Please feel free to email these links to anyone you think may be interested in starting an online travel business. Information about the class and more details will be sent via email, so please add your name and email address to any of the pages below.

http://www.travelbusinessprofits.com

http://www.mattzito.com/start-a-travel-business/

http://www.travelweekly.com/events/home-based-agent-show/conference-speaker-roster.aspx

I will have a booth in the exhibition area promoting my upcoming online course and program, Start a home-based online travel business in 30-days. Please stop by my booth and say hi.

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In late December 2009 and early January 2010 I set out to find a software platform to run my new online travel business. I spent 30-days searching all over the Internet trying to find the best travel software platform to operate and run my online travel company.

I became frustrated very quickly as there was no website or online community for researching and reviewing the different travel reservation software platforms, online booking engines and technology available. My research was conducted literally through Google by entering in multiple keyword search terms and phrases like “online travel software,” over and over.

I could have outsourced the research but I felt that as the owner of the company my selection of the best software platform for the type of business I wanted to run and operate was the biggest decision I had to make and would ultimately determine the success and outcome of my business. I created a spreadsheet of 20 different software providers and then narrowed my choices down to three. I then communicated with the three companies over several emails and phone calls. I conducted online demos and then made a decision between two providers ultimately choosing one at the very last minute due to a price cut.

The entire process was truly agonizing and fraught with too many obstacles. This article seeks to derive an answer to my question, how do I Find the BEST online travel software to run my Travel and Tourism business, and to solicit comments and feedback from travel software and technology solution providers. 

The travel and tourism software and technology industry is fragmented from a consumer or buyer of software solutions point of view. The travel software and technology solution industry needs a consumer oriented community where travel software providers can connect with prospects, provide demo opportunities, provide information on their software products, create a feeling of transparency for their products, list features and benefits, including video demos and real-time chat capabilities, a place where travel software providers and prospective travel software buyers can communicate with one another and build new long lasting relationships.

Ultimately I envision a place where travel solution providers can create a more efficient sales process to reach buyers that leads to more sales and stronger buying relationships between travel businesses and travel software providers.

As an Internet entrepreneur I see an opportunity to fill this gap and help build a more successful online travel industry. I am looking to build a website that brings together travel software and technology solution providers with current travel business owners and prospective travel entrepreneurs.

I’ve included a link to survey that I am currently conducting with travel software and technology solution providers that seeks to help the industry build a successful community that supports the buying and selling of travel software and technology. 

If you are a travel software and technology provider go here to complete a 10-minute online survey. If you need more information or are interested in what I am developing please send me an email or give me a call.  http://tiny.cc/fhfar

If you are a travel business leave your comments below.

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Hi, everyone, I am going to show you a proven marketing strategy I developed that contributed to an increase in profitability of an online travel business I owned by more than 10%. In the last three years prior to acquisition of the company we increased sales by 33%, 74% and close to 100% respectively. 

The Automated-Booking Markup Strategywill increase bookings and profits for your travel business. Every week receive new reservations, Automatically…like clock-work.

The power behind the Automated-Booking Markup Strategyis that it forces buyers to return to your website and buy your travel products. Literally every week ON-schedule you will receive new reservations.

The Automated-Booking Markup Strategywill become a moneymaking booking system that runs on autopilot. Literally the system will just run for you. 

My Automated-Booking Markup Strategyworks for online travel businesses, tour operators, travel agencies, travel portals, hotels, motels, B&Bs, guides, and any business in the travel and tourism industry that accepts reservations or bookings online.

Please go here to learn more about the Automated-Booking Markup Strategyand how it will help your business become more profitable and increase sales.

Best,

Matt Zito

Creator of the Automated-Booking Markup Strategy

http://www.mattzito.com/automatebookingmarkup/

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What are you interested in learning about starting an online travel business? Leave a comment about what you would like to learn in this course.

In the course I'll teach you how to start the following travel businesses.

Online Travel Agency or OTA

Online Travel Portal

Tour Operator

Tour Guide or Guide

Destination Activity Provider

Travel Broker

The course will include;

How to setup your home based office and all the tools and resources you'll need to get started.

How to incorporate your business.

How to partner with hotels, motels, resorts and lodging suppliers for lodging inventory.

How to write a contract to acquire preffered rates with lodging suppliers and activity suppliers.

How to determine your individual stregnths so you leverage them everday in your business.

How to outsource components of your startup business and build a business team.

How to select the best technology tools and software to run your online travel business.

How to write a 1-page business infrastructure and systems operating document.

How to create a 3-page sales and marketing plan outlining your vision, mission and 1-year financial goals.

How to package travel products to create a unique branded one-of-a-kind travel product.

How to distribute your travel products to scale your sales and become more profitable.

How to price your travel products to compete against the larger travel sellers.

Learn insider tips, tricks and marketing strategies to grow your online travel business.

Learn offline advertising strategies through traditional media.

Learn how to advertise online through Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Learn how to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to create leads for your business.

Learn how to write a press release and target traveler writers that will write about your travel business.

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Packaging in the travel and tourism business is all about leverage. To understand the true power of packaging and how it can make your business more profitable, I use leverage as an analogy to help you really understand how packaging works and how it can make your business more profitable. Leverage is simply to borrow to improve your capacity to increase the rate of return.

I define packages as two or more travel products combined to create a third unique product. Most travel packages include a lodging component and an activity component.

In the tourism business you can earn greater profits or increase your rate of return for your business through packaging. In its purest sense you borrow other businesses travel products to increase your economic gain.

Let’s look at the numbers and see how leverage works in the tourism business. In the mid 1990’s in my early 20’s, my wife and I bought a house in Pennsylvania and created a bed and breakfast named the Yellow Breeches House, next to a famous fly-fishing river. We sold two travel products. Lodging (B&B) and Fly-Fishing guided packages (B&B + guided fly-fishing). Our rooms ranged from $99-$175 per night in season. Our Fly-Fishing Getaway packages were $395 per person and included 2 nights lodging, 1-½ days of guided fly-fishing, 2-dinners and 2-breakfasts. Either a couple or 2 guys purchased the Fly-Fishing packages.

At the height of the business we had three Fly-Fishing guides . We paid $200 for 1 ½ day of guided work. We paid two restaurants $20 for each dinner and we served our own breakfasts.

Let’s analyze the numbers and compare selling a room vs. selling a package with 2 people per room on a 2-night weekend stay. A room only with 2 people would gross $350 in our most expensive room. A Fly-Fishing Package with 2 people grosses $790. Expenses are 1 guide $200, 4 dinners $80, net profit is $510. You make $160 more on the weekend or $80 more per night when you sell a package into this room. That same room now is worth $255 per night. Multiply this by more than one room and you can see how your business becomes more profitable very quickly.

The power of packaging is that you borrow other businesses travel products and unlike financial leverage you have no or limited expenses to borrow as you are just forming partnerships with other travel and tourism businesses in your community or area.

An increased profit is the core strength of packaging. Other benefits include the following. The client buying a package is less likely to cancel a trip.  Your business fosters new business relationships within your community and you create win-win deals for others. Creating packages enables you to quickly move with trends and fads in the travel and tourism industry. If something is “hot” this season you can create a package for it.

Packaging can be implemented and sold by not only lodging properties but by tour guides and individual businesses engaged in the travel and tourism business.

Geoffrey Warner a master furniture designer and creator of the famous “Owl Stool” in Stonington, Maine, offers local Bed & Breakfasts his handmade Owl Stool workshop. Innkeepers are packaging the workshops with their lodging. Guests of the Inns take a half-day workshop at his studio and go home from their vacation with an Owl Stool, made with their own hands. This is another example of packaging. Next year Geoffrey plans on selling his own packages directly to his clients in addition to the B&Bs selling and leveraging his areas B&B rooms.

This article was first published in the Maine Biz.

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Digital Marketing Infrastructure, or DMI, is the technology platform that runs VisitMaine.com. The online platform and Internet marketing tool is a powerful free marketing program offered by the state of Maine.

The first benefit for your business is the website traffic that VisitMaine.com will provide. The traffic will come through “link-backs” on your business profile page, getaway listings, including packages and specials and events listings. A “link-back” is a one-way URL link that takes a Web user from one website to another.

There are other opportunities, but here I’ll focus on the link-back traffic opportunities generated through a business profile page, getaway listings and the events listing.

Let’s talk traffic. I recently researched the monthly statistics for VisitMaine.com at Quantcast.com, a company that measures Web traffic. On average, 78,000 people from the USA visit this website each month, with a further 14,000 people a month coming from foreign countries. The total traffic is around 90,000 a month. In the summer, the traffic statistics go into the hundreds of thousands.

VisitMaine.com has a Google page rank of five out of 10. Websites that have page ranks of five or higher are generally highly trafficked ones. VisitMaine.com’s Alexa rank is 155,764, which places it among the top 200,000 websites on the Internet. Alexa calculates rankings by a combination of the average daily visitors and page views on a website over a 30-day period.

To acquire traffic back to your website, you need to register and create a business profile. A business profile page will display your business contact information, description and be indexed in the VisitMaine.com search engine. There is a field to list your business website URL, and this is the important link-back you’ll receive.

The second benefit is that by adding your business profile, you will help increase your own website’s search engine ranking positions at Google as your business website will be linked to a larger, more authoritative travel-related website.

I believe the primary factor to getting your business website listed high in the search engine results is the number of websites that are linked to your site and the authority (high page rank) of the website linking to you.

VisitMaine.com is ranked very high, so linking to it will help your own business website become more relevant and rank higher in the search engine results.

The third benefit is an advertising opportunity to advertise your business’s packages, specials and events. Package getaways must bundle a two-night stay with two or more travel-related add-ons — including breakfasts, dinners, vouchers, gift certificates, tours, activities, workshops or programs, performances or cultural events — that are normally booked separately.

Special getaways can be any tourism-related product such as lodging, meals or activities that promote a single travel product or service. Special getaways are an opportunity for your business to generate sales during off-peak periods through pricing incentives. Specials also can be used to liquidate inventory at the last minute.

Events are special events or occasions that occur in a town or region, or at an individual business such as a fair, festival, lecture, sporting event, etc.

When you add a package, special or event at VisitMaine.com, an individual Web page for that offering is created and is indexed in the website.

The individual Web page includes the getaway offering, a link to your business profile and a link to your business website. Every time you create a new offering you create another opportunity to gain traffic back to your website. This is a win-win opportunity as you not only can promote and advertise your travel offerings but you also can gain visitors.

VisitMaine.com is one of the most-trafficked websites in Maine. The Maine Office of Tourism has created a great service in making this online marketing platform available. You should not underestimate its power. Set up your profile, and get going.

This column was first published in the Bangor Daily News.

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First transfer addresses from paper into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Make three columns — e-mail, first name and last name — and save as your offline client e-mail list. If you have staff, this is an easy task you can set up to be performed either daily or weekly based on the number of e-mails you have acquired.

Next go online and set up a Web-based e-mail-marketing account with iContact.com, aWeber.com, ConstantContact.com or GetResponse.com. The cost starts at $9 a month for storing 250 e-mails. As you build your list, you can upgrade your service to store more e-mails. You will store your e-mail here and also send e-mails to your list through this account.

E-mail marketing services have features that enable you to create an e-mail template with business images, company logos, headers and footers. You can write an e-mail, save it and choose a day to have it delivered. The services help you become more efficient.

On a weekly or biweekly basis, you should import your Excel spreadsheet into your account. When you first set up your account, notify the company that you will be importing e-mail addresses from clients that you have acquired offline. Tell the company that you have a restaurant or lodging property and that you were given permission from the clients to add their e-mail address and contact information for the purposes of sending them e-mail messages concerning your business.

It’s imperative that the company knows this. E-mail marketing service companies are very concerned about spam and may question your intent when you import e-mail addresses into your account. They want their clients to acquire e-mail addresses online through Web-based forms, so just check with the company.

Now that you have compiled a list of clients’ e-mails, it’s time to send your first message. E-mail marketing is the most effective and inexpensive strategy to reach clients with a direct marketing and sales message.

On your list are people and businesses that previously have bought from you so you must keep this in mind and focus on creating messages that build on the value of your business relationship. Sales, rewards and client appreciation messages are the most effective messages to send.

A sales message may be about a new product offering or an event at your business. Sales messages include a “call to action,” in which you ask the client to make a purchase. A rewards message is an incentive to maintain loyalty to your business. Client appreciation messages are softer in tone and are used more to keep contact with your clients, offering a discount or special percentage off your product.

I recommend that you do not e-mail your client list more than once per week to start. E-mail delivery frequency depends on the type of business you operate and how frequent you want your clients to buy your product. Restaurants can e-mail once per week, as this is an opportunity to promote the weekly specials. Lodging properties may want to e-mail once per month or bimonthly to start.

This article was first published in the Bangor Daily News by Matt Zito.

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My quick-start, 30-day e-mail marketing strategy is a hybrid approach: an offline e-mail acquisition tactic combined with an online e-mail direct marketing system. If you don’t have an e-mail list-building strategy in place, this simple yet powerful tactic will get you started.

Here’s an e-mail acquisition tactic to build a solid client e-mail list directly from the people who have visited, stayed or bought a product at your hospitality or lodging business. This is one of the best offline e-mail list-building tactics I have ever seen:

My wife and I attended the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity in September of last year. We went to dinner at the China-Dine-ah. It was a cool restaurant with a great atmosphere and good food. After drinks were served, the owner of the restaurant stopped by our table and introduced himself. He was a chatty character, and I knew that our food and experience would be great because only at the best restaurants do the owners ever come over and actually greet you. As he was talking, I got the impression that this was not just your ordinary meet-and-greet. I was anticipating that a marketing or sales pitch was on the way. I was anxious and waiting, but I wasn’t sure what it was.

After he finished the story about how he started his restaurant, he pulled two business-card-size pieces of paper out of his pocket. He laid them on the table with two pencils.

He said if we filled out the paper with our name and e-mail address, we would be entered into a weekly drawing for the chance to win $100 worth of dinners at the restaurant. We told him we were just traveling through, so it wouldn’t really help. He said if we won the drawing we could use it any time in the future. He said thanks for visiting and that the waitress would be back soon to take our dinner order.

He made the entire proposal and interaction laid back and inviting. My wife and I both filled out the paper forms. Then the waitress came back for our orders and took them with her. The entire process was a pleasant exchange of our name and e-mail address for the restaurant’s e-mail list. It was very clever, and I admired his e-mail list-building tactic.

Yes, every week we receive an e-mail from the China-Dine-ah, including information on who won the drawing and the upcoming weekly specials and discounts that the restaurant is offering.

I can see any restaurant using this strategy to build an e-mail list of clients into the thousands in a very short period of time. It also can be implemented at any type of lodging property in the following manner:

At check-in for walk-in clients, ask them to fill out the form for the chance to win a monthly lodging giveaway and-or gift certificate. Leave the e-mail form in the guestrooms on the table or on a desk. The guests can then fill it out at their leisure and the cleaning crew can pick it up later.

This e-mail acquisition strategy can be implemented immediately. In a very short period of time, you will build a list of clients in the hundreds to the thousands. In the next column I discuss how to deliver e-mails to your list.

This article was first published in the Bangor Daily News by Matt Zito.

Case Study: I received this email from Arthur Cervantes on May 25, 2010.

Good morning Mr. Zito!
I wanted to first thank you for helping small business owners with your great column, any help we can get these days is an extremely welcome one!
Here is my personal success story… This is so simple and effective-everyone love a FREE anything!
I have printed receive a FREE annual birthday & anniversary gift certificate! Upon signing up for our email savings club you get a bonus gift an appetizer or dessert of your choice!

I have had so much response I have two staff members working on this! Along with this I had a staff incentive of whichever staff member collected 100 email/contact info would receive 100 dollars cash!
Its amazing how cash is still the leading motivator!!

Within 1 month I am up to 2500 good contacts (and growing) who now receive a weekly text and or email with my weekly in house special!

I thank you in advance for your continued assistance and support for business owners.

Arthur

Now here’s a marketing strategy: Run a multiseasonal brochure-rack card campaign using discount coupons and tear-off specials. Distribute to the Maine Visitor Information Centers, placing the perforated tear-off coupon on the top of the brochure-rack card so it’s the first thing a vacationer will see.

Order rack cards that have tear-offs or what they call in the printing business perforation tabs. I prefer a rack card that has the perforation at the top rather than the bottom. The idea is to advertise a coupon or discount special and add this onto the coupon or in the tear-off area.

Most marketers will add the coupon to the bottom of the rack card. This is a mistake in my view. Remember, visitors in the centers are scanning the tops of the rack cards, making a 1- or 2-second glance, then turning to the next offering. The visitors in the center will view the coupon and see the discount immediately.

Create an offering that entices the visitor to want to pick up your brochure, take it with them, then force them to make a buying decision with your business in favor. An offering can be a discount off your product for the first 100 visitors, a dollar discount or percentage off your product for using the coupon (add a coupon code for tracking purposes), two-for-one deals or buy one get one free.

Change offerings in each of the three campaigns to adjust to the subseasons, as I am sure that prices fluctuate as the tourist season goes forward. (In a recent column, I discussed creating multiple campaigns based on the three subseasons). At the end of the tourist season in November, you’ll know what offer worked better over the others, so in the second year you can adjust and implement the offer that generated the most sales into all subseason offers.

You can become creative here and try different types of print campaigns. The bottom line is results in any way they come.

Another idea would be to have a different offering at each center. The May-June early season campaign would have three rack cards, one for each center.

Millions of visitors will be coming to Maine in 2010. The bottom line is that to get out in front of the crowd, your business needs to be different from everyone else. Your coupon-generated rack card will get attention and separate your business from most of the others that will continue to print up the same brochure year after year.

Travelers in this value-driven economy are looking for deals, specials and discounts. The coupon rack card in 2010 may be your best strategy to acquire sales from tourists this season.

This article first printed at the Bangor Daily News by Matt Zito.

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