Skill up on all you need to know with bite sized travel news designed specifically to help you, the Travel Agent, be your best today and tomorrow.
1. Bali from $99 & Hawaii from $259 with Jetstar’s back to work sale
Jetstar may have found the cure to those post-holiday blues – a massive international airfare sale with flights going from as little as $99 (one-way).
The back to work promos keep coming in and the latest from Jetstar has sparked a booking frenzy among Aussies keen to secure their next getaway at a discounted price.
Holidaymakers from Darwin have managed to pick up those dirt cheap $99 fares to Bali, while Sydneysiders are scoring $199 tickets to the popular island.
2. Finding action & adventure events just got easier for Agents
Agents with clients looking for festivals dedicated to the more adventurous travellers will have an easier time sourcing events online via Rad Season.
The free-to-use website allows users to search for events and festivals by location, date and type of action. Once the right event is located, users can then connect with like-minded people heading to the same event and read or leave reviews.
Founder Oli Russell-Cowan said the idea for the site came after a trip to Latin America where he found it difficult to find events and festival that were “a bit different and had an element of adventure and general radness to them”.
He describes it as a one-stop-shop search engine for adrenaline-based trips.
Click here to check out the site.
3. The sexiest hotel room in the world can be found in…
Quick 50 Shades of Grey fans (or people who just generally enjoy sexy things)! Get your Apple Notes App open and jot this down – the sexiest hotel bedroom in the world can be found in…
Thailand.
Uhhh, was anyone else expecting somewhere slightly more sultry like Paris, New York or Amsterdam?
4. Hotels.com now lets users order… pizza?
Online booking site, Hotels.com has expanded its business outside of accommodation and into… fast food.
Uhhhh, what?
The website unveiled a new app this week called ‘Hotels.com Concierge’, which acts like a digital concierge and even lets users order pizza while on holidays.
5. $500 VISA card goes to…
Congratulations to Carine Griffiths from MTA Travel who completed Discover USA’s Las Vegas Specialist Badge incentive and won herself a $500 Visa gift card.
While excited to receive the voucher, Griffiths said the incentive was a great opportunity to brush up on her Las Vegas knowledge through the USA Discovery Program.
“I have done quite a few badges now, focusing on the areas that are most prevalent in my client market, just to stay updated on the latest developments in each region,” she said.
The USA Discovery Program is made up of 16 badges including the Las Vegas badge, Regional Expert, Winter Sports, Big City Buzz, Great Outdoors, Coastal Escapes and Music, Culture & Heritage.
Click here for more information.
6. Register: Travel Directors information sessions
Overwhelming interest in 2016 has prompted boutique adventure travel operator, Travel Directors, to expand its Information Sessions to include Canberra and the Gold Coast.
The two cities are in addition to Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.
Sessions will be running over January and February to include in-depth information on a range of destinations, exclusive journeys and more.
Click here for more information and to register.
7. Meet L.A., via an app
Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board (L.A. Tourism) has launched a free mobile app, inviting meeting professionals to ‘Meet L.A.’.
Unveiled at the PCMA’s 2017 Convening Leaders conference, the app reflects the MeetLA.com website and allows users to browse through the different neighbourhoods and directly contact L.A. Tourism’s sales staff with ease.
The tourism bureau’s Senior Vice President of Sales, Darren K. Green, said the app is a way of elevating the meeting planning process.
The Meet L.A. app is available to download for free on iTunes and the Google Play Store.
8. The TravelManagers team donates over Christmas
TravelManagers helped make Christmas a little brighter for some of Sydney’s homeless and those in need, by donating over 300 cans of food to Sydney’s Exodus Foundation’s Christmas can drive.
Supporting the charity for a third year in a row, Sandra Reucker, the company’s BSP & Supplier Relations Executive, said the response from the fellow national partnership office and Hoot Holidays teams was “heart-warming” and allowed the business to feed the homeless and support less fortunate families during the holidays.
Reucker’s motivation for the project came from the realization that for some Australian’s, it is a real struggle to provide food for their families.