Travel Planning Like a Professional
Planning Travel as a Professional is not easy but today, thanks to the internet, it is possible. Tips and suggestions to avoid any form of intermediation.
The purpose of this blog is to guide you on a learning path that will enable you to plan trips like a pro.
The competitive advantage that, until recently, made intermediaries (agencies and tour operators) indispensable for planning a trip has now been canceled by the internet.
How do professionals work?
The possession of the information (the contacts of local agents and suppliers of essential services in planning a trip) and the ability to communicate with them were the exclusive advantage of travel professionals.
Their role as intermediaries made sense precisely because they were the only ones who invested time and money for
- go to travel destinations (and in some cases have discovered them or even created them from scratch like a Sharm el-Sheikh or in Costa Smeralda in Sardinia.
- select and evaluate local operators (hotels, restaurants, tourist guides, local agents)
- stipulate contracts and agreements with local operators
- process and package products to be resold to final consumers (you)
this is how and why, until recently, resorting to professionals was essential.
The internet revolution allows you to plan travel like a pro
The Internet has completely eliminated the competitive advantage that professionals had!
Thanks to the (free) features that are available to everyone, it is possible:
- find travel destinations around the world
Google has mapped and photographed every corner of the planet and the features available allow you to virtually visit locations around the world.
Google Maps integrates information relating to Hotels, Restaurants and activities to be carried out.
Everything is linked to web pages (Google My Business), managed directly by the owners, which contain the information and contacts of all the companies that provide services exactly in the place we want to visit. Then Google Maps it also provides directions (satellite navigator) to reach the destination. - websites like Booking.com allow to find, see and choose hotels of all types in all travel destinations in the world. Just a few clicks and you have to stay comfortably seated on the sofa in your home!
- modern payment systems (such as Pay Pal) allow you to pay for performances and services in total safety with extreme ease, stipulating contracts and booking any kind of service
- all local operators (hotels, tour guides and local agents) they are always reachable trough Internet. Not only using e-mails but also with instant messaging systems (WhatsApp and Messenger for example).
You can even make a voice or video call (free) anywhere in the world! - you can plan your travel itinerary customizing every aspect of your holiday and choosing to pay only for the services you want to use and the activities you want to do!
Is it always worthwhile to plan trips like a professional?
Use the web to organize your travels it can be fun and rewarding. If you have good internet browsing skills and if you are an enterprising person you will have no difficulty understanding how plan a trip.
However, you will have to be very careful because you will be solely responsible for the success of your holiday but also for all the inefficiencies and problems that will happen to you!
You will have no protection (unless you have been so provident as to have stipulated insurance policies to guarantee your trip).
Sometimes it can be convenient (as well as smart) to consider the offers created by the professionals or take the tour packages designed by the operators to compose portions of your itinerary. In this way you delegate to the professional only the responsibilities that you do not want to take on.