I recently read a really interesting article in Forbes, which claimed that the growth jobs of the future are forecasted to be in social care, personal care and sales retailing. This follows a theme set out by Daniel Pink, in his thought provoking book ‘A Whole New Mind’(1), in which he writes: “The future belongs [...]
Great brands that people are loyal to, especially now in the social media age, live by their stories. To quote the late Steve Jobs: “I get asked a lot why Apple’s customers are so loyal. It’s not because they belong to the Church of Mac! That’s ridiculous”. The quote reminded me of a great blog [...]
Friday 13th did prove to be an eventful day at Travel Counsellors, but not for sinister or fateful reasons. We celebrated the best sales day in the TC family’s 16 year history. The success of our Travel Counsellors so far this year is not unique and there are others in the services and retail sectors [...]
Earlier this month I received the regular newsletter from Dubai Tourism. Such is the pace of innovation in Dubai and breadth of experiences available it pays to stay updated. Our Travel Counsellors do a great job on that so they have all of the latest information on Dubai at their fingertips. It really is a fantastic [...]
Today Thomas Cook announced their decision to close loss-making shops, claiming this is related to the growth in e-commerce – or customers booking it on-line. There is no doubt that across a number of retail sectors there is a growth in on-line business. What is not clear is to what extent that growth is governed [...]
The online discounting campaign launched by Thomas Cook last week is not surprising given the need to boost short term bookings and cash flow, but the management at Cook’s will understand that discounting to get more direct business is not going to fix its woes. Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi wrote recently [...]
Yesterday we gave a presentation at World Travel Market (a trade show for travel trade and customers), on what we believe it will take for travel companies to be successful. The marketing blurb we sent obviously worked well as we had over 120 people in the room, standing room only, with many more turned [...]
I had arrived in Melbourne just before midnight on Wednesday, just missing the threatened walkout by customs staff at the airport. One hour to central Melbourne from getting off the aircraft including picking up luggage, you can’t beat that. I had made the journey to Melbourne to make sure our new software and the relevant [...]
The recent headline that the BBC programme watchdog slammed on-line agents and their tactic of building in hidden charges should not come as a surprise. At the ITT conference earlier this year Sir Terry Leahy, one of the UKs most respected business leaders, highlighted the opportunity for travel providers to build a trusted brand. Building a [...]
If you have managed to read ‘My Life In Cruise’ Blog then by now you will have realised I have a real love for holidays at sea, and I had been travelling with my partner for many years. After the birth of our twins, holidays felt like the impossible until they were at least out of [...]