-177- 2860601

Fax: +91-177-2860602

email: info@kashmirhotravel. com

marketing@kashmirhotravel. com

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There are many things which you can do in Goa if you have chosen India as your next holiday destination. Goa is quite an obvious choice of all the travelers who decide to visit India because this place acts as a second home to them. Being the smallest state of India and one of the biggest revenue generators for tourism in the country, Goa is in deed the most preferred destination in India along with Rajasthan and Kerela. This place is famous all across the globe for its lovely beaches, churches and refreshing lifestyle.
Beaches- Some of the most popular beaches in Goa include Calangute, Arambol, Benaulim and Candolim. The purpose of your holiday plays an important role in the choice of locations and destinations. If you want some relaxation and calmness then beaches are the perfect place to achieve them. You can lay down besides the beach and can enjoy the sunshine. However if you are fond of sports activities them you can try out different activities alongside the beach like water sports, para sailing and other activities.
Agra: Anguri bagh, Macchi Bhawan, Mariam Tomb, Moti Masjid, Mina Masjid and Jhangir Mahal are few of the tourist destinations of Agra, but never to forget two important places of tourist visit is The Taj Mahal, one of the eight wonders of the world and the Agra fort; a gigantic fort of the reflecting the Mugal era.
Rajasthan: With it’s a rich history behind it, Rajasthan remains the top most selection for lager number of tourists. Cities of Rajasthan such as Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udaipur comprises in it large number of fort and palaces of the Rajput kings. To name a few, Moti Mahal, Sheesh Mahal, Jantar mantar etc are major places of tourist attractions.
Rajasthan also offers “Palace on wheels”, which is among the most luxurious trains in the world. Offering a week’s tour, the train takes its guests to various destination in a royal style.
Palakkad is the spot in Kerala that serves as the jewel in the Western Ghats and is blessed with the scenic beauty and the natural resources. There is the variety of exotic flora and fauna and also poses the lush green valleys and hills. The scenery of the Palakkad looks like a postcard of blissful scenery. The majestic mountains, colorful flowers, green paddy fields allures the mind and soul together. Palakkad is the place that is called as the natural delight and the mix of the culture of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Beaches of Tamil Nadu are among the favorite places for sun bathing and relaxation. Beaches of this state are known for their silvery sand and azure sea which magnetizes scores of tourists to this place. Some of the well known beaches of this state are Marina, Rameshwaram, Kanyakumari, Mahabalipuram and many more. The Marina beach is a major tourist attraction which is known for its silvery sand, calm waves and glistering blue sea. The 12 km long stretch of this beach is full of attractions like memorials, statues, aquarium, swimming pool, food stalls and more.

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