Title: Travel: Pre and Post Internet.

By: The Nomad

Travel Pre Internet:

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 first 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 before finding that a charter flight to Spain on an old ‘Connie’ could get me to the beaches and bars a lot quicker and allow more time to enjoy the local travel opportunities by horse and cart and the occasional bus and train.

‘Go West and Prosper’ seemed to be a good idea 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 again on a ship but this time it was 5 times bigger and I travelled in style on the QE2 and dined in the Queen’s Grill somewhat removed from my earlier experience. I highly recommend ocean voyages but cannot see myself on one of the modern cruise ships going from port to port with constant line-ups to get on and off to buy t-shirts. However, I have done 10 Windjammers and a Star Clipper cruise in the Caribbean which were 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 Great Lakes, across the Prairies to the Rocky Mountains 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 best way to go is still by road so rent or buy a car, motorhome or motorbike, take the train or tour bus but remember the maps, a fly rod, 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 few 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 doing them. I would have mentioned the Alaska Highway but now it is an easy drive unlike the aforementioned.

Today the costs of driving these distances may mean that sharing the journey with others is required, but RVing or simply vanning and camping is a great way to see beyond the horizon. Some enroute adventures now need 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 more forward planning is needed for today’s traveller and cost considerations of lengthy flights or drives have to somehow be countered with more careful planning. In the days of reasonable gas prices I would not even consider the driving or flying costs 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 once even flew my 1946 Fleet taildragger from the Pacific to the Atlantic and back using around 5 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 cost of gas. South America should be on your itinerary too! Some other memorable drives that may now require a mortgage with the gas companies include London to The Nordkapp, Norway, Skippers Canyon in New Zealand and the loneliness of the far north of Australia and the amazing coast of Western Australia stopping by at Monkey Mia and Wave Rock.

We tend to forget that the real cost of travelling is often less today than over the 40 years of my travels. In 1977 my round-trip airfare from Canada to Australia cost over $1700 in 1977 dollars so today it is far cheaper to fly, even with the airlines gouging for fuel, extra baggage, no service and no pleasure. The ‘Big Mac’ method of price comparison as developed by The Economist newspaper gives us a good gauge for most expenditures of today compared to yesterday but my $1500 cost to get a private pilots licence in the 1970′s seems cheap by comparison to today, but obviously not when using this Big Mac principle. Other travel costs are also far cheaper today but this should not mean that travellers should disregard the many methods of saving costs that can then be put to extended or improved travel experiences

Travel Post-Internet:

In my 40 years of travel I have had to use travel agents to make even the simplest of reservations and buy tickets, not even thinking to ask them if they had “been there, done that?” It was just a case of there being no other options to buying travel. Now we have unlimited choices and can seek out better travel agents, better prices, better selections and information about anywhere in the world for our travels – without even leaving home.

The Internet now gives travellers ideas and options of Where to go, When to go, Why to go, What to do, Who to book with and How to save money and offset costs. We can search and find experts for every travel option. If we are comfortable with the Internet we no longer have to go to a travel agent to make reservations and buy tickets except to book with some of the larger travel companies that still produce glossy brochures and offer all inclusive packages or tours that only sell through the agency system. The Internet also allows those of us who are smart enough to know when to seek out a top travel agent with knowledge, experience and expertise (KEE skills) of destinations and activities about where to find them. There is no longer any need to only use our local agents when we can find one somewhere else in the world. When we do not need ‘the knowledge’ and can do it ourselves we simply surf the web 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 professional consultants with years of experience invested in gaining knowledge, experience and expertise and are worth their weight in gold to the savvy traveller. Beware though, as some are also called destination specialists and some of these designations merely require the agent to take a rudimentary test offered by tourism offices, destination marketing groups or even tour operators and in my opinion can harm the reputation of the travel industry. A specialist is not necessarily an expert.

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

And then it occurred to me that even internet travel prices often include 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 doing for ourselves what a retail agent would normally do for us. A dilemma for the operator is that to show a both a retail and a cost price option could deter many agents from selling the services as travellers could use an agent for free advice and book directly with the operator to get a ‘net of commission’ price. Obviously this two tier pricing is not often available but travellers who do not need advice should also not be penalized by retail pricing. A new way had to be found and I think I have found it!

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

I am inviting travel operators from around the world to join this program, from B&B’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 knowledge, 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 experts to showcase their services.

This opportunity is available to the travel trade at no cost except for them to offer net, wholesale or outlet prices to club members and visitors to the website using top travel vouchers. I believe this program offers fairer fare prices to direct-booking travellers. The operator would normally 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 more choices for members. Currently 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, women only and dude ranches. Members get the vouchers free of charge by paying an annual membership fee and non-members can buy the vouchers on the internet at Top Travel Sites at deeply discounted prices to the face-value. The future growth will include restaurants, travel clothing, travel insurance and the opportunity to access air ticket consolidators who want to deal directly with consumers.

The way I have travelled and the way I see travel is that consumers should have unlimited access to every travel opportunity with the ability to do their own due diligence or to find a professional who can offer quality advice and services at fair prices, and to find all of this without needing endless hours of searching.

To find out 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 long as we all understand the meaning, vive le difference!

Of course you would! Nobody in their right mind will pass up those kinds of opportunity. There is one big problem however… you need a way to fund your trip. Don’t worry about it. Get a job. But not just any job… Get a job that involves traveling to the places you might like. There are plenty out there. They’re fittingly called, world travel jobs!

Its important to you are not getting paid to travel. You are paid to do a certain job and travel is just a necessary part of the work. Think of it as an occupation with astonishing travel perks. Some jobs let you even stay in posh hotels; you eat gourmet food; you may indulge yourself in recreational activities. Basically, enjoying the good life.

There are plenty of world travel jobs. And they come in different fields and area of expertise. There are jobs suitable for any skill or education you might have. Just be sure that you are excellent on whatever you are able to do because competent people are the most deserving of this opportunity.

You will be surprised of how many travel jobs available out there. Here are a few examples:

Bartenders – may work in cruise ships and may also travel to different tourist party destinations.

Instructors – whether it’s diving, mountain climbing, or yoga. You clients will pay you to travel to their preferred locations.

Wildlife Conservation Workers – funding for travel to exotic places is not a problem when you work in an exotic wildlife conservation.

Performers – get gigs on any tourist spots around the world, where the people are warm, friendly, and receptive of your talents

Travel Nurses – there is a high demand for nurses all around the world and the compensation is great.

Writers – travel writers are paid well especially, if you are really good at it.

Filmographers/Photographers – take pictures of beautiful sceneries and diverse culture all around the globe and sell it to impressed publishers.

Travel Marketers – promote products all around the world with full financial support from your company.

Tourism Jobs – tourist guides, adventure travel guides… obviously, it deals a lot of traveling and meeting lots of interesting people.

There are still more… the list is endless.

The allure of travel is a great incentive. Most people would give up their careers just to get such jobs. They are categorized as travel jobs and nowadays, they are some of the most sought after careers.

A good number of travel job positions are, for a lot of reasons, very competitive. Therefore, if you want to land one, you must improve your qualifications and have an impressive resume. Fortunately, there are other kinds of travel jobs that do not require too much education. Sometimes, your enthusiasm and determination is enough to get you hired.

Some travel jobs rely on skills and resourcefulness. Travel can be a resource for businesses. You can use your trips to make or find products that you can sell; the journey can be used for inspiration to create writings that anyone can utilize as a marketing tool to generate sales.

In any form, travel jobs are generally fun. Now if you want one, consider these examples. Maybe you have what it takes to become successful in these careers.

Fun Travel Job #1: Cruise Ship Employee

Working on cruise liners lets you travel to different tourist destinations. The environment is full of fun and amusement and you can also meet a lot of interesting and beautiful people.

Cruise Liners offer plenty of jobs. In fact, they have a lot of positions to fill because cruise ships have so many areas of responsibility and they offer countless of services to on board patrons.

If you have adequate skills in a particular field, you can try your luck and apply to a cruise company. Just be sure that you have good people skills and great enthusiasm. Entry level jobs are relatively easy to get but they may only have satisfactory compensation. Low level jobs may have meager salaries but you can get tips especially if you are constantly in contact with vacationing clients. Vacationers are usually generous and always in a good mood.

You can climb up the career ladder quickly if your work performance is excellent and beyond expectations.

Fun Travel Job #2: Travel and Tour Organizer/Guide

Do you like to lead group travels? Be a travel organizer/guide. The job is fun and easy especially for persons with the penchant for traveling and organizing.

People skills are required along with a vast knowledge of history, geography, and arts to some extent. You will be educating people on the journey while making their experience enjoyable and worthwhile. As a guide, you must be prepared for any unforeseen events and must be able to carry out contingency plans with confidence and calm demeanor.

You can become affiliated with an agency or work as a freelancer or as a contractor. Tips and bonuses from clients is also a common occurrence.

Fun Travel Job #3: Travel Photographer

Traveling offers a lot of scenic view and cultural activities which translate into excellent photo opportunities. If you have the skills and equipment to capture beautiful pictures, you can become a travel photographer and earn money for every snapshot you make.

You can sell photos online or simply get hired by interested businesses. Publishers of travel magazines and newspapers are the usual buyers but some business establishments like hotels and resorts may be in need of your service.