This issue’s cover story, “There’s No Place Like Home” (page 16),
has been a long time in the making. We began asking industry
insiders their thoughts regarding home-based agents over a year
ago, and what we found was a vast range of opinions on the subject
even though few in the industry had any hard facts about the group.
What was needed was an in-depth survey of agents and suppliers that
would become an industry-wide benchmark.
As a result, Northstar Travel Media, our parent company,
approached the venerable researcher Stanley Plog to partner up on a
comprehensive study for us as well as our sister publication,
Travel Weekly. To look even further into the subject, however, our
editors sought out agents and visited them in their workplaces. We
met with established home-based agents, brick-and-mortar newbies,
successful veteran brick-and-mortar agents and even students still
learning about the profession.
You can read our findings in this issue, and we would be very
interested to hear your thoughts on the subject too. (As always,
you can e-mail us at [email protected].)
As we searched for agents for this story, we ran across several
that went above and beyond the ordinary. To honor agents such as
these, we are bringing back the TravelAge West Trendsetters Award
program (see page 13). There are three categories for agents to
enter: Best Agency Success Story (honoring innovative business
decisions and actions); Best Online Marketing Strategy
(highlighting creative use of Web, online and e-mail marketing
strategies); and Best Community Service Effort (for agencies that
took extraordinary measures to make a difference in their
communities).
Any agency, no matter how big or small, is invited to enter. Our
editorial staff and the contest sponsors Globus, Dreams Resorts
& Spas and Royal Caribbean will choose a winner and a runner-up
in each category. These six agencies will not only win travel
awards from the sponsors, they will also be honored at our annual
WAVE (Western Agents’ Votes of Excellence) Awards dinner in Beverly
Hills, Calif., in June, and be featured in a special issue of
TravelAge West.
To enter, visit TravelAgeWest.com before April 1 and click on
the Trendsetters Award ad on the home page. Fill out the electronic
entry form and submit it. You will be contacted by the editorial
staff by May 1 if we need more information. K.S.
