on trip planning ❖
Updated Book Now Available for Group Travel Planners ONE OF THE GROUP TRAVEL industry’s best educational resources has been updated with fresh content, making it an even more valuable companion for tour planners looking to maximize their business’s potential. The revised 2011 edition of How to Plan, Operate & Lead Successful Group Trips, an e-book written by long-time Leisure Group Travel columnist Marty Sarbey de Souto, is hot off the press. The re-introduction of the book, published by Premier Tourism Marketing, includes not only Marty’s magazine columns from the past three years, but reflects new developments on the travel industry landscape, such as the advent of social networking, changes in terminology and changes in airline security. “The purpose of the book,” she says, “is to give group organizers inspiration and practical help in planning and operating better trips.” While there are many travel/tourism books in the marketplace that touch on group tour planning and leading as a small part of the overall book, How to Plan, Operate & Lead Successful Group Trips focuses entirely on this segment of the industry. This allows for more depth, more detail and more answers to tour leaders’ real questions. Topics in the book range from planning and promoting trips to legal issues, travel insurance and in-house operational hints. The author also discusses specific modes of travel, like cruising and rail trips. Among the many subjects being added in the revised edition are: 6 December 2010
• Getting organized for the day on tour • Considering tour programming and leading as a career • How to “use” your tour participants to help you • Finding inspiration for our trips In the chapter on “Dealing with Special Markets,” Marty talks about packaging trips for women only, attracting baby boomers and how to get men to
check-in rules, shopping time, working with local step-on guides, dealing with diverse personalities and clearing U.S. customs when returning from abroad. “Group travel is more important now than ever when the financial picture of many folks is down,” Marty said. “They need the social aspects— camaraderie, talking things over with others, learning something.”
“The purpose of the book is to give group organizers inspiration and practical help in planning and operating better trips.” —MARTY SARBEY DE SOUTO
Group travel planners will find lots of new material in the updated version of this how-to guide.
sign up for tours. For marketing travel programs, she discusses paid advertising, press releases, direct mail, newsletters and promotional parties. The “On the Road” chapter focuses on tour escorting and what to expect in the field. It covers such topics as airport
Marty Sarbey de Souto is founder of the travel industry training program at Berkeley (Calif.) City College, where she taught all aspects of group travel for 32 years. A Certified Travel Counselor (CTC), she continues to design and lead tours as well as provide consulting services. Marty’s 40-plus years of experience include tour operations, itinerary design, trip costing, marketing and tour escorting. She is a two-time former president of San Francisco Women in Travel (now called San Francisco Travel Professionals). Her latest activity: taking tango lessons. “I’m a good dancer,” she says, “but tango is hard!” To order the new edition of How to Plan, Operate & Lead Successful Group Trips, visit Premier Tourism Marketing’s educational website, groupuniversity.com, and click on GU Bookstore. Price is $29.95. LeisureGroupTravel.com