Title: Travel: Pre and Post Internet.

By: The Nomad

Travel Pre Net:

I’ve been travelling for over 40 years – by thumb in my early days, by boots in the Scouts, a Lambretta came next and then my initial old banger followed by newer old bangers to the beaches of the Costa Brava.

My thumb, boots, bikes and bangers took me all over Europe and the UK just before discovering that a charter flight to Spain on an old ‘Connie’ could get me to the beaches and bars a lot quicker and permit more time to appreciate the nearby travel opportunities by horse and cart and the occasional bus and train.


‘Go West and Prosper’ seemed to be a great concept so instead of taking an 8 hour flight I took an 8 day transatlantic crossing from Tilbury to Montreal on the Stephan Batory of Polish Ocean Lines ensuring that jet lag did not trouble my travel plans. Some years later I crossed the pond once more on a ship but this time it was five times bigger and I travelled in style on the QE2 and dined in the Queen’s Grill somewhat removed from my earlier expertise. I extremely recommend ocean voyages but cannot see myself on one of the contemporary cruise ships going from port to port with constant line-ups to get on and off to acquire t-shirts. Even so, I have done 10 Windjammers and a Star Clipper cruise in the Caribbean which had been all memorable (let’s hope Windjammer Barefoot Cruises recover from their woes). But I digress.

I had read that Canada is a spectacular country, from sea to shining sea, and my entrance into the St. Lawrence River to Montreal and then heading west in an old Econoline van from the Excellent Lakes, across the Prairies to the Rocky Mountains just before ending up whale watching off of the Pacific Coast of Vancouver Island was a trip of wonder to a bloke from London. Today the scenery is still spectacular and the greatest way to go is still by road so rent or buy a auto, motorhome or motorbike, take the train or tour bus but don’t forget the maps, a fly rod, very good boots and take your time.

My favorite part of Canada / USA for adventure travel has to be Northern BC / Alaska, to hike the Chilkoot Trail in the steps of the goldseekers of 1898. The Northwest Territories to canoe the Nahannie River and the Yukon to drive from Dawson City to Chicken, Alaska. If you like the outdoors and can put up with a few bugs, cast a fly and scale a couple of hills or drive on endless dirt roads sharing the space with moose, caribou, elk, bears and eagles, then these are the places to put on your list. The pleasures and experiences in driving to Inuvik on the Dempster Highway or to Prudhoe Bay on the Dalton Highway or even the Canol Road can only be felt by performing them. I would have mentioned the Alaska Highway but now it is an easy drive unlike the aforementioned.

Nowadays the costs of driving these distances may mean that sharing the journey with others is required, but RVing or basically vanning and camping is a fantastic way to see beyond the horizon. Some enroute adventures now want to be booked in advance whereas when I hiked Denali and the Chilkoot Pass it was just a case of turning up, registering with the local ranger office and heading on out. A little far more forward planning is required for today’s traveller and price considerations of lengthy flights or drives have to somehow be countered with far more careful planning. In the days of reasonable gas costs I would not even consider the driving or flying expenses and have driven to Key West from the northwest coast, down the west coast to the Baja and to the west coast from New York. I when even flew my 1946 Fleet taildragger from the Pacific to the Atlantic and back utilizing around five gallons an hour of avgas. Before the oil and credit crisis I drove from Rio de Janeiro to Lima, down to Tierra del Fuego and back to Rio covering over 15,000 miles of spectacular scenery and with no consideration about the price of gas. South America ought to be on your itinerary too! Some other memorable drives that may possibly now demand a mortgage with the gas firms contain London to The Nordkapp, Norway, Skippers Canyon in New Zealand and the loneliness of the far north of Australia and the wonderful coast of Western Australia stopping by at Monkey Mia and Wave Rock.

We tend to forget that the actual cost of travelling is usually much less nowadays than over the 40 years of my travels. In 1977 my round-trip airfare from Canada to Australia cost over 00 in 1977 dollars so nowadays it is far less expensive to fly, even with the airlines gouging for fuel, extra baggage, no service and no pleasure. The ‘Big Mac’ approach of cost comparison as developed by The Economist newspaper gives us a excellent gauge for most expenditures of today compared to yesterday but my 00 price to get a private pilots licence in the 1970′s appears low cost by comparison to nowadays, but clearly not when employing this Big Mac principle. Other travel costs are also far cheaper nowadays but this really should not mean that travellers ought to disregard the a lot of approaches of saving expenses that can then be put to extended or improved travel experiences

Travel Post-Net:

In my 40 years of travel I have had to use travel agents to make even the simplest of reservations and purchase tickets, not even thinking to ask them if they had “been there, completed that?” It was just a case of there being no other options to buying travel. Now we have unlimited alternatives and can seek out greater travel agents, greater costs, far better selections and data about anywhere in the world for our travels – with out even leaving residence.

The Net now gives travellers tips and choices of Where to go, When to go, Why to go, What to do, Who to book with and How to save cash and offset expenses. We can search and find experts for every single travel choice. If we are comfy with the World wide web we no longer have to go to a travel agent to make reservations and acquire tickets except to book with some of the larger travel businesses that still generate glossy brochures and give all inclusive packages or tours that only sell through the agency program. The Web also allows those of us who are smart enough to know when to seek out a top travel agent with understanding, experience and expertise (KEE abilities) of destinations and activities about where to find them. There is no longer any require to only use our nearby agents when we can discover 1 somewhere else in the world. When we do not need ‘the knowledge’ and can do it ourselves we merely surf the internet so that we can book directly with tour and travel operators wherever we have decided to go.

Some travel agents operate their own tours, some are both wholesale and retail, some limit consumer selection by only selling their ‘preferred’ suppliers and some have expert consultants with years of experience invested in gaining information, encounter and expertise and are worth their weight in gold to the savvy traveller. Beware although, as some are also called destination specialists and some of these designations merely call for the agent to take a rudimentary test provided by tourism offices, destination marketing groups or even tour operators and in my opinion can harm the reputation of the travel market. A specialist is not necessarily an expert.

Travel is probably the most employed commercial aspect of the Internet and if retail agents want to harness this exciting medium to provide ‘the knowledge’ and their ‘kee’ skills to a global audience, not just their local community, they need to embrace the modifications that are happening. Travellers now have the capacity to seek answers to the 5 W’s of travel and the critical ‘How to’ save money and offset expenses by having information just a click away.

And then it occurred to me that even internet travel costs frequently contain a commission element even when sold directly to the consumer. If we book directly with operators we should not have to pay full retail prices as we are performing for ourselves what a retail agent would usually do for us. A dilemma for the operator is that to show a both a retail and a price cost alternative could deter a lot of agents from selling the services as travellers could use an agent for free of charge suggestions and book directly with the operator to get a ‘net of commission’ cost. Naturally this two tier pricing is not usually obtainable but travellers who do not will need guidance need to also not be penalized by retail pricing. A new way had to be discovered and I believe I have discovered it!

The will need for fairer fare prices is why I developed the Top Travel Voucher program at The Top Travel Club and I even discovered a dot com for it. All travel selections on the web site are at ‘net of commission’ costs for members who deal with there own travel arrangements directly with the operators linked on the club web site utilizing our voucher program.

I am inviting travel operators from around the world to join this program, from B&ampB’s, Motels, Hotels, Luxury Lodges, Eco Resorts, Beach Resorts and Tour and Adventure Operators who want to promote their products and services to travellers who are comfortable with direct bookings and reservations.

I am also inviting Travel Agents with understanding, experience and expertise of destinations and activities to showcase their skills to a global audience of travellers and to the members of this new travel club. I am leery of ‘specialist agents’ and only want specialists to showcase their services.

This chance is offered to the travel trade at no cost except for them to give net, wholesale or outlet prices to club members and visitors to the internet site using top travel vouchers. I think this program offers fairer fare costs to direct-booking travellers. The operator would usually be paying commission anyway but now travellers get the savings because they make their own arrangements.

The Top Travel Club opened in mid-April 2008 offering thousands of top travel vouchers for travel in over 70 countries with around 150 travel operators onboard. Every week we add more travel operators with a lot more alternatives for members. Presently you can get savings on accommodations, adventure travel, boat charters, culinary tours, hike, bike and dive tours, auto and RV rentals fishing lodges and guides, safaris, vacation rentals, single travel, ladies only and dude ranches. Members get the vouchers free of charge by paying an annual membership fee and non-members can get the vouchers on the net at Top Travel Internet sites at deeply discounted prices to the face-value. The future growth will incorporate restaurants, travel clothing, travel insurance and the chance to access air ticket consolidators who want to deal directly with buyers.

The way I have travelled and the way I see travel is that consumers need to have unlimited access to each and every travel chance with the ability to do their own due diligence or to find a skilled who can provide good quality guidance and services at fair costs, and to uncover all of this without having needing endless hours of looking.

To uncover out much more about the new way of cost offsets for travel please go to The Top Travel Club and my apologies for some of the spelling (traveller / traveler) but that is what I was taught. As lengthy as we all comprehend the meaning, vive le distinction!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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