YTB or Not To YTB

I agree with many of the of the editorial comments that are posted on http://notravelmlms.blogspot.com/

Most peole join YTB for the perks and the MLM opportunity (although that is a lot harder than many of them realize) and invariably have no idea or intention of selling travel.

But why this clearly defensive posture by the Travel Establishment? Are you afraid of something? You all survived the onslaught of the big dog travel portals like Travelocity, Expedia etc. This is just a new twist to it, a different marketing ploy.

Is YTB growing faster tha you would like? Has it put even more pressure on the margins? Isn't that what all new business models tend to do? Are you defensive because YTB, by giving perks, attempts to put some fun and glamour back into the drab travel experience of the ordinary traveler?

The drab experience caused by years of poor management by organizations like IATA And ALL?

I have not used a travel agent since 1996, for most of my travel I used Travelocity or the vendors websites. Even when I used a travel agency I had to advise the agent about routing to get better deals. So how much more did they know about the business than the everage YTB'er?

I think the only people who still use Travel Agents like AMEX or Wagon Lits are the hughe blue chip corporations who have a hard time changing.

The money and fun in this business is in the all in and group travel opportunities headed by the Cruise Lines and Las Vegas.Who wants to sell Airline tickets or car rentals?

I hate MLM but I love the Travel Business. I focus on getting my customers the best travel deals. I use my knowledge to scour the industry, so they do not have to, and find them value for money that they would never be able to find on their own.

I do have a Toll Free phone number and a street address on my website. I do encourage my customers to call me if they are uncomfortable with the web or do not have the time. That is better service than they can get from Travelocity or Expedia.

To focus on the MLM part and its shortcomoings would be the wrong way of looking at YTB. YTB should be looked at as a high growth business model, with all its imperfections, warts and all.

The quickest way to grow a travel, any, business in a start up mode is to do it exactly the way YTB is doing it right now. The growth rates bear that out. The MLM model and the perks are there to stimulate a growth rate that would not be attainable in any other way.

That is probaly not the way it will evolve in the long run and the market forces will make adjustments to the model in a more mature state. The focus will probably shift from selling portals to selling travel.

The model definitely makes sense for individual travelers that spend over $6K in travel per year. As well as for small companies such as sole proprietors like CPA, consulting and engineering professionals. Also Churches and Organizations will benefit from this model. All this is to come.
As for the short run, Who cares if some members carry credentials that they do not really deserve! The Companies who honor those credentials ar at fault. One does not give people privileges because of their pretty eyes do they? Can the vendors not tell if the person is a travel agent with impressive turnover? Are the systems of the traditional travel world so antiquated that they do not capture this kind of information? Shame on them!

Although it seems unlikely that the holder of an Iatan card is not at least a very frequent traveller, given the rules of obtaining one at YTB.

I am sure that all these things will sort themselves out. All the upheavel in the recent weeks will not go unnoticed and no doubt YTB will have to make corrections in midstream.

Drivel about share movements clearly shows ignorance of the behaviour of the stockmarkets and has nothing fundamentally to do with a companies performance.In any case I am confident that YTB management will stay away from any knee jerk reactions and set the ship back on its course.

I am certain that the vigour with which the establishments are attacking YTB is a sign that YTB is a force to be reckoned with in its quest to make travel even more affordable to the individual traveler and simultaneously make the all too drab experience of travel a littlemore glamorous and fun. Because that is what this is ultimately all about.

TRAVELOCITY PHASE II

The Comfortable/Lazy Way To See some of the Most Stunning Sceneries and Landscapes

One of the More Comfortable ways to see the world is the way I used to do it with my parents as a 10 year old on some of the Famous Ocean Liners that were used to travel when airlines were rare.

I will illustrate most of what I mean here with video clips from U Tube and will start by showing you all the varied and wonderful oppotunities there are to get on one of these liners.



Did you enjoy the video with the guy escaping the horrors of traveling on a plane by diving out of it and landing in the swimming pool of the cruise ship?

Those videos were just a foretaste of what is available in terms of Cruise Lines. As you saw there is somthing for everyone, from party on Carnival, adventure on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, spectacular on Princess, classic on Holland America and youthfull on Easy Cruise.

The value is incredible, you can get Room and full Board from $50 per day, try getting that in a Resort Hotel with Casino! And for that the Cruise lines take you all over the world to beautiful places that you have probably never been to before.

What is so wonderful about being on a boat is that you look at all these places from an angle that you will never see unless you leave the firm land, you get a view from the sea.

You saw some snippets of that perspective from the earlier playlist of videos, but I will try to show you some of these in more detail in the following set. I will start wth the North Western Seaboard of the North America and work my way south and east.




As I was telling you earlier, I am building this travelog by using YOUTUBE playlists, which is a lot of fun but at the same time very time consuming. However once you have the playlists you can continuously update and change them with new videos on YouTube and they automatically update on your post, your websites etc, quite incredible how clever these guys from Google are.

They do the same with the adds you post on your website through Adsense! They change the adds depending on the content you have on a particular webpage, all this happens virtually, you do not have to do anything other than offcourse changing your content! Scary in a sense, I guess, because it means that some coded software can read what you write and take action accordingly.


Here is a playlist I have started but by no means finshed of the East Coast of North America.



And here is my start on the Caribbean