A travel agency has to chalk out strategies to promote its products. It has to try and win over its clients rather than just sitting in the office and waiting of the clients. They have to develop their revenue and sales model.

Commissions

Commissions are the source of travel agencies’ income. They are paid commission by the principal suppliers on the sales of their products and services. Usually the commissions are fixed. However if the agency is providing more business volume than usual, the commission rate could be higher. This is called override. An agency could pass some of the commission to the customers by offering discounts. That is the reason customers sometimes complain that the ticket of a particular airline is available with an agency at lesser price than another travel agencies. Airlines take the help of travel agencies to fill their empty seats at the last minute. Agencies could provide tickets for these seats well below the usual price.

Sales

Travel agencies use print and electronic media for promoting themselves. Established travel agencies hand over the job of designing hoardings, displays, advertisements, brochures etc to professional advertising agencies. Personal promotion and sales is also vital in travel agency business. They should approach large organisations for getting business in bulk. A travel agency could participate in exhibitions, FAM tours and travel marts to get more business.

Sale sequence for a travel agency has four stages. These are enquiring about customer needs, developing personal rapport with customers, good presentation of products/services of the travel agency, and closing the sale. For marketing effectively, an agency must have proper contacts with major suppliers. They ought to be updated on schedules, fares and tariffs.

Role of Technology

Adequate use of technology can boost a travel agency business. Technology enables an agency to provide instant services to its customers generating better customer satisfaction. All major suppliers, whose products and services a travel agency offers in the product mix, use technology and have their own network. To provide better services to customers, a travel agency has to partner in these networks.

The Mercury South Beach (formerly Mercury Resort & Spa), an all-suites hotel located in the heart of world-renowned South Beach in Miami Beach, Florida. The Mercury South Beach is no longer the Mercury Resort, as it is under new ownership and management by Florida-based Parkview Hotel Management, LLC. The Mercury South Beach is a boutique hotel, with all the latest features and technology you would expect. It is conveniently located within walking distance to all South Beach restaurants, clubs and shops. The excitement and nightlife of the Ocean Drive Art Deco District awaits you nightly and the beach is only one block away.

This Miami Beach all-suites hotel is equipped to serve the business or leisure traveler with all of the comforts of home. They are just minutes to Miami International Airport and forty minutes away from Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Each of Mercury South Beach’s luxurious Junior Suites feature kitchens, king beds, whirlpool tubs, safe, iron/ironing board, hair dryer, radio, and cable TV. The Executive Suites and Deluxe Suites boast kitchens (Deluxe with stoves), whirlpool tubs, sofa beds, living, and dining rooms for that perfect at-home feel. Elegant upgraded Tower Suites add a balcony for additional pleasure. The ultimate in comfort and sophistication is their Penthouse Suite that features a large patio with view of the Atlantic Ocean and outdoor private spa.

South Beach and the surrounding Miami area offer a multitude of affordable dining options, and The Mercury is right in the middle of it all. Fine dining can also be found throughout the South Beach, Miami Beach, and the nearby downtown Miami area. Beachfront dining and dozens of restaurants are just minutes away. Island-style nightlife, live music, and popular DJs are featured in nearby lounges, bars, and night clubs on South Beach.

See virtual tours, photos, and all that’s new by visiting http://www.TheMercurySouthBeach.com!

Right now people are looking for exotic and different destinations, on shoe string budgets.

Everything in the known world is crashing around their ears, with the stock market in the biggest bear market, for a very long time, with the ‘r’ word floating around. No-one can afford to be rash in their investments or spending. Every cent spent must count, as extra cash is in short supply.

There is however, one exotic destination that has something very special and still in everyone’s reach. It has some of the last untouched wilderness areas in the world. People still live in custom villages, the way their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. A place where you can breathe the fresh air and see the brightest stars in the tropical night sky. That place is Vanuatu, in the South Pacific.

The charity, YouMe Support Foundation in partnership with winaresort.com is raffling a boutique resort in the capital of the island nation, Port Vila, only three hours by plane from Sydney, Australia.

Funds from the raffle provide non-repayable education grants for geographically and financially underprivileged children. A return airfare and one week’s accommodation is included in the 1st prize.

Later this year someone will become the proud new owner of Seachange Lodge. With it goes a tax-free income. Retirement waiting on a South Pacific island.

The raffle will assist children who cannot help themselves. “Unless we get outside help, our students will never have a chance to go to high school,” Mr Harris Apos, the Banks Area Secretary in Vanuatu said. “They will never have the opportunity to live their dreams of being a school teacher, doctor, mechanic, carpenter, or nurse. They simply have to stay in the village on the remote island.”

The Prime Minister Mr Lini, admitted, “The government does little to assist these people,” when he visited the area recently. “Sometimes all that is needed is only $US500 to bring a classroom into use.”

One exercise book is shared between several pupils and pencils broken into three pieces to give them something to write with. Qualified teachers are in the minority and often it is the recently graduated primary students who assist the younger ones. Many parents cannot read or write.

In 2006, the nation of Vanuatu, made famous by A Michener’s ‘Tales of the South Pacific’, (and the film ‘South Pacific’) was voted the Happiest Country on Earth, by the British New Economics Foundation’s (NEF), Happy Planet Index.

“The Index was based on life expectancy and environmental footprint, to rank the countries”, according to Adrienne Wilson, writing for Gadling.com on July 15th 2006.

Yet the local schools are without resources of any kind. Most of the children will never leave their villages.

“We really appreciate our guests, who since 2004 have helped us to send desperately needed school supplies to these isolated areas,” said Richard Tendys, the current owner of Seachange Lodge. “For those of us who use the benefits of the 21st century without a thought, it is good to invest in some children who hardly know the technology, that can help them, even exists.”

Vanuatu has never become commercialized like some of its South Pacific neighbours and so has maintained it own unique blend as an exotic travel destination.