Above & Beyond Travel is a FULL service travel agency at your finger tips by internet or phone. Master Cruise Counselor, Maureen, has the expertise and experience of locating cruises that best fits your dreams, desires & budget. Ongoing travel specials from 3 days to world cruises available. Whether you would prefer tour groups or individual land travel, Maureen can package the vacation designed just for you. Her travel adventures have taken her to various countries in Eastern & Western Europe, Israel, Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, most the 50 US states by land, sea and rivers. Above & Beyond Travel is located in Arnold,Ca., which is in the gorgeous Sierra Nevada Mountains, between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park.
*Featured article in Agent@Home Travel Industry Magazine-July 2008*
Sometimes the road to riches is the street where You live –by Kate Rice
Sometimes your best markets are just outside your front door. Marketing to the groups that surround you can often be one of the best ways to exponentially increase your business. That's because these are people you see every day. You have multiple contacts with them. You live in the same world they do, a commonality that gives you credibility. And people belong to many groups. So, meet one group and get to know the members of that group, and they will lead you to more.
There are a few basic rules to follow. Maureen Dinnocenzo, owner of Above & Beyond Travel in Arnold, Calif., just booked 284 people on a five-day cruise, something she was able to do because she's built her business on marketing locally. She essentially marketed to three concentric circles: friends; her neighbors in the community she moved to upon retiring; and businesses she met in her local chamber of commerce. Word of mouth took off after that, generating a network of clients that now stretches well beyond her home turf.
Dinnocenzo used to support her travel habit by working as an accountant for a government agency. Her friends, intrigued by her vacations, started begging to join her. The result was that she became the quintessential pied piper, taking groups to Paris, Ireland, Portugal and elsewhere. What her friends loved about her groups was that they were loosely organized. They'd be together for the beginning and end of the trip but go their separate ways in the interim, always knowing that they had their buddies waiting for them at the end, so they could entertain each other with tales of their various adventures.
When Dinnocenzo retired from her government job, her travel agent invited her to go to work for her agency. Dinnocenzo put in a year's apprenticeship, and two years ago opened her own agency. She kept her core group of travelers, but continued marketing in her community and neighboring areas.
She's naturally outgoing and always has a card ready to hand to people. She's a member of the Calaveras County (as in the Calaveras County Fair's) Jumping Frog Jubilee) Chamber of Commerce. She works her connections there at mixers, passing out cards and building contacts. She belongs to her local homeowner's association, and when she moved in three years ago, attended all of its meetings and socials. Her main purpose was to get to know people, but she also made people aware that she was in the travel business.
She loves to travel and loves to talk about it-and her community is filled with retirees who also love to travel. She works her community face-to-face and also advertises her agency on the community's website and in its newsletter, which comes out four times a year. Since everyone gets their mail delivered at the local post office, Dinnocenzo makes sure she's got her flyers posted on the corkboard there.
The contacts she's made through her community have led her to other organizations, where she does presentations that are very soft-sell. She makes them informative, giving talks such as "How to Have a Perfect Vacation." She gives her audience before-you-go to-do lists, and holds little pop quizzes and .even a drawing for door prizes, gathering names and email addresses in the process. She makes sure to have her business cards and promotional materials on a table in the back, so customers can easily pick them up.
The result? She's usually planning two or three groups at a time. And they can mushroom. That 284-person cruise spawned more. Three of her high school classmates sailed on it; now they're planning a high school reunion cruise with Dinnocenzo. Others are booked into a group of 20 that she has sailing on a Carnival Splendor cruise. Still others from that giant group are going to the Holy Land with her. And, she's working her community over the airwaves as well. A local radio personality will be the leader for another group she's planning for next April.
She also maintains contact with her clients, sending off electronic newsletters featuring any groups she's developing, destination or product specials and her latest certification in a particular destination or specialty. She also features some kind of special offer, such as $50 off per stateroom on any cruise of seven days or longer
