Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Have you been to a Travel Fair before.....Its a madhouse....

Every half yearly, the Travel Trade in my country will hold a Travel Fair, normally located in somewhere in town so as to provide easy access to all visitors whom would like to book their holidays in advance will normally come and see what are the best deals and bargains there will be set for the consumers. But way before the fair starts, we Travel Agents will have to slave out in order to produce the best deals in town, thus also remembering that we are in direct competition with our competitors down at the Trade Fair where numerous Travel Agents will be displaying their skills and best deals to lure that customer into their turf.

Like i've mentioned earlier, our typical day before the commencement of the Travel Fair will be preparing to submission of our deals to the Ads Agency for them to be compiling for our newspaper advertising and our pricelist normally distributed during the Fair. But way before any submission can be done, we will normally try to get our overseas agents to quote the best deal, promotions for the fair, discuss on what will be the trend for this years market and etc..After these are sorted out, we then begin to submit our deals to the Ads Agency for them to come up with the basic format/layout of our pricelist. After several vettings, the pricelist will be finally ready to meet its future owner=consumers. Now arm with the pricelist, consumers then can browse thru' what is this years market trend to places they wish to go and hop on down with their whole family like a family outing down to the Fair to look for the best deals in town.

Some observations which i had since i'm blogging will be the ugliness of consumers down at the fair. Once, i was serving a couple and already a queue was formed without my noticing it. The people behind that queue will roll their eyes and keep track of the time you've spent on this particular customer in order to determine whether you are efficient or not...Who cares....they will have to wait in line for their turn. Normally, banks will also play a part in these Travel Fairs in order to reel in potential customer base into their turf as well. Any purchases from the selected Travel Agents will entitle you to a Travel Trolley, mini fridges, mini hi-fi sets, Cooking appliances etc...to entice that consumer to spend using their credit cards. Without mentioning, the credit card companies will without any questions extend your credit limits for that dream travel you've planned or a honeymoon vacation. Once, i've heard of this scam, where this particular consumer books a long haul vacation and paid a dear amount for this package. Knowing that this tour will never form as the travel agents needs at least a number of passengers before forming the required group size. Hence, the travel agent will have to refund the amount of money the consumer paid, however the catch is any purchase that the consumer has paid thru' his/her credit card, they get to retain those gifts without ever needing to return that gift although the group was not formed. And so knowing of this flaw in the system, consumers are armed and they know which are the unlikely travel packages that will not form and take a risk/gamble and finally gets away with those gifts the banks have set aside for.

I must salute those consumers whom are able to brave the crowds and queues and at the end of the day get what they've schemed after...




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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Month & Dates are important to a Travel Agent

MONTHS & DATES are important & crucial to us (Travel Agency). They are like having Curry together french loaves. Below are what we look for in months & dates:

1) Help us to identify which are the best period to travel.
2) 4 Seasons (Winter, Autumn, Spring, Summer) for travelling.
3) Peak Travelling, hotspot for travelling during that particular month.
4) Negotiate a better rate even when we know its high or low season.
5) Open up more dates when its School Holiday/Public Holiday around the corner, i.e. X'mas, New Year etc....
6) A special event/promotion taking place, i.e. Hongkong Summer sale begins roughly from July onwards...

But i like every month-end, coz its pay day.......yipppppeeeeeee..............



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Discounted rates from Overseas Operator/Agents

Its Travel Fair again and don't you dare to approach me again for discount/better rates. My operators normally will have this to say:-

1) Their rates are not out yet for your fair, so what if your fair is around the corner.
2) Give you special fare/rates, sure how much returns am i gonna get from you?
3) My rates are already dirt cheap, please don't ask for anymore discounts, or i will have to hang myself.

These are the standard answers i always get when i approach my operators........




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My boss is back from her holiday...

Aiyo, my boss back from her holiday..... She doesn't seem to happy to hear of the incident that has happened in Taiwan. She told me i will have to assist her in some of her work. She just scolded one of her operators also and in a Chinese New Year Period.



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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

When the Cat is not around, the mouse runs around

As the saying goes, when the cat is not around, the mouse runs around. My boss is not around for the day and i'm by myself. However there were some hiccups for my company Group's trip in Taiwan and my big boss has been trying to call my boss but to no avail. Me to the rescue, i quickly called up the operator in Taiwan and enquired on the situation there. Request that the operator take care of those group and offer to add extra dishes during dinner, present some gifts to make our passengers happy and not bring back the problems. The traffic in Taiwan is very bad with lots of their own people travelling out of Taipei as well. Our groups are delayed from time to time and meals are being delayed. Our operator is also there personally to monitor the situation as well. What a day when my boss is not around.......


Monday, February 19, 2007

CHINESE NEW YEAR....YIPPEEEE.....BUT THINK ABOUT IT, OLDER BY ONE YEAR...HAIZ

17th Feb - Reunion Dinner or Chuxi Ye, our admin office closed for the day...
18th Feb - Office closed...
19th Feb - Office closed...
20th Feb - Office closed...
21th Feb - Go back to office and work.....so boring......end of CNY public holiday for me but anyway, CNY last for 15 days....

My Friend's Travel Blog

Let me introduce you to my friend's travel blog.

Sometimes she writes about China or Indonesia, or other parts of Asia. She is based in Singapore, and travels about here and there.

Hope you enjoy her blog!

Intro to my work-place-travel

Hi,

This is my work-place-travel. Here you will find me entering my wants, needs, darkest fears, hopes, dreams, realistic....... This list goes on and on..... Thus comes my frustration at my workplace, my goals for my workplace, my fears in my workplace, co-operation in my workplace and lastly dealing with my boss in my workplace.............