Why Sell Groups?

By Doris and Phil Davidoff
This is the first in a series of six articles providing in-depth analysis and practical information for travel agents on the importance of group sales and how to find potential groups, develop programs to meet their needs and operate group trips effectively and profitably.
Future articles will focus on where to find groups, packaging and pricing groups, promoting groups, group operations — handling bookings and operating group tours and cruises, and selling unique groups.

Together, the articles serve as a primer for agents with little or no group sales experience, and also reinforce current skills of experienced agents while providing some new ideas.

Generating profits in the travel agency industry has become more and more difficult with each passing year. Travel agents are caught between heavy pressures from suppliers who want to control their costs (our commissions) and clients seeking the lowest possible prices.

It has been more than 12 years since airlines instituted commission cuts that have led to the elimination of most air commissions.

As a result, most small and medium-size travel agencies and virtually all Home Based travel agents are focusing their efforts on leisure travel — cruises, tours and resort vacations.

Travel agents who focus their marketing efforts on the vacation needs of specific target market segments have been able to maintain profitability in the face of pricing pressures from suppliers that are limiting profits. For example, non-commissionable fees (NCFs) of $20 per day or more are now a standard part of cruise pricing.

It’s Hard To Make Money on Ones and Twos

The well-managed leisure-oriented travel agent focuses on cruises and tours. However, a large volume of transactions is necessary to produce profits, unless the agent is selling primarily deluxe cruises and tours at $5,000 to $10,000 or more per couple.

With agency costs constantly increasing while income per transaction is not, it is difficult to make a profit on ones and twos.

For example, a couple purchases a one-week cruise on a contemporary (mass market) cruise ship. They pay a cruise fare of $680 per person and NCFs and taxes of $175 per person. Because of NCFs of $350, travel agent commission is based on the cruise fare of $1,360.

If the agency sells a sufficient number of cruises or meets a specific yearly dollar volume of sales, it will earn 15% of $1,360 — or $204 for selling this cruise. If the agency was only an occasional seller of the cruise line, it would only earn a 10% commission ($136).

Because of the $175 per person NCF charge, the client paid $855 per person ($1,710 total), so the $204 is actually 11.9%, not 15% and the $136 is less than 8% instead of 10%.

If over time, the travel agency sells 15 separate cruises on the same cruise line at the 15% level, total commission is $3,060. To earn this, agents must spend time with 15 couples and process 15 transactions.

Many readers will remember at least hearing about Willie Sutton, one of the most notorious bank robbers of the mid-20th century. After he was arrested, a newspaper reporter asked him, “Why do you rob banks?” His answer was a simple one: “Because that’s where the money is!”

Where the Money Is

Ask experienced group sales agents why they sell groups and they will give you the same answer: “Because that’s where the money is.”

Selling groups will increase agency income. If the same 15 cabins the agency sold individually are sold as a group (15 cabins on the same ship on the same date), the agency earns substantially more than the same $3,060 base commission.

Most cruise lines and many escorted tour operations provide one free cabin or room for every 15 sold. The value in this case is the base fare of $1,360.

Cruise lines offer amenity points that can be used for a variety of extra benefits for group passengers or income for the travel agency. Points can be used, for example, for complimentary cocktail parties, photographs, wine and logo items. They can also be used for bonus commissions, onboard credit, cabin upgrades and reduced free cabin ratios — for example, one free for 10 instead on one free for 15. Higher point levels are provided for low and shoulder season sailings.

If the cruise line provides a $50 bonus per cabin, this will add $750 to your income. Adding this bonus, plus the $1,360 value of the free cabins adds $2,110 to the original $3,060. The actual commission level on the sale is now a healthy 20% on the $25,650 paid by the 15 couples.

Other Benefits to Agents

Increasing agency profit is the major reason for focusing on groups, but there are several other important advantages as well.

Traveling in a group with common interests is a growing trend, especially among baby boomers. Like-minded people like to travel with like-minded people, especially to places of common interest.

The market is huge and growing larger every day. Groups are everywhere and many don’t yet know that they are potential travel groups. They are just waiting for an enthusiastic, innovative agent to get them moving.

Groups rarely “price-shop” a trip after they agree to promote a program with you. Individuals who want to travel with others who have booked your program have no choice. They must book your program to travel with the group. There may be some shopping before agreeing to your program, but there will be little or none once the group “signs” with you, especially if there are cancellation penalties.

An Efficient Sale

Selling groups is a time saver. While it will take more time to develop a group trip for an organization than to work with one client, once the program is accepted, very little time is spent with a single participant. The booking and transaction processing can be accomplished very efficiently.

Groups often travel together every year. Once you have sold a group tour or cruise and operated it successfully, the group will look forward to working with you on their next trip. Since you have already earned their trust, your time invested per participant will be even less on future programs.

Suppliers provide higher levels of service to travel agents who produce groups. Many supplier sales representatives receive significantly higher incentives for group sales than for an equivalent amount of individual sales. Suppliers often provide more support because of the larger amount of business represented by a group.

In general, group sales provide a higher level of professional satisfaction to agents than individual travel sales, and your clients will enjoy themselves traveling with other people who share common interests.

Doris and Phil Davidoff, veteran travel agents, are specialists in groups and have developed GroupTrac, a computer database for processing and controlling all aspects of group travel arrangements. The Davidoffs operate a Home Based niche agency, Fan Club Cruises, and formerly were the co-owners of Belair Travel Consultants in Maryland since 1969. Phil Davidoff is a past president of ASTA.

 

Where to Find Groups

By Doris and Phil Davidoff

Adventure travel, such as kayaking at British Columbia?s King Pacific Lodge, is just one of the niches for group travel.
In the first article in this series (Travel Trade, April 30; www.traveltrade.com), we explored the reasons why you should sell groups, with an emphasis on the profits that groups can generate for your agency. Now we can concentrate on a most basic question: “Where can we find groups?” The answer is simple — EVERYWHERE!

Potential travel groups can truly be found everywhere. You just have to look for them. You can look near and far and you will find them.

Agents have told us, “Sure, you can find groups, because your agency is in a large suburban area. We live and work in a small town.”

Our response — “Do you have churches, social clubs, businesses in your area? If you do, you have group travel prospects.” We sincerely believe that any travel agent can find a group of people with a common interest and build a trip around that interest.

Prospect List

The first step in finding groups is to set up a group prospect list. Your Group Lead Development Worksheet should have four columns:

• Group Name

• Contact Person

• Type(s) of Travel to Offer

• Contact by (date)

Consider using a spreadsheet on your computer for ease of updating, adding and deleting prospects.

Now it’s time to brainstorm. If you have a staff, get them together; if you are a single agent, work on your own. Start listing potential groups by using the Group Lead Development Workshop and information below on types of potential groups.

At the very least, list the group name and contact person. Add the type of trip to offer if you have an initial idea. Begin close to home before going farther afield.

Are there leads within your family or a staff member’s family? Is there any potential for a family reunion a major birthday or anniversary? What religious, social, cultural and community organizations do you belong to? What groups do your friends and family belong to? What are your hobbies and interests? All of these have good potential for developing a group travel program.

You probably can develop enough group leads from your own contacts and those of your friends, family and staff. If you go beyond your personal contacts, the sky’s the limit. Or is it? Consider taking a group of aviation enthusiasts to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH or the two locations of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Special interest museums exist for many areas of interest.

Set Priorities

The next step is to set a realistic “contact by date” for each group and enter it into column four of your worksheet. Set priorities based on the level of potential and ease of contacting the group. Periodically review your worksheet, adding, deleting or adjusting as needed.

Sometimes, the idea of a trip is enough to gain the support of the group with whom you are communicating. Most often, however, you will need to provide some incentive beyond being with friends and associates.

The two strongest incentives are free travel for the group leader and money. Fundraising is a major function of many organizations. Travel is certainly more interesting than bake sales or selling raffle tickets, and substantial contributions can be generated.

When making the initial contact with an organization, seek out the person who is in charge of programs and activities.

If the organization has traveled previously, it may already have a group leader with whom you can work.

If a travel program is a new idea, help the person assigned to become a group leader. If a group is not interested now, keep it on your list and check back in six months to see if the interest level has changed.

Use Individual Bookings

You can also build groups from your individual bookings relatively easily when selling cruises. Any time two or three couples are booking a cruise, book a group with the cruise line. You may receive a lower rate. As few as eight cabins are needed on contemporary lines and five on deluxe cruise lines.

Encourage your clients to invite friends to join them and suggest this cruise to other clients interested in cruising.

If you sell the cabins, you should earn a free tour conductor berth, and the net fare for that berth is added to your commission income. If you do not sell any more cabins, nothing is lost. The two or three couples you first booked will still receive the advantage of the group cruise rate.

The fact is that like-minded people like to travel with like-minded people. Subconsciously they are looking for travel opportunities. You can help them identify their travel needs and provide the group tour, cruise or resort program that will meet these needs.

Some Types of Groups

Potential groups are limitless. The list below is far from all-inclusive. Be creative. Use your imagination to develop more.

These Include:

Ethnic, speakers, quilting, radio personalities, scrapbooking, continuing eduation, sports, performers, theater, authors, religious, business meetings, health/fitness, incentives/awards, history or culture, photography, music, cooking, dance, family reunions.

Packaging and Pricing....

By Doris and Phill Davidoff

(Parts I and II of this series can be found in the “What’s Hot” section at www.traveltrade.com.)

Developing the travel program to offer to group members and how much to charge for it are essential parts of marketing groups. Important decisions must be made during these processes.

The packaging decisions to be made are heavily influenced by the type of travel program being offered. Is the trip to a city, resort or other single destination?

Will the group be visiting several areas in a country or state, or several countries or states?

Does a cruise comprise all or a significant part of the program?

A single destination program is relatively simple to package. When planning a cruise or all-inclusive resort trip, you only have three major components — transportation, transfers and the cruise or resort, itself.

Single City Trips

Packaging single city trips includes similar considerations, plus other features such as sightseeing tours, entertainment or sports tickets and/or meals at the hotel or other restaurants.

You can book the transportation and hotel separately with an airline and the cruise line or resort, or you can work with the group department of a wholesaler, preferably one that you work with regularly and with whom you already have a strong relationship.

If you are booking direct, many hotels will arrange transfers from and to the local airport for your group.

Multidestination tours, such as U.S. national parks or regional or multicountry Europe tours, are far more complex to package. In addition to air transportation to the destination, ground transportation, hotel, meals and sightseeing must be considered for each day of the tour. Taxes and gratuities must also be considered.

Compare total net pricing, deposit requirements, cancellation requirements and penalties. Try to minimize up front deposits and limit your risk if you have to cancel because of insufficient participation.

Simple Payment Procedure

Payment procedures will be simplest when using a wholesaler, tour operator and cruise line, since you will pay a single, inclusive price for all components. However, the price from the single source may be higher, with stricter cancellation penalties.

Using an experienced tour operator for multidestination ground trips will usually provide consistent service level, as well as a tour manager to handle liaisons with hotels and local sightseeing personnel.

Cruises and escorted tours run by one of your preferred supplier tour operators or cruise lines are the easiest multidestination group programs because they are already pre-packaged. You can book almost all of the components with a single source.

However, there may be substantial savings by booking air directly with an airline. When booking air flights for a group with a cruise line or tour operator, seek assurance that the same flights will be booked for all passengers departing from the same airport.

Using an existing tour or cruise as a base for a group program provides the most flexibility for group operations. Small numbers will be able to travel even when the size of the group does not meet expectations. Your rates will be protected and you will at least have earned some income.

If you package the components individually, you will probably have to cancel the trip if the group does not reach specific minimum numbers of participants. You may also face penalties that you cannot pass on to the group.

Cruises offer advantages for groups. All meals, food and entertainment are included in the cruise price.

Cruise line marketing activities encourage group sales from travel agents, and they provide the most incentives for bookings. Lower tour conductor requirements, bonus commissions, shipboard credits and other amenities are available with most group cruise bookings.

Cruise line deposit and refund policies are generous and involve less risk. Advance deposits are low and, more importantly, cruise deposits are fully refundable until from 45 to 90 days before departure, depending on cruise line and ship. Cruise lines will usually protect rates if a group does not fully materialize, but one or two couples still want to sail.

How to Price Your Group

Pricing groups is not a difficult process, but it requires painstaking accuracy to avoid costly errors. If you make a $10 per person error when booking a couple, it will cost $20. But if you make the same error with a group of 100, your loss will be $1,000.

In simplest terms, add up the per person cost of every component of the program, determine the approximate per person share of the group’s fixed costs, and include the per person income (gross profit) you want from the group.

Be sure to include ALL of the per person costs when pricing the group. This is where the most costly mistakes are made. Are all transfers, baggage handing fees and taxes listed? We recommend working with net costs and including any commissions from suppliers as part of the income from the group.

Fixed costs are the direct operating costs for the group that do not vary with the number of participants. A chartered motorcoach, budgeted advertising and promotion and the costs of providing agency escorts are examples of fixed costs.

Divide the total for fixed costs by your minimum number of paid participants to determine the approximate per person fixed cost. If you sell more than this number, your income will increase; if you sell fewer, income will decrease.

Don’t sell yourself short by limiting your profit. Income of 15% to 25% of the selling price of a group program is not unrealistic, especially from unique, special interest groups.

After packaging and pricing a group and reviewing the program, if necessary, with the group leader or organization representative, you are ready to begin promoting and selling the program.

Promoting Groups...

By Doris and Phill Davidoff

You have found a group interested in travel and developed, priced and booked their tour or cruise. Unfortunately, the philosophy of “if you book it, they will come,” does not work. You must have a plan for promotion of the trip and actively participate in it.
Planning the promotion for a group program should be part of the group development process. As you are arranging the tour or cruise, determine the best ways of getting information about the program to potential purchasers.
Promotional activities should be specifically targeted at potential buyers, for example, members of the club or organization, or fans of a performer, author or speaker. Costs should be kept as low as possible. Paid advertising should be limited, highly focused and, where possible, priced into the group program.
If you are working with a specific club, church or organization, or a specific performer or speaker, don’t go it alone! Make the group leaders and members of the organizations part of your marketing team.
Remember, the reasons why prospects will book the trip stem from their relationship (or desired relationship) with the organization or person that is the sponsor or feature of the trip. Prospects will respond best to communications from that group or individual.
Joint Venture With the Group
Program promotion should be a joint venture between your agency and the group. In addition to the trip, you are probably providing some type of incentive for working with you. Free tour conductor seats/cabins and contributions or fees can be viewed as payment to the group in return for assistance in promoting the trip. The higher the number of paid participants, the more the group earns.
Importance of Brochure or Flyer
The most important promotional aid for selling a group tour or cruise is the brochure or flyer. Printing promotional flyers is inexpensive and effective.
For a basic two-sided flyer, the front can be used for descriptive material and sales copy while the back is used for details on payments, cancellation penalties, transportation, insurance and for a registration form.
Most cruise lines and some tour operators will provide four-color letterhead in quantity without charge. CLIA can provide generic cruise letterhead at low cost. The flyers can be designed with any desktop publishing program or even with Microsoft Word, and printed on a good office copier or by a commercial printer.
Many suppliers will also provide shells that you can use to print multipanel brochures. A shell is a four-color brochure form with attractive pictures, but no written copy. Brochure layout is more complex than setting up flyers and printing is more expensive. You can produce flyers more quickly and inexpensively than shell brochures.
Local organizations should distribute flyers to as many of their members as possible, and where possible should encourage their members to invite friends on the trip. You can provide flyers for the organization to include with member mailings as well.

Direct Mail
Direct mail is effective, but it can be expensive. Even with bulk mail, the cost of printing and mailing a two-page promotion is rarely less than $60 or $70 per hundred. Consider sharing the expense with your group. If the group qualifies for nonprofit postage, ask them to mail materials that you prepare.
Postcard mailings are somewhat less expensive. They also do not require recipients to open an envelope. You cannot include as much information on a card as on a flyer or brochure, but a good picture does attract attention. Cruise lines will provide color cards in quantity without charge.
You should also provide presentations on the trip at board and general membership meetings. A cruise or tour night is a great way to stimulate membership interest.
One important caveat — if the leaders or officers within a club, church or other organization are not planning to participate in the trip, the chances of successful sales are greatly diminished. Group programs rarely succeed if the group’s leadership does not champion the trip and plan to participate. If they are only interested in the fund raising, and are not excited about the trip itself, the chances of success are slim.

Web-Based Promotions
Effective use of Web sites is one of the best (and least expensive) methods of promoting group tours and cruises. A page on your Web site should be devoted to each group. Be sure the page contains keywords that may attract search engine attention and get higher ranking.
The information contained in the promotional flyer should become the base for the group Web page. The registration form on the flyer should be on, or accessible from, the Web page so that prospects can register online with a link like Register Online clearly placed on the program page. When the participant clicks on the “Submit” button, information from the form is transmitted as an E-mail to your agency.
The organization or lead person should prominently promote the trip on its Web site, providing a link to the appropriate page on your Web site. Thus, a group member or fan who initially learns about the existence of a group trip when visiting a favorite Web site can click on a link and get the detailed information from your Web site — and even register immediately.
Web pages can be designed using programs such as Dreamweaver or Front Page, or outsourced to your Web site designer. To cut costs and save time if you do not design your own Web site, ask your designer to provide you with a template that you can use as a base for your groups.
The Internet can also be used to proactively promote a group program to potential prospects. If your program focuses on a specific activity, for example, photography, use the Internet to locate photography clubs and promote your program to them. You can also place pay-per-click advertisements on related web sites.
A well-executed promotion program should provide the leads and sales necessary for a strong, profitable group tour or cruise.

Group Operations & Procedures...

You have completed the most interesting and creative group activities — finding the group and developing the right tour or cruise program and promotion for the trip. Now, the bookings start coming in. What do you do from here?
Having effective, organized group operations systems is essential for successful group marketing and sales. Keeping track of passengers, receipts of deposits, intermediate and final payments from passengers, and assuring timely payments to suppliers requires planning and organization. Without adequate operations systems, you can lose quite a bit of money and not know it.
Your group operations system should be in place before promoting a specific trip. Payment, cancellation and refund policies and insurance considerations are part of your operations systems.
The payment requirements for participants should be set to meet supplier requirements and provide additional cash flow to the agency. Funds advanced to suppliers should be as low as possible and recouped from participants as soon as possible. Except for these initial payments (for example, $50 per cabin to a cruise line), payment should be received well before the supplier’s payment due date.

Cancel Policy
You can and should establish cancellation penalties that are higher and apply under more stringent conditions than your suppliers. This will provide compensation for at least some of the time invested in sales and reservations processing, as well as the added non-productive work to process a cancellation.
Cancellation penalties can be assessed immediately after payment of deposit. For example, most cruise lines will provide full refunds up to the final payment date, with a sliding scale between final payment and sailing dates. We recommend that you establish an initial cancellation charge of $50 to $100 per person up to final payment date with a sliding scale substantially greater than the cruise line levels after final payment.
We have never seen a prospect not purchase a trip because of final payment and refund policies. Be sure these policies are clearly stated on the trip brochure or flyer.

Offer Insurance
Trip cancellation insurance or an insurance package that includes it should be offered to all potential participants. Trip cancellation insurance will protect participants if there is illness or death in their families, provide additional income to the agency and provide legal protection if a participant cancels and complains about cancellation fees.
Participants who do not purchase it should be required to indicate that they declined insurance. Acceptance or declination of insurance should be included on the trip registration form on flyers and brochures and on Internet registration pages.
Using a group insurance policy will substantially reduce required paperwork. Check with the travel insurance carrier your agency uses to see if it offers voluntary group insurance. We do not recommend mandatory insurance for most groups because it will increase the price of your program and may affect sales. If your regular insurance supplier can’t provide this, contact Travel Insured International.
Be sure that your insurance company will protect your penalties as well as those of your suppliers.
Supplier insurance, for example, will NOT protect your penalties or additional charges for special value-added features.
Adjust your refund policies, if necessary, to meet insurance time restrictions. The insurance company, for example, may not cover the full cost of a trip cancelled more than 30 days before departure.
Operations procedures should be grouped into two categories with parallel activities — procedures with the group and procedures with the supplier(s).
After the program has been announced, you or your assigned staff member should respond quickly to telephone and E-mail queries from prospects and participants. Treat them as you would treat any individual client or prospect interested in an equivalent product.
Collect required information and payments from participants and keep accurate records of the information and payments received. Send (or give) confirmations to participants as deposits are received.
Send billing for final payments three to four weeks before payments are due to the agency. Include requests for participants to check name spelling, etc. and advise of special requests (for example, dining table companions or special meals).
Be sure to make deposit, intermediate (if required) and final payments to suppliers in a timely manner. Failure to do so may result in cancellation or late fees or even loss of booked space. Provide participant names in accordance with supplier requirements — usually either as individually booked or with a rooming list at time of final payment.
Arrange for meetings, cocktail parties and other special functions well in advance of departure. Advise suppliers of VIPs. Provide dining table preferences for cruises and resorts with assigned tables. Consider getting a dining room table diagram from cruise line or resort and assigning all participants.

Document Party
If your group is coming primarily from your local marketing area, schedule a pre-trip meeting or document party about two weeks before departure. Distribute documents and assure that participants understand what is included in their travel program and what is not included.
Cover topics including appropriate clothing, tipping policies, health and security concerns and customs and immigration requirements for international trips.
Consider sending one or more escorts with your groups to coordinate activities throughout the trip. This is especially important if you have included special or complex activities. If you send escorts, their costs should be priced into the program. If you do not send an escort, be sure your group leader is fully briefed on any special arrangements and the expected flow of the trip.
Operations activities require strong attention to detail and can be excessively time-consuming without a well-developed system. We recommend using a specially-designed database such as GroupTrac which tracks individual reservations and payments and provides confirmation and billing letters as well as rooming lists and other supplier reports.
A database or spreadsheet can also be used for some parts of the group operations process. We do not recommend treating each participant as an individual client within your accounting system — the group should be the accounting unit.
By developing a strong, well-organized group operations system, you can ease the burden of the absolutely essential paperwork required for successful group development and sales.

Doris and Phil Davidoff are owners of Fan Club Cruises and Davidoff Associates, Inc. They have extensive experience in group sales. Visit www.davidoffassociates.com.

How You Can Increase Revenue by 60%...

By Doris and Phil Davidoff
(Editor’s Note: This is the sixth and final part of Focus on Groups.
The entire series is posted on www.traveltrade.com.)

In our previous articles on the development and sale of group tours and cruises, we analyzed why agents should sell groups and provided insights into how to find, develop, price and promote and handle internal operations for these groups.
This last article in our series focuses on developing and selling unique group travel programs. Selling unique groups, in our opinion, provides the best potential for increased agency income without worry about competition from other travel agents or travel distribution sources.

Differentiate Program
A group tour or cruise becomes “unique” when some feature, activity or series of activities that provides more value is added to the program to make it different from the normal tour or cruise that can be purchased by any traveler from any travel agent.
The added value features should be the main reason for people choosing to participate in your program.
Like beauty, added value is in the eye of the beholder. The added value activities will not appeal to everyone. However, they should be perceived by your target market as something special and very desirable.
The main characteristic of a unique group is that it is one of a kind. The group program that you create can only be purchased from you. Even though cabins on a cruise, rooms at a resort or seats on an escorted tour are used as part of the program, the value-added features make it different from the standard program offered to the other guests and available from any travel agent.
There are three main reasons to focus on unique groups:
1. Profitability — You can and should add to the supplier’s price.
2. Your program can’t be “price-shopped” by prospective participants — it is only available from you and your agency.
3. Repeat potential is excellent — clients appreciate the unique aspects of the trip.

Not a Commodity
You aren’t selling a cruise or tour, you are selling a program that happens to be on a ship, at a resort or on a tour. You are no longer an intermediary, subject to the control or whims of your supplier or the competitive marketplace.
The most successful unique group programs focus on the value-added features, not on the basic, standard cruise, resort stay or tour. Clients want to support the fund-raising activity; sail with the author, performer or financial adviser; or participate in the special activities on the trip.
The participants probably would not have booked the standard vacation you are using as a base for your unique program, at any price. The special activity is what attracted them — not the cruise, resort or tour, and not your travel agency.
A unique group can be formed from among those interested in any special person, organization or activity. You can use a core local group or venture well beyond your local area. There are no limits.

The most critical factor is the perception by prospective participants of the value of the added features and activities. A sampling of types of value-added activities includes:

• Performances by favorite singers or bands;
• Readings by a well-known author;
• Speeches or lectures;
• Meetings with celebrities;
• Fund-raising activities;
• Religious activities;
• Hobbies, such as scrapbooking or quilting;
• Tournaments.

Because you are creating a unique product, you can and should charge more than the standard, commissionable retail price established by your supplier. The add-on should be based on two factors — the actual cost to you for the additional features (for example, fees to performers or activity leaders, special supplies needed, escort expenses, etc.) and additional income for your agency.
Do not cheat yourself. Developing and organizing the unique features of the trip required you to invest substantial time and effort. Don’t give it away. Unique group travel programs are not particularly price sensitive. Prospective participants have only two choices — buy from you or don’t go.

Doris and Phil Davidoff are owners of Fan Club Cruises and Davidoff Associates, Inc. They have extensive experience in group sales and they offer many tools to help travel agents through their Web site,www.davidoffassociates.com