How long have you been in the business? Since 1981. I’ve been a travel agent, a sales rep for Treasure Tours – remember them? – and Transat. I bought Ixtapa Travel two years ago.
Why “Ixtapa” Travel? The gentleman who owned the business before me used to do charters there and we didn’t want to muck around with the name.
How has the business changed since you got into it? My God! Technology has changed. But what’s amazing is that I remember selling Phoenix for $360 in 1981 and now we’re selling it for less than that. Think how the price of cars has changed!
Do you have a specialty? We’re 95% leisure – including a lot of weddings.
If you could have any job in the business what would it be? Right where I am.
What was your best FAM? Probably Fiji, Castaway Island. Really nice.
What drives you crazy? (Thinks.) People with 100,000 questions and you think, perhaps you shouldn’t be going on holiday. But if I have time, I’ll take them through with baby steps from packing to getting to the airport.
What was your biggest individual sale? We had couple book to the Cook Islands and they spent $25,000 on a 10 day trip. We could use one of those every month!
Do you have a magic sentence to close the sale? “Just book it?”
Do you have any time management strategies? I need some! I was here last night until 10:00!
What do you do to keep your clients loyal? We provide good service, we touch base with them when they get back. We have consumer nights every few months too in our office. And a quarterly newsletter plus lots of email contact.
If you had to spend six months in a destination, which one would you pick? Mexico, Huatulco, maybe Manzanillo. So relaxing there.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received? Pay someone to do the things you don’t like doing.
