Welcome to the final issue of 2009. In previous years we’ve devoted this edition of Agent@Home to our Readers’ Choice Awards for top suppliers and destinations that you feel best support the home-based agent market. This year, however, those awards will appear as a supplement to our January 2010 issue, and they will reflect voting by the readers of this magazine, as well as our sister print and online publications, Vacation Agent magazine and TravelPulse.com. That’s effectively a vote by the largest number of leisure-travel sellers in the industry.
Instead of Readers’ Choice Awards, this special issue of Agent@Home focuses on five challenges that you and your business face in this challenging market, as well as ways to solve those challenges. Now I’m sure you can think of more than five challenges, but we decided to focus on the following: Finding Clients, Marketing Yourself, Developing Sales Skills, Finding a Good Host, Getting Recognition.
The first three of these challenges are basic but ever so important to you as agents working from home. How do you find great clients? How do you market your services and, more importantly, your own expertise as a travel agent? How do you develop great sales skills so you can convert all those great clients?
The last two challenges are more mechanical in nature, but also very important since they’re essential to your business. How do you find a good host agency, if indeed you need one? And how do you get recognized by suppliers so you can sell their products and be commissioned on those sales?
A word about finding a good host: Accompanying this special issue is our first dedicated guide to agency consortia, co-ops, franchise groups and host agencies. You’ll find another article in that guide about how to select a good host, as well as a listing of nearly 60 top host agencies in the market today.
Beyond the five challenges in our cover focus section, we also offer three articles in our industry section on the challenges you face with selling cruises, tours and packages, and hotels and resorts. And to be fair, some of these articles also examine the challenges these suppliers face in working with you as home-based agents. Also in the industry section you’ll find a profile of Nexion, the host agency, and an article on why you should consider affiliating directly or through a host with Ensemble Travel Group, the agency co-op.
Beyond our cover focus and industry sections, you’ll find destination stories on Florida (inspection reports of the new Waldorf Astoria Orlando and Disney new condo resort); an update on Barbados; an update on Cancun resorts; a roundup of royal sites in London; a destination report on the Kansai region of Japan; and a report on Varanasi in India.
As usual we welcome your comments on all of these stories, as well as suggestions for future editorial features. Finally, I want to wish you an early Happy New Year. Like you, I’m glad we’re leaving 2009 in the dust, and I hope 2010 proves to be a healthy, productive and successful year for you.