Product Description
T + L’s Best 2006 is the definitive guide to where to stay this year. In one volume, the magazines up-to-the-minute picks for the best hotels right now-from sleek urban skyscrapers to romantic beach resorts to exotic safari camps-are combined with photographs from T+L’s world-renowned photographers to make guide that is more than a guide. It’s an evocative look at the hotels and resorts that will make your next trip the trip of a lifetime.
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Travel + Leisure: The Best of 2006: The World’s Greatest Hotels, Resorts, and Spas

Travel + Leisure: The Best of 2006: The World’s Greatest Hotels, Resorts, and Spas is a post from: Fun Traveling

We can’t deny the fact that traveling requires a lot of money and transportation and lodging are the two major expenses when traveling. For many people, it is a very extravagant luxury and considered practically hopeless. Yet, there are ways to travel and explore without emptying your bank account.

Travel jobs are what I am referring to. With this kind of job, travel is a requirement and often your travel and accommodations are paid for. You just have to produce results and traveling may become an integral part of your business to fuel your money making machine.

If you do not know where to start or how to get into this type of career, follow this tips to get you started on your tracks.

1. Find employment at job positions that entail travel and exploration

There are numerous job positions available in travel and tourism industry. Tour guides, coordinators, and travel agents are just some of these.

Service-oriented, hospitality jobs are also available all around the world. Hotels, bars and restaurants in tourist destinations are always hiring. Entertainment and performing jobs are also in demand in many countries. The list is endless when you start to think of it.

All you need to do is examine your skills and career goals. If you have what it takes to do these kinds of jobs, you will have no trouble landing a position. Different positions involve miscellaneous qualifications so be sure to get appropriate certifications and training before applying. It will increase your chances of landing the job.

2. Find contractual work in different locations

Some companies or establishments may offer temporary work. These assignments may last from a few months to a year depending on their needs. So if you have the set of defined skills that they can use, you can apply for the jobs and negotiate a contract to work in the location. An example of this kind of position is travel nursing, where nurses can hop from country to country to practice the profession for extended periods of time.

You can also get positions doing freelance work. Go to the place where your skills are needed then get paid highly for it. An example of this is bringing your skills in IT to a startup company needing help.

These jobs can be found online in sites like Craigslist and Elance. You can also get assignments with the help of job placement agencies.

3. Use travel as part of your business

This is probably the most favorable of the three. Using travel as tool to help you find new customers allows you to travel while letting you offer your products to the world. You can also use travel to find new products to offer to customers at home. Using the Internet to sell authentic artifacts from other cultures can help you share your travels to those who might not get the chance to make them

Travel blogging, travel photography, and online selling of foreign products are some examples. You can earn income passively if you are already adept in this kind of business model.

We can’t deny the fact that traveling requires a lot of money and transportation and lodging are the two major expenses when traveling. For many people, it is a very extravagant luxury and considered practically hopeless. Yet, there are ways to travel and explore without emptying your bank account.

Travel jobs are what I am referring to. With this kind of job, travel is a requirement and often your travel and accommodations are paid for. You just have to produce results and traveling may become an integral part of your business to fuel your money making machine.

If you do not know where to start or how to get into this type of career, follow this tips to get you started on your tracks.

1. Find employment at job positions that entail travel and exploration

There are numerous job positions available in travel and tourism industry. Tour guides, coordinators, and travel agents are just some of these.

Service-oriented, hospitality jobs are also available all around the world. Hotels, bars and restaurants in tourist destinations are always hiring. Entertainment and performing jobs are also in demand in many countries. The list is endless when you start to think of it.

All you need to do is examine your skills and career goals. If you have what it takes to do these kinds of jobs, you will have no trouble landing a position. Different positions involve miscellaneous qualifications so be sure to get appropriate certifications and training before applying. It will increase your chances of landing the job.

2. Find contractual work in different locations

Some companies or establishments may offer temporary work. These assignments may last from a few months to a year depending on their needs. So if you have the set of defined skills that they can use, you can apply for the jobs and negotiate a contract to work in the location. An example of this kind of position is travel nursing, where nurses can hop from country to country to practice the profession for extended periods of time.

You can also get positions doing freelance work. Go to the place where your skills are needed then get paid highly for it. An example of this is bringing your skills in IT to a startup company needing help.

These jobs can be found online in sites like Craigslist and Elance. You can also get assignments with the help of job placement agencies.

3. Use travel as part of your business

This is probably the most favorable of the three. Using travel as tool to help you find new customers allows you to travel while letting you offer your products to the world. You can also use travel to find new products to offer to customers at home. Using the Internet to sell authentic artifacts from other cultures can help you share your travels to those who might not get the chance to make them

Travel blogging, travel photography, and online selling of foreign products are some examples. You can earn income passively if you are already adept in this kind of business model.

Travel As a Job – 3 Tips For Making Travel Job Dreams a Reality is a post from: Fun Traveling

“He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” – Moorish proverb

If you had more time and more money, what would you do more of?

The overwhelming response is:

“Travel!”

Almost everyone wants to travel more. But there are two things most people need more of that are essential to travel:

1) Money
2) Time

Let me explain that money really is not the issue for many people, although most tend to think that it is the #1 thing they need more of to travel.

This simply is not true. Travel agencies have programed us into thinking that travel is expensive. They try to make us think that it costs $4,000 plus round-trip airfare for a short 10 to 14 day vacation.

Travel agencies try to sell us travel. The fact of the matter is – trying to sell travel is like trying to sell air – it’s completely unnecessary.

But they certainly try to charge you for it.

World travel can be done for only $1,000 a month – or less. No, this does not mean that you’ll be sleeping on the streets and eating out of dumpsters.

Instead, you’ll be doing everything you want to do, and travel very comfortably as well.

When you cut-out those ridiculously over-priced packaged tours, you pay what the locals pay. In some countries you can have a full-blown buffet at a nice restaurant for a measly $0.50, or book a 3-star hotel for $10.

When you know how to do it, the cost of world travel averages to only $1,000 a month (there are others who travel without spending anything – do a Google search on Peter Jenkins for an example).

As you can see, when you know how to travel independently, money isn’t the problem.

The #1 thing people need to travel is – TIME.

Earning $1,000 a month is easy. What you need is the time to travel. We’re not talking about a once a year two-week vacation. I’m talking about traveling as much as you like, when you like.

The biggest problem most people have with getting the time to travel is their job.

You could earn more than enough money to travel the world at your job, but you don’t have the time. If you quit your job to have the time to travel, you don’t have the money.

If I was making $10,000 a month at a job I hated that wouldn’t let me travel, or if I could make just $2,000 a month and have the time to do anything I please, I’d choose the latter.

What you need is a way to make money while traveling. Let’s say you earn only $2,000 a month – but you do so from anywhere on the planet. It only costs about $1,000 a month to travel the world. So this way you’ll have the time and the money (with $1,000 left over each month) to travel anywhere you want to, at any time, for as long as you desire.

Most of us are simply clueless when it comes to making money while traveling. However, there are scores of ways to do. Do a Google search for “travel jobs” and “adventure jobs” to find several opportunities that allow you to travel while earning money. Pick one or two potential jobs and study them.

Some jobs that earn you money while you travel are: internet marketing, travel writing, internet stock photography, online auctions and work as a group travel organizer.

When you make money while traveling you will have an abundance of the two essentials to travel – time and money, and you’ll be able to travel where you want, when you want.

Time and Money – The Two Things You Must Have to Travel is a post from: Fun Traveling

Traveling nowadays has become an important business need. Even as improvements in technology have made communication easier, the fact that the world has shrunk has further led to people traveling across countries and continents for minor business needs. The travel alarm clock, which has been a trusty companion of the business traveler, still holds a place of importance in the luggage of a traveler in spite of the fact that hotels services and mobile phones both can act very well as wake up instruments. Most people who still carry along travel alarm clocks on their tours do it to take a part of their homes with them wherever they go. Thankfully for such people, travel alarm clocks nowadays come in a wide variety of designs, price ranges and styles. The best part is that they come in all shapes and sizes as well, so you can fit them into your bag no matter how short of space you might be.

Most travel alarm clocks are different from regular alarm clocks since they carry features that are more suited to the traveler than to someone who is at home. For example, the digital photo alarm travel clock comes with an album feature that lets you wake up to the face of a loved one on the clock display. These clocks generally have two display screens. While one is the digital clock display showing the time, the other display keeps showing the digital photographs that you have loaded into the clocks memory. Mind you, this is not your typical clock face cum photo frame combination, because the photo display screens in these clocks can automatically show slide shows of all the pictures that you have loaded into the memory. As compared to the photo frame clock which can hold just one or two pictures, these digital photo alarm clocks for travel can hold more than 50 digital photographs at a time and feature different display options as well. The digital photo alarm clock for travel is a perfect choice for people who want to carry their homes with them.

For those who put more emphasis on the job and the business, travel clocks with nap timers are a very good choice. A travel clock with a nap timer lets you input times for power naps so that you keep you fresh throughout your business trip with regular doses of shut eye. Wind up travel clocks are great for people who are into antique stuff or who simply want to carry around a clock that reminds them of old times. Wind up travel clocks are also available in a number of small sized designs so that they can easily fit into the luggage of a traveler.

However, the best and the most advanced travel clocks on the market today are atomic travel clocks. While different types of travel clocks have different advantages, the benefits provided by the atomic travel clock are quite a boon for constant travelers. This is because the atomic travel clock automatically adjusts itself to the right time of whatever place you are traveling to and there is absolutely no need to ever reset an atomic travel clock whether you are at home or on the move. This is because atomic travel clocks receive radio signals from the main atomic clock in a location and synchronize their time with that of the main clock automatically.

Most of the atomic travel clocks available in the market nowadays can synchronize their times not just in the US, but in all of Europe including the United Kingdom and Japan. What is more is that these atomic travel clocks also adjust automatically to changes in time zones and dates. The atomic travel clock does not have to be adjusted to daylight saving times either because this is also done automatically. In case you travel to a country which does not have an atomic clock tower for synchronization, then you can always manually adjust your atomic travel clocks time to the local time.

Save Your Business Time Using Travel Clocks is a post from: Fun Traveling

Cheap airline tickets, family vacations and last minute deals found on major search engines like Travelocity, Expedia, Priceline, and many other highly advertised websites don’t save you much compared to personal online travel agents, no matter what travel deals they claim to offer. If you aren’t saving at least $50-$100s of dollars per hotel, per vacation package, then you really aren’t getting the best vacation deal.

Did you know that cheaptickets.com and Expedia.com is owned by the same company? You are still getting sold by the same company. The travel deals, vacation and family package you thought were money savers really aren’t. They’re all selling commercial rates. Huge online travel agencies capitolizes off the average consumer’s ignorance when it comes to traveling, because they know the industry. Which is why working personally with a good travel agent, closes to gap. Travel agents and travel agency will save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars on your typical Disney and ski vacation, last minute vacation, hotels and major airline tickets if you find a good one.

Travel agents generally get all the specials first hand that the travel industry releases before they reach the general public. Generally we get wholesale rates on major international travel that’s never released to the public, only travel agents. Saving customers $300+ dollars on a vacation packages within 2 weeks notice are really all within a travel agents daily work day. Cheap airline tickets and guaranteed cheap hotels rates are always within grasp by a travel professional.

With the internet being the number one source for travel bookings(82 percent of all travel) it’s best to work with an online travel agent that has their own travel business because of the savings you’ll always receive if their true professionals of travel. Three good reasons to book family vacations and more through travel agents are:

#1. Hotel discounts: For instance, using a personal travel agent’s online travel agency, some may able to guarantee you the best rate 110 percent, all the time. How many other online travel agencies gives you those rates all the time. Plus having access to a good travel agent, you can find immediate access to unpublished hotel discount rates only available to agents. Exclusive travel agents with these insider secrets are always savings their clients hundreds of dollars.

#2. International travel: Airline consolidators only work with travel agents. They publish international and some domestic unpublished airline fares to travel agents only and sometimes at thousands below commercial rates. And before this, you thought you were saving money.

#3. Promotional Rates. Last month a travel agent ran a special from their company where two people could travel free for one entire year across the globe as many times they wanted. It’s over now, but its countless promotions like these that you will receive and immediate access to if you work closely with a travel agent. Getting specials on an all-inclusive honeymoon vacation for 5 days at $409, are just one of many specials certified travel agents gets easily. Talk about travel deals.

Yes, it’s true the old travel agency days are gone, but the use of having your personal travel agent, priceless! If the agent has their own online travel business and sounds professional, use them for all travel needs, they’ll really save you thousands.

Online Travel Agent Secrets That Saves Clients 100s to 1000s of Dollars Off All Travel – Part 1 is a post from: Fun Traveling

All About Green Travel

What exactly is meant by a phrase like Green Travel? Green Travel can mean anything from environmentally responsible motor cars to eco-friendly transportation fuels, to responsible eco-tourism options, sustainable travel or stays in hotels and facilities that are environmentally conscious.

Read on to find some great options on the Internet where you, the environmentally-responsible traveler, can enhance your knowledge and continue to seek the smartest, most planet-conscious choices available when you travel.

Why Green Travel Matters

Tourism, in contemporary times, is a tremendously growth-oriented industry, and is among the world’s largest, with spending figures estimated at over five hundred billion per year in recent years. Because of the overwhelming size of the industry globally, millions of people are employed within its ranks, and are therefore of great concern when it comes to responsible, eco-conscious decisions.

Such lofty statistics all begin with local, individual choices – where people spend their money when they travel, during their travel and the message that their actions send out to global populations. The impact of global travel, when geared toward the positive, can be terrific – including when tourism’s dollars go to the enhancement of local populations, or when travelers return home with a fresh take on other cultures, communities and environments, for instance.

How Tourism and Travel Become “Sustainable Tourism and Travel”

WTTC Associations such as the World Travel and Tourism Council in London, England, offer world travelers a wealth of information on sustainable and green tourism. The mission statement of the organization speaks to their goals: “Raising awareness of the importance of Travel & Tourism, promoting synergies between the public and private sector, generating profit as well as protecting natural, social and cultural environment [these] are the fundamental components of [their] mission, as outlined in the Blueprint for New Tourism.”

Whenever you travel, do what you can to extend the extra effort to ask questions about the businesses that service your trip: from hotels to tours to restaurants and more. Find out what you can about the impact of their businesses on the environment, in terms of both the physical and cultural aspects. No set of universal standards or guidelines currently exists to ensure that those in the travel and tourism industry world-wide operate according to environmentally conscious principles.

So What Is Ecotourism and Can It Help?

With a greater emphasis placed on the environment in general, travel and tourism has also felt the weight of the green revolution. The travel and tourism industry has sprung up in places where the natural environment remains in tact and available for one to experience first-hand. At its best, ecotourism is essentially nature travel – tourism of and cultivation of appreciation for the unadulterated vistas and landscapes of the planet.

Resources Available for Green Travel

ResponsibleTravel

At Responsible Travel, find “A hand picked directory of 1000s of stunning eco holidays run by 265 specialist tour operators and 100’s of accommodations. Use the site to contact the specialists directly to request more information. Book direct with the specialists to get the best price.”

The International Ecotourism Society (ecotourism.org)

The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) offers that through “Uniting communities, conservation and sustainable travel,” they directly “promote responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.”

PlanetA

Debuting in 1994, PlanetA is a pioneering website that provides tips for travelers and locals who share a vision of eco-friendly, people-friendly and place-friendly travel. They take a dynamic wiki view of the Web and appreciate their viewers’ helpful editorial suggestions and offer a yearly World Travel Directory.

Sustainable Travel International (sustainabletravelinternational.org)

The organization Sustainable Travel International has the following for its mission statement: “Promoting responsible travel and ecotourism, supporting sustainable development, and helping travelers and travel providers protect the cultures and environments they visit.”

Google Green Travel Search (services.google.com/earth/green/)

At Summer of Green, Google’s now legendary map service is powered to help Green travelers find what they need to in the way of environmentally conscious global travel, through the work of Earth Day Network. Find tips on traveling green this summer with keyword searches like “environmentally friendly hotel” rather than just “hotel.”

Rainforest Alliance

The Rainforest Alliance says, “With more than 800 million people traveling each year, tourism is a growing source of revenue for people living in areas that are especially rich in plants and animals – and threatened with destruction. While tourism can lead to problems such as waste, habitat destruction and the displacement of local people and wildlife, it also has the potential to provide incentives for conservation.” Find out more through the tourism arm of their website.

Green Travel And Tourism is a post from: Fun Traveling

This is about taking advantage of the travel industry’s secrets. Taking that dream vacation at wholesale and making money!

Remember that Expedia was sold for $5.1 Billion Dollars! Wonder why?

I really wondered why such a high price was paid for an internet travel store until researching some important facts.

People love to travel. It is the number one (1) thing that people say that they would do if they had the money and the time to do it. Because of the major trends that are taking place, more and more people now have the time and the money to travel.

So They Are Traveling!!

82% of all travel is booked online meaning, thru the internet. 79 million Americans booked their travel on line in 2005.

In the last decade, more than 200,000 travel agents have lost their jobs. By 2004 there were only 103,000 travel agents left in the United States.

People like you and me were buying travel from the Internet Travel Stores.

The travel industry today is a 1.3 Trillion dollar business here in the US.

7 Trillion worldwide. Wouldn’t you like a piece of that! That amounts to $56 million a minute spent on travel in the U.S. alone.

The travel industry is growing 23% faster than the global economy.

Of that economy, tourism accounts for 11% of all consumers spending worldwide.

The travel industry is bigger than the oil business.

There is continued growth of Internet e-commerce. Consumers spend billions on the Internet, and travel is the fastest growing segment of that trend.

Consumers are comfortable buying things such as cars, homes, and, of course travel online.

Baby boomers are retiring at the rate of 1 every 8 seconds and what do they want to do? That’s right, Travel.

Because of this the travel industry is about to experience an explosive boom: it is expected to double to $14 Trillion worldwide in the next 10 years.

Why Would You Or Anyone, Not Want to Own An Internet Travel Store!

Let’s See Why:

You and the people you know are going to travel anyway, so, doesn’t it just make sense to…

1.Get paid for that travel?

2.Make a substantial amount of your personal travel tax deductible rather than paying for it with after tax dollars?

3.Travel as an insider, with potential perks and benefits, rather than as an outsider?

WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO THROW MONEY AWAY FOR NO REASON? This Is So Unique—It Has Two Opportunities in one!

1. You own your own travel business with a company supported website and Earn 60% of the commissions from all travel booked on your site!

2. You benefit from the greatest referral compensation plan in the industry and Make money every time you and your Rep team refer someone to the travel business. Just like I am showing you!

I don’t want you to be confused, so the first one is an Online Travel Agency where you have travel credentials and are referred to as a referring travel agent. This is where you make 60% of all commissions on all travel booked on your travel site. You, your friends and family do the booking on your site.

The second is as an Independent Marketing Representative showing your friends about this opportunity. The Company Is Financially Solid

The company was founded in January 2001 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of YTB International, a publicly-traded company (YTB.PK) The last three years the company has gotten the highest award from Carnival Cruise line for travel bookings. WOW

How To Travel Vacation And Grow Rich Part 2 of 5 is a post from: Fun Traveling

Business travel has become so common that a considerable proportion of the corporate world of America is spending more time in airplanes and hotels than on their couches or in their automobiles.

According to a recent estimate, about 40 million adults in the US travel on business at least once a year to a location about 50 miles from home. More than 20 percent of the trips made by African Americans, for instance, are related to their work.

Those who do not need to travel frequently on business consider business travel glamorous and exciting. However, in reality, business travel is often arduous.

It is tough physically, tough on the family, and especially tough on the pockets of businesspersons who do not have the luxury of generous expense accounts to take care of their travel expenses.

In addition, those who travel on business regularly, quickly wise up to the fact that a stress-free and safe journey requires the smooth functioning of a number of interconnected factors, which includes the vagaries of the weather.

According to a study conducted recently, monitoring business travel trends:

- 58 percent of business travel is undertaken for association meetings and conferences,

- 43 percent comprising of business travel made by individuals,

- and 29 percent for corporate meetings.

The study also identified some of the most popular destinations within the US for business travel. They are:

- Washington, D.C.,

- New York,

- Los Angeles/Long Beach,

- Chicago,

- Atlanta,

- Boston,

- Houston,

- Minneapolis-St. Paul,

- Detroit,

- and Dallas.

Irrespective of what the destination is, business travel is seldom an enjoyable experience. Some companies will allow their business travelers the opportunity to enjoy their travel surroundings but this is usually short lived depending on the demands of the trip.

Business travelers, who have to make frequent trips, need special facilities to ease the hassles of traveling. Airlines and hotels are increasing the levels of services they provide in order to meet the growing demands of business travelers:

Usually, business travelers research fares on their own and make their reservations online. According to a survey, it was found that only 32 percent of corporate travelers used the services of travel agents for their reservation needs, while the rest, 68 percent, preferred using the internet or online services to plan at least some part of their business traveling arrangements.

Business travelers are usually technologically conversant; hence, choose to handle all their traveling arrangements through the Internet, limiting the necessity of having to interact with travel agents and professionals dealing with customer service.

Most tourism related sites offer one-stop travel facilities for reservations of flights, booking rooms in hotels, and providing transportation on the ground.

Major airlines like Delta and American have included travel-friendly features like locating cheap fares, finding economical hotel accommodation, and hiring cars on a rental basis inexpensively on their websites.

Travelers, thus, can make arrangements for an entire business trip, which includes seating preferences, confirming special food requests, and a text message or e-mail verifying their flight status and information about the departure timings with a few clicks of the mouse button.
Most of these sites provide boarding passes that can be printed out and online check-ins within 24 hours of the departure of the flight.

At the airport, those travelers in a hurry can take advantage of check-in kiosks in order not to have to wait in long lines, and get their boarding passes and their seating information.

Frequent Flyer Miles, Automatic Upgrades, and Comfortable Seating:

One of the biggest perks of traveling frequently on business is the facility of accumulating points, which can be exchanged for vacations. Travelers, therefore, are always on the look out for hotels offering generous points facilities.

Frequent air travelers also favor automatic upgrades and comfort inside the airplane, such as generous legroom and additional storage facilities overhead. Business traveler programs like EliteAccess provided by Continental Airlines offer comforts like guarantees of no-middle-seat and upgrades to the first class if possible.

Getting Value for Money:

Companies are constantly curtailing overhead expenses by cutting down on the travel allowances they give their executives, while business travelers look for ways in which they can maximize their allowances to the fullest.

For example, several hotels offer free breakfasts, while others provide complimentary facilities such as a welcoming snack or allowing their guests to make free long distance and local calls. Many hotels also offer free newspapers, tea and coffee.

Feeling at Home Far Away from Home:

Business travelers are so frequently away from home that they look for services that replicate their home comforts.

Although hotels are selected primarily for value and location, but business travelers expect home-like comforts like high quality toiletries, comfortable bedding, choices in beverages, cable TV and films, broadband internet access, exercise and convenient check-in/out facilities, and so on.

By And Large, Business Travel Is Not A Pleasurable Experience is a post from: Fun Traveling

It does not matter the size of the conference or where it is, travel agents can be a major help in their planning. Travel agents can be especially helpful if it is an international conference. Travel agents can have knowledge of the area as well as such things as transportation, accommodations, and hospitality issues. One of the main hassles when planning a conference is taking care of the needs of the people attending.

It doesn’t matter if it is a press release, convention, training seminar, or product launch, travel agents can take care of many of the needs of the attendees so that the people attending or the people running the conferences do not have to worry about those details. The larger the conference the more travel agents can be of service.

One of the main ways that travel agents can help with conferences is with transportation and travel needs. Many times if the conference is international the people attending the conference will need a way to get there. Travel agents can help with flight, train or bus information as well as procuring tickets. The larger the group traveling to a conference the more travel agents can be used and many times they can also get better deals. Travel agents are in direct contact with airlines, train lines, and bus services so they can find out if there is space available as well as the best price for the ticket. They can also contact charter services, as it may be cheaper to travel this way for larger groups. Another advantage of using travel agents is that they can be available to coordinate travel times so that it can be easier, once the people arrive, that they do so around the same time making it easier to either get to accommodations or to the conference itself.

Another beneficial aspect when using travel agents when dealing with conferences are accommodation issues. Much like travel issues the travel agent can have direct contact with hotels and inns as they can find accommodations for people that are travelling to the conference. Also much like travel they may be able to find better rates than if the people travelling to the conference booked accommodations themselves. One thing that travel agents have as well are information about package deals, which can save people, or a company, a lot of money as travel, accommodation, and transportation services can all be packaged in one deal.

When people travel out of town to go to a conference they will also have transportation needs so they can get to and from the conference itself. They can also help with such things as arranging for car rentals and taxi services to and from the conference. Travel agents can also find accommodations that are closest to the conference site. If a travel agent is working with one group of people there is also a better chance that they will be staying in one location, or, at least, close to each other. This is a crucial aspect of a conference if many people from one organization or company are in attendance.

While travel agents can be used for many types of conferences one of the most important ways in which they can be used is for companies that need to have many employees in attendance. For example, if the company is having a training seminar for hundreds of employees their main goal is to make sure that the seminar runs smoothly. The company needs to find a conference site and deal with the information that will be presented at a seminar. If the company uses travel agents there is a huge amount of time and resources that can be saved that can be used in areas of more importance. Any time that the company needs to take care of the travel needs of the people in attendance travel agents should be used.

Travel agents can also be of service when dealing with hospitality issues as well. If the conference runs more than one day they can find out information such as where to eat and what there is to do in the area that people are traveling to. If the people that attend the conference do everything for themselves they will not be as informed, as if a travel agents took care of them. Travel agents can find restaurants, make reservations, book lunches, and rent out halls, just to name a few things they can do.

The hassles that can arise when traveling to conventions can be great for the people traveling to them and the people running them. By using travel agents many of those hassles are taken care of. When dealing with conferences, especially international ones and ones where many people will be in attendance, the things that travel agents can take care can be invaluable to both the company and/or the traveler.

Travel Agents Event Management is a post from: Fun Traveling

A travel website that does not sell travel but enables travelers to save money on travel as long as they do their own bookings is now offering services to internet travelers. This service is a unique addition to travel options for all travelers comfortable with direct bookings using a new type of travel document called a TopTravelVoucher.

The operators of this service are addressing the issue of travel pricing which often includes a 10 to 25% mark-up to allow for the payment of travel agent commission to either wholesalers or retailers but when travelers buy directly from the provider (accommodations, tours or transportation) they can still pay the price inclusive of commission. To overcome the travel providers’ problems of showing multiple prices for the same products and services on their websites, they can now offer ‘fair fare prices’ by issuing TopTravelVouchers.

Travel Providers are given marketing and promotion in exchange for their own travel vouchers, equivalent to or more than, the commission that would be payable upon sale of their various travel packages and services, so they still incur the commission cost on sales but do not have to alienate their distribution chain of wholesalers and retailers by offering a retail, wholesale or ‘direct’ price on their website. This is done by the voucher operator who sells their vouchers to travelers at deep discounts to their redemption values to be used when making direct bookings, hence a travel agent who does not sell travel, only travel vouchers and therefore is not a travel agent.

According to the website information of the voucher operator, they are able to offer the ‘Fair Fare Price’ option because they do not have the normal operating costs of travel agencies such as shops, reservation systems, brochures, advertising and high staffing levels, but can still offer the traveler and the travel provider a service that is fair to all users.

Before purchasing TopTravelVouchers, travelers are advised to check for quality and availability directly with the website of their travel selection and when satisfied, make a direct booking mentioning the voucher, then purchase the voucher. All vouchers come with a 100% money-back guarantee and in the event that the traveler is not happy with their travel purchase upon completion, the cost of the TopTravelVouchers will be reimbursed and the matter taken up with the provider.

There are three levels of vouchers, $30, $50 and $100usd achieving various levels of savings but to give an example, at the time of this article there was a voucher valued at 1,500 euros (around $2,000usd) on sale for $100usd. If the vouchers are purchased outside of the USA the price is shown in the relevant currency. All vouchers are issued online and the provider is also sent a duplicate with the traveler details to encourage assistance in any travel itinerary planning of the traveler.

So as not to deter expert travel agents and agencies from participation in this service the site invites them to identify any destination and activity expertise and to also offer vouchers to encourage travelers to seek out expert professional agents. Many retail agents offer their own travel packages and tours and many are comfortable in dealing with new clients from anywhere in the world over the internet, telephone or skype. The site cautions travelers to be careful when selecting ’specialist’ agents who are not necessarily experts and who may have just taken a simple test operated by a tourism office or tour operator promoting their own destination or products.

The travel selections with TopTravelVouchers are limited at present but the site operators are confident in the growth potential, but if you want to see what is available, you can find them at toptravelsites.

Should Travelers Who Book Direct Get Fairer Fare Prices? is a post from: Fun Traveling