Tag Archives: Travel

Travel

Start a Cruise Travel Home Business

Cruise Travel Home Business:

You’ve gone on your first or your 100th cruise and loved it. Did you ever consider starting a cruise travel agency? You enjoy the searching for the perfect cruise for yourself and everyone around you. You like setting up and taking care of all the arrangements. If this sounds exciting and fun, why not profit from it, and start your own travel agency.

The travel industry currently shows $4 trillion annually spent in flights, cruises, cars, hotels and more. The amount is expected to continue growing as more people are living in two-income families and have access to more money. Why not take part of the $4 trillion for yourself, and let your travel home business pay for your next cruise.

If you have considered starting a home business, but are afraid to quit your full-time job, a travel home business is just right for you. You can start the business part time, and expand it slowly or quickly. No matter what the reason, this is a pajama job that will grow quickly and show results almost immediately.

Starting a cruise travel home business does have start up costs. Depending on the route you take to open your business will affect the start up cost of your home business, however, many have only minimal costs. These start up costs include national organization fees, software fees, and possibly affiliation fees, depending on how you want to work your business. You have many options available.

The first step is to start researching the the industry. Check out all websites and books published by National Organizations affiliated with travel and cruise agents, such as the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents. These resources will give you information on affiliation with a parent travel agency as an independent contractor, and steps on how to pursue a travel home business from the ground up.

Either way you decide to go, it is best to create a brief general business plan. You can download a sample business plan from the Small Business Administration website, or go to the local office for a copy. This plan will help you understand what you will need to do to be successful and how to budget for profit. This plan is dynamic and ever changing and should be updated frequently.

Becoming affiliated with a large travel agency gives your business a few benefits. Some of the benefits include the reservation software training, support, updates, newsletters, and industry best practices. They have established industry connections all you need to do is find travelers.

Your travel agency will usually take off quickly, when associated with a large parent travel agency. You do not have to worry about setting prices for your services either. The parent company will set the prices and you will receive up to 50% of each reservation you book. This takes the anxiety and frustration out of worrying about profits and losses you have to contend with when setting your own prices.

The other option requires more work. You research reservation software, and talk to companies within the industry to establish connections. This option can have a higher start up cost and will take longer to show a profit for two main reasons. Until you get comfortable with the pricing of your services, you will have a trial and error phase that can create losses to your cruise travel agency. But once you get the hang of it, the profit is yours. Second, you have to contact hotels, car rental companies, airlines, cruise lines, and such and build relationships, which can take time.

However, it is not important which way you decide to start your travel agency. You will receive benefits as well as profits. These benefits may be better if you work with a travel agency but you get benefits either way. These benefits include up to 50% discounts on hotels and vacation packages, up to 70% discount on cruises, and much more.

If you decide to expand your travel agency to include other types of travel, it is much easier when associated with a larger travel agency. If you built your cruise travel home business yourself, you will need to make more contacts and create new relationships to be able to compete.

Now you have some information about a cruise travel home business. You need to look at industry periodicals, books, and websites to decide on your next step. In any event, this cruise travel home business will have your vacations and cruises paid for by your clients at discounted rates. For those who love to travel this business is perfect.

Travel

How To Choose Travel Vacation Packages

It is certainly common knowledge that scams and frauds are everywhere nowadays. This is no different in the travel industry and travel vacation packages. They are cleverly disguised as a membership or reward program, either of which could indicate that you can travel free of charge once you sign up, but this is far from the truth.

Although most of the time we can tell if a program is worth the price tag attached to it, but there are certain times that it is difficult to distinguish the real deals from the bogus ones. Some vacation coupons will allow you to get discounts from your accommodation and perhaps several tourist hotspots, but almost all will not have ‘free’ travel attached to it. Therefore, if you are approached by travel agents claiming to have travel vacation packages that provide free travel options, you may want to closely read the fine print before committing to a purchase. This will save you from a lot of trouble later on.

The truth is that there are some costs that you will have to pay for when traveling with coupons, but be sure that you are only paying your fair share. For example, when joining travel vacation packages, you may have to pay a small sum for the vouchers and coupons, which is acceptable and normal. However, be wary of membership programs that require you to pay regular monthly fees. It is very uncommon to have to pay a monthly fee to have access to coupons and vouchers. Travel vacation packages are a one-off event and there is very little benefit in subscribing to a monthly service.

Keep your eyes wide open and take some time to consider the booking or purchases, doing this may help you avoid making purchases that are unnecessary or misleading. Travel vacation packages are a great way to save some money while you are traveling, but you will want to make sure that you are truly saving some cash. Research into the prices and find out if they seem appropriate for the amount of activities involved. By doing this, you can determine whether the package is worth its price tag or not.