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What to Look for in a Travel Agent

guider — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:05:53 +0000

In this day of online trip booking and lowest price airfare searches, do you still need a travel agent? According to the ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents) and most travelers, the answer is a resounding yes. Travel agents still book nearly 90% of all cruises and over 80% of all tours and packages. A consumer-conscious travel agent will work hard to find you the best possible combination of price and features to make your tour a dream vacation. Here are some questions to ask that will help you evaluate travel agents and be sure that you find the best one for your booking and travel needs.

1. Do you know a good travel agent?

Yes, start by asking around. A good travel agent will build a good reputation. If you have friends and associates who travel often, ask them for their recommendations. Those will be a good starting point for your own search.

2. How long have you been doing this?

Look for an agent that has been in business for five years or longer. While length of time in business is no guarantee of commitment or knowledge, experience is a great teacher.

3. What are your qualifications as a travel agent?

There are a number of professional training courses that your agent may have taken. The highest certification for a travel agent is a Certified Travel Consultant, which requires five years of full time travel industry experience and the completion of twelve courses. Other certificates include Certified Travel Associate, and Destination Specialist. While it is not necessary for a travel agent to hold any of these qualifications, they do provide proof of commitment and knowledge in the industry.

4. Are you affiliated with an agency?

On the other hand, even a younger, newer agent who is affiliated with an established agency has access to the resources and information of the entire agency. That’s not to say that outside agents – those who work outside an agency – are not as good. An outside agent has the advantage of flexibility in booking trips that are not part of their agency’s offered products.

5. Are you affiliated with any professional organizations?

U.S. travel agents are not generally regulated or held to uniform standards, but there are two major professional bodies to which they may belong, the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) and the Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA).

6. What questions is the agent asking me?

One of the most important qualifications for a travel agent is an awareness of and sensitivity to your needs. The agent you’re working with should be full of questions aimed at learning as much as possible about your needs. A good travel agent will be focused on you and your needs, not just on the products they are selling you.

7. Do you have any specialist knowledge?

Some agencies and agents specialize in a particular type of trip. If you have special needs or are seeking a unique type of vacation – like the new and very popular eco-tours – you may do far better with an agent who is experienced in that special field. Other specialties may include booking tours and trips for people with limitations and/or disabilities, booking adventure tours, or booking trips to a specific destination.

8. How do you find me the best deals?

You can ask more specific questions, but you’re really trying to find out how well-connected your travel agent is within the industry, and how current they are with the latest technologies and developments. You’re looking for answers like, “we have preferred supplier arrangements with these travel companies” and “I subscribe to these databases of travel offers” – answers that make it clear your travel agent uses all the resources available to find you the best possible trip.

9. What will happen if I have an overseas emergency while your agency is closed?

Your travel agent can and should be your strongest advocate before, during and after your trip. Being able to contact your agency during their off hours can mean the difference between sitting in a hotel lobby waiting until the office reopens. The answer you want is: “There is always an agent on call to resolve problems that might arise even when we’re closed.”

10. Do I like this person and feel comfortable with them?

While it’s not necessary to like someone in order to do business with them, it’s a very good gauge of how well they’re relating to you. You’ll get the best service and vacation experience from a travel agent who is focused on you, your companions and helping you arrange the vacation of a lifetime. After all, a good agent isn’t looking for a sale – they’re looking for a long-term relationship.

How to Find the Right Travel Agent..?

guider — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:04:45 +0000

In today’s Hi- Tech world, we have easy access to all kinds of information. We’re able to research, compare, and book travel right in the comfort of our own home. But the question arises – Who needs a travel agent anymore?

Fewer of us do, apparently. In last one decade the travel agents statistics had fallen by about 30%.

“They are an outdated remnant of past practices that add virtually no value to any transaction today,” says one of the employee working for Michigan airlines. After my recent recommendations of travel agent in various columns, I’ve been on the receiving end of the feedback – How could i..?.

So, here let me discuss about this common query. I believe that travel agents today still offer services and information that we can’t get on Internet. Granted, some things such as booking a simple flights, most people can successfully manage on their own. A travel agent however, can recommend smaller, alternative airports that the discount carriers use. This alone can save you quite a bit of money. However, the key thing that travel agents today offer is their first hand knowledge and right information. In planning a trip or vacation, one wants to find information about the places and regions suitable to them. Here the role of a travel agent comes into act considering the fact that they have traveled to many different places, they can provide much more insight than a brochure or web page can. Thus, finding the right travel agent is inevitable. The same thing goes for tours and specialty travel such as luxury, adventure, villa rentals, etc. A competent travel adviser can be your greatest asset when you’re planning a trip. The key word here is “competent.” And let me also define what I mean by agent: I’m not necessarily talking about an offshore call center worker reading from a script or a hobbyist who paid a few hundred bucks for bogus agency credentials. I mean a bona fide, certified travel professional. Once you decide to book a trip through an agent you must go through few quality check of an agent. These few measures include:

Understanding An Agent And Using Your Intuition – It’s important to feel out a prospective travel agent to see if you can build a rapport with them. This can be done even when you’re dealing with an Internet agency, through phone calls or e-mails. Face-to-face meetings are not necessary. The choice of right travel agent comes from knowledge, not words. The correct answers to your direct questions are what count. Before you even ask for a price quote, probe the knowledge and personality of the agent you may be putting in charge of your hard-earned vacation. If you get the right feel about this person, you then ask for a price quote. If a travel agent quotes you a price that is not the same as, or lower than the cost of booking directly, or doesn’t offer incentives like free insurance, or even a pre-cruise hotel room, they are choosing not to compete — a choice some agents do make. They hope to attract uneducated consumers. This not the kind of agent we recommend, unless the service is so fantastic you don’t mind missing out on a few perks. But price alone may not always be the best factor to find the right travel agent. We want the best price, but we also want assistance and service when we need it. Hence, when your skull asks this “ How to find the right travel agent”, the above mention criteria should strike you first.

Look For Certification – A right travel agent must be certified from some travel body or institution of his nation. This proves to be more promising or as the elderly travelers say “a certified travel agent is the right travel agent”.

Stay Local And Interview The Agent – There’s no substitute for the personal touch. My best experiences with agents have been one-on-one. The ability to meet — to look the agent in the eye, to shake his or her hand — is something online agencies can’t match. (Note: not all agents work in an office, but home-based agents can and do make personal visits.) The only exception to this rule is if you’re out to find an agent with a sought-after specialty. But even then, a trusted voice on the phone is preferable to the often unintelligible, script-reading customer service associate you’re connected to when dealing with a large agency. Mind this- a professional travel agent makes personal visits. Don’t pick the first agent you find. Talk to the travel pro. Pay close attention not only to the way your prospective agent responds, but also at what’s going on in the office around you.

Pressure Check – The only way to know for certain if your travel agent is a keeper is to see what happens when you run into trouble. A right travel agent would run through your foot steps in trouble. You must conform the services provided by the agent under such circumstances.

Good travel agents have an edge over almost any other seller of travel. They know what you want. They speak your language. And they’re there for you when you run into trouble.

In other words, travel agents aren’t obsolete. Only the bad ones are.

Full Of Unique Tour in West Bali National Park

guider — Mon, 25 May 2009 04:14:36 +0000

West Bali National Park or in Indonesia mean Taman Nasional Bali Barat (TNBB) with area of 19,000 Ha, unfold in the two districts, namely Buleleng and Jembrana District, which can be reached from Denpasar city (capital of Bali) about 3.5 hours from Gilimanuk port. When Visit to this destination, you’ll find full of unique, both flora and fauna that protected. There are two ways to enter to TNBB, which can be use by vehicle, or more adventures, through the paths, up and down the mountain, from sumber klampok to Klatakan mountain. One of the interesting places to visit is the place of treated of Bali Jalak Bird (Leucopsar Rothschildi) that seems to live only a dozen in number in the original habitat.

Next trip you can continue with the beach to Prapat Agung Post, located on the edge of a white sandy beach, by the people called the “old beach”, is very beautiful. If Kuta beach is provided to tourist, so old beach seems indeed provided to the (nudist) the TNBB.

To meet the desire of the tourist who does not satisfied, then provided Menjangan Island. Besides having a beautiful beach, Menjangan Island is also beautiful location for snorkeling. If you are lucky again, the diver can tease with the dolphin and turtle. This island is also inhabited various kind of fauna such as deer, Pig Forest, and others. And, it is also the option of Birds Watcher, which at certain times, can see the wave of migration birds, from the north to south and vice versa.

In addition to fauna, in TNBB also there are several species of unique flora, there are perhaps only just there, like a tree Panggal Crocodile that like crocodile back thorns. Wood is very tune by the Ubud engraver, the flow of wood rather unique and mystical nuances, but this tree is protected.

Red Lamp Post is the last post you can visit and also the post in the edge of beach, just 2.8 kilometers to the Java mainland.From Bali land, it appears the Merapi Mount(in Java) dominated the scene, at the time of sunset, the landscape is very fantastic.

Kintamani Tour Package

guider — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:40:18 +0000

Kintamani is placed that you can enjoy the nature view in Bali. Kintamani offers the atmosphere of the hills with fresh air temperature around 18 degrees centigrade, the air is similar as in Bedugul. Main attraction of the area is scenic Mount Kintamani and Lake Batur. Mount Batur is a mountain that is still active and are the second highest after Mount Agung at Besakih. Batur area was the height of 900 m above sea level with the air temperature in the packed lunch ahri cool and cold at night. To reach this location from the capital of Bangli distance 23 is the best km. You enjoy lunch while enjoying the beautiful lakes and mountains that give off smoke friendly. Actually every tour package always make Kintamani in their List because actually like to seeing the view here.
Kintamani tour that held by Bali Star Island is promoted the Kintamani Tour package with an impressive experience to visit and breathaking view of an active volcano and Lake.
The prices that offer here are US $40 net/person for min 2 people and for single traveller is just US $60 net/people. This prices includes :

# 21% government tax and service
# in the entry fee all destinations
# 1 x lunch at local restaurant
# Speaking guide (English, Japanese and other language is subject to availability)
# Private full air-conditioning
# Insurance

Yess…I’m sure this is the right agents to choice because beside the price the facilities is give an advantages for us. But where places we gonna visit, here the explanation scedule :

09:00 – Pick up

10.15 – Visit Gold and Silver work

10.45 – Visit Wood Carving
12.00 – Visit Kintamani with Batur Volcano and Lake
12.15 – Enjoy lunch at local restaurant in Kintamani
14.00 – visit tampak Siring / Tirta Empul Temple
15.00 – Visit Goa Gajah/Elephant Cave
15.30 – Back to hotel
17.00 – Arrive at hotel
Hmm I think this is nice vacation.
This tour will make you more interest and get a lot of information that you don’t know much about the places in Bali. Elephant Cave, is places that always visited by visitor because is an ancient omissin in the form a cave with the high value of art and history. Beside that this places have beautifull relief with a form of face turning arround to the left side and to reach this places we should descend the doorstep to reach.
Visited tampak siring which here you can see a palace of Indonesia State founded by first president and this places looks more beautifull because surrounded by hill and here a lot of water douche for bathing and purification purpose.
This tour will also offer you the opportunity to see the beautiful handicrafts made by local people and you can also buy them and take them as souvenirs native Bali. Kintamani tour of this course will offer a guarantee and you will feel comfortable in the journey and will have stories that can store and tell you about this pejalanan. This is a private tour with full air, car transfers and a delicious lunch is served on the road for you to complete your tour enjoyable.
No doubt and choose this as your plan to spend your nice holiday or vacation.