I decided to take a short holiday last weekend and wanted to find an appropriate resort that would allow me to relax and de-stress and God knows we all need that at some point or the other, I had a recommendation regarding a resort from a friend, however when I tried to search for the resort online to have a look at what they offer, and what activities and facilities they have I was sorely disappointed, the resort in question did not have a website, I started getting  frustrated as I couldn’t even find decent images of the place

The only information I could find concerning them was on other accommodation sites and the information I got on there was very limited. All these directory sites where you can list your website can help to get good exposure, but are very limited when it comes to what information you give your potential clients.

By having your own website you can you can give the customer a better feel of what you have to offer, you also don’t have limited space to provide them with the necessary details. Your whole website’s look and feel will add to the experience when people actually visit your resort. The nice thing about having your own website is that it will strengthen your brand a lot. You will never grow a very strong brand by just appearing on these other websites. When users find that you own your own website they tend to trust you more than your competitor which they can’t look up online. This means that you immediately gain an edge above your competitor which is always useful when your selling your services.

If you are in the same situation that Chris was in, in his article being your own travel agent you want to get the right information and as detailed as possible when you need it. If your website is easy to find and informative you will definitely reap the rewards. If someone needs to plan a holiday in a short time and can only use the internet, they will choose the company that gives them the best information in the easiest, quickest way.

Around the 15^th of April, a day before my fiancé and I where to board a plane and fly out to South Africa from London for our wedding, I was having my hair cut for the last time before the wedding, my barber told me that national airspace over the UK will close to all flights. Now this at that time sounded farcical, an event like this hasn’t happened since war times. Low and behold the 16^th came and passed and we where stuck in London. We where still positive but by Sunday when the general consensuses where that this might last weeks, we realised that we need to start making contingency plans.

With a lot of hocus pocus we managed to make it to South Africa in time for our wedding. Now our story continues after the wedding we where getting ready to go on Honeymoon but we still needed to travel from Botswana to Johannesburg to catch our flight to Thailand. That morning when I was checking my emails I received an email from our travel agent informing us that the political situations in Thailand had changed severely.  This meant we had to change our honeymoon plans in a day while travelling down to Johannesburg.

With some more hocus pocus we manage to change the honeymoon in a day while travelling from Botswana to Johannesburg. These events inspired our topic for this week, as I had to be my own travel agent.

Travel related sites need to be online not only in time of disasters but people are shifting more and more to planning their own travels. This means that if they can’t even find you online when doing research you will not stand a chance of surviving in the changing world.

Now there is more than one way to make sure your travel related services are online but there are only a few that will result in business for your company. We will be discussing some tips and advice on people are becoming their own travel agents and how you need to insure your business is found by these amateur travel agents.