Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/textfile/travfree.zip/LEADING.TXT

Text File | 1993-09-06 | 27KB | 489 lines

                 Leading the way to free travel

               "Have coffee in Dublin at 11 and walk in
          Stephen's Green and you'll be in heaven."
               You've replayed the words of that old song
          over and over in your head for years. In fact, all
          your life, you've dreamt of seeing the Emerald
          Isle, of spending long evenings in Irish pubs,
          sipping Guinness and engaging in lively
          conversation.
               The only thing that has kept you from making
          your dreams come true is money. After all the
          monthly bills are paid, you never seem to have
          enough left over to afford a trip to Dublin.
               But money need no longer be an obstacle. You
          can arrange to see Ireland free -- maybe even make
          a bit of money in the bargain.
               Cruise lines, airlines, tour companies, and
          hotels will gladly accommodate you free of charge -
          - even put cash in your pocket to boot -- if you
          promise to bring them a certain amount of business
          in return.
               You don't have to be an experienced tour
          leader. You don't need any experience as a
          salesman. The only job requirements are enthusiasm
          and a desire to see the world.
               The possibilities are endless. You could lead
          a tour of Ireland's green, green countryside and
          ancient ruins. You could lead an art tour of
          northern Italy. A garden tour of Britain. A river
          cruise in New Guinea. An archeological expedition
          to Easter Island. A family train tour of France. A
          hiking trip in the Alps.  A castles and wine cruise
          of Germany. A tour of rural Japan, visiting
          teahouses and farmhouses. A cycling adventure in
          Scotland. A luxury yacht charter in the Greek
          Isles.
               And as the leader of the tour, you travel for
          free.

          Making a business of biking
               Peter Costello did it. He had been working
          restoring antique furniture in Baltimore, Maryland.
          It was a steady living, but what Peter really
          enjoyed was riding his bicycle and traveling. If
          only someone would pay me to ride my bike and
          travel around the world, he thought. Because he
          could find no one willing to do so, he decided to
          arrange it for himself.
               After a vacation to Scotland, his future was
          determined. He would lead bicycle tours through the
          green and rolling Scottish hills.
               Peter asked a former executive of a bicycle
          touring company in Vermont to act as consultant.
          Scotland was the perfect place to begin the
          business, not only because Peter (whose family was
          from Scotland) knew the country, but also because
          the market was wide open. In fact, no one else in
          the business was offering bicycle tours in
          Scotland.
               Peter knew bicycling, and he knew Scotland.
          But he didn't know anything about starting a
          business or leading a tour. As Peter explains, "I
          took a crash course in Business 101."
               "The touring is the easy part," he says. "All
          of my tours begin and end in Edinburgh. We take off
          down the road, supported by a van, exploring
          beautiful countryside. We travel about 40 miles a
          day, and then spend the nights in comfortable,
          homey bed and breakfasts. That's easy.
               "The hard part is the marketing."
               Peter handles all of the marketing himself
          from an office in Baltimore. He advertises in major
          bicycling publications and tries to generate
          business through travel agents.
               Peter has been quite successful. His amateur
          operation, Peter Costello Ltd., P.O. Box 23490,
          Baltimore, MD 21203; [phone]) has grown into
          a full-fledged business. He employs two other tour
          leaders and leads 17 tours a year. Peter attributes
          his success to two things: first, he was able to
          find a niche in the market; and second, he keeps
          his tours competitively priced.

          Keeping it low key
               Peter's tour operation has grown into a big
          business. He is making enough money to support
          himself and two employees. To get to this point,
          Peter has devoted himself completely to the
          company. It has become his livelihood and his
          favorite pastime.
               But it doesn't have to be that way. You can
          travel for free as a tour leader -- and still
          maintain your regular job and home life. It doesn't
          take a lot of time or energy to arrange one tour a
          year, for example.
               But it still works in much the same way. As
          Peter explained, the most difficult part is the
          advertising and marketing. How do you convince four
          or five other people to pay you to act as their
          tour guide? We'll tell you, step by step.

          How it works
               The first step is to decide where you want to
          go. This should be the easiest task of all. After
          all, this is the reason for arranging the tour in
          the first place -- to allow you to live out your
          life's dream of seeing another part of the world.
               Once you know where you want to go, do
          extensive research on the area. Call the tourist
          board and the embassy for that country and request
          all the brochures and literature they have
          available on hotels, restaurants, nightclubs,
          transportation, sightseeing, and local customs.
           Spend a day or two at the library, poring over
          travel guides and reference books. The best general
          reference guides available include Fielding's,
          Fodor's, and Frommer's (which include the
          Dollarwise series on budget travel). Also read
          Lonely Planet's guides and the series known as
          Let's Go. If your library doesn't stock these
          books, you can order them (as well as a catalog of
          worldwide travel guidebooks) from Forsyth Travel
          Library, 9154 W. 57th St., P.O. Box 2975, Shawnee
          Mission, KS 66201, or the Traveler's Bookstore, 22
          W. 52nd St., New York, NY 10019.
               Also study local maps. Remember, everyone you
          bring with you will look to you for guidance.
               Once you've become familiar with your
          destination, pick something unique about it and
          plan your tour around that theme. It is easier to
          sell a tour of the stately homes of Britain's
          aristocracy than it is to sell a tour of Britain,
          period. Look for a niche in the market, something
          that no one else is doing (or doing well).
               Next, plan your itinerary. Choose the hotels
          where you would like to stay, and then contact them
          to explain what you want to do. Ask for special
          group rates and request that you stay free as the
          tour leader.
               Do the same with the airline you wish to fly.
          Find out what restrictions are attached to the
          cheapest tickets available. Usually you have to
          purchase special fare tickets a certain number of
          days in advance. Other restrictions involve the
          length of your stay and the days of departure and
          return. Make sure you know about all of this up
          front. And again, request that you fly free.
               Plan some sightseeing and evening
          entertainment, but keep some time open. Your group
          will want time to itself.
               Make all of the plans -- but don't make any
          reservations. At least, not yet. Wait until you've
          gathered your group together and agreed on a
          departure date.
               Next, set a price. This will be the first
          question you are asked when you approach someone
          about joining you on your grand adventure. Figure
          in all of your costs (airfare, hotels, ground
          transportation, sightseeing, taxes, departure fees,
          and any meals that you plan to include in the
          package).  Take this total and mark it up as much
          as you think the market will bear. The lower your
          costs, the greater your profits. You want to make
          at least enough to cover all of your expenses,
          including the entire cost of your trip. Any money
          you make beyond that is an added bonus.

          Finding the people
               This brings us to the most difficult part of
          the project: finding the tour participants.
               The easiest way to do this is to tell everyone
          you know -- everyone you work with, everyone you
          run into at the supermarket, everyone you meet on
          the subway, everyone you play bridge with on
          Thursday nights -- that you are planning to lead a
          seven-day, all-inclusive tour of Germany's Bavarian
          castles (for example). Tantalize them with tales of
          Mad King Ludwig, who built the country's most
          beautiful castle, Neuschwanstein, the turreted,
          white creation that Walt Disney used as a model for
          Disneyland. Tell them about Linderhof Castle, near
          Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where the mad king had the
          dining room built directly above the kitchen and
          then installed a dining table that could be lowered
          into the kitchen, set by the cooks, and then lifted
          back up to the dining room. Thus, King Ludwig could
          be waited on at dinner without ever having to be
          bothered by the servants.
               Once you've got them interested, remind them
          that group travel is always cheaper than going it
          alone; they'll save several hundred dollars at
          least. Remind them also that group travel is much
          more hassle-free than independent travel. Tell them
          that you'll arrange everything. You'll make all the
          reservations. You'll check on all the train
          schedules. You'll offer suggestions for good
          restaurants. All they have to do is enjoy the
          experience.
               The other way to find tour participants is to
          advertise for them in travel magazines and
          newsletters. It doesn't cost much to place a small
          classified ad. Publications to try include:
          International Living, Agora Inc., 824 E. Baltimore
          St., Baltimore, MD 21202; International Travel
          News, 2120 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818;
          Transitions Abroad, Box 344, Amherst, MA 01004;
          Travel and Leisure, American Express Publishing,
          1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036;
          Travel-Holiday, Travel Publications Inc., 28 W.
          23rd St., New York, NY 10010; Conde Nast Traveler,
          Conde Nast Publications, 350 Madison Ave., New
          York, NY 10017; National Geographic Traveler,
          National Geographic Society, 17th and M streets
          N.W., Washington, DC 20036; the International
          Herald Tribune, Box 309, 63 Long Acre, London WC2E
          9JH, England; or the Travel Section of The New York
          Times, 229 W. 43rd St., New York, NY 10036. You can
          also place ads in your local newspapers. Make the
          ad simple. Tell where you're going, when you plan
          to depart, how long you'll be staying, what the
          trip includes, how much it costs, and how to
          contact you for more information.
               Another easy way to advertise is to put up
          notes on bulletin boards at community centers,
          colleges, and libraries in your area. Include the
          same information you used in your classified ads.
          This may be just as effective, and it will cost you
          nothing.
               Once responses begin coming in, create a log
          of everyone who has expressed an interest (either
          as the result of an ad or the result of a chance
          conversation at a bus stop).  Contact each person
          by phone or by mail and make a record of the
          correspondence. If you don't hear back within a
          couple of weeks, send another letter or make
          another telephone call.
               When someone does make a reservation, ask him
          if he can suggest anyone else who might be
          interested. You'll find that word-of-mouth
          referrals will be your best source of new clients.

          Booking the trip
               Once you have your group together and you have
          determined an itinerary and a departure date, the
          next step is making the reservations. You can do
          this in two ways: on your own or with the help of a
          travel agent.
               If you go it alone, all of the profit is
          yours. If the tour costs you $2,000 per person
          and you charge $3,000 per person, you'll make
          $1,000 off each tour participant. If you have
          five people traveling with you, that's $5,000.
          Assume that you're able to arrange for your airfare
          and accommodations free of charge (as the tour
          leader), and you're way ahead. You'll spend several
          hundred dollars at your destination on your
          personal expenses; the rest of the $5,000 will be
          clear profit. Plus, of course, you're getting the
          trip free. Not a bad deal at all.
               The disadvantage to all of this is that you
          alone are responsible for everything. If you don't
          know what you're doing -- if you've never dealt
          with airlines and hotel managers and bus drivers
          and taxi cab drivers and translators before -- you
          might be in for a rude awakening. Your dream trip
          overseas might turn into one huge headache. It is
          possible to go it alone. But it may not be
          practical.
               So consider affiliating yourself with a travel
          agency. True, the agency will take its cut of the
          profits -- but in exchange, it will share with you
          its wealth of experience. It will tell you whether
          it's better to land in Beijing, tour China, and
          exit through Hong Kong or to land in Hong Kong,
          visit China, and return to Hong Kong for the flight
          home. It can tell you which Rhine River cruises are
          a delight and which are taking water. It can help
          you choose hotels. It can tell you about special
          health requirements at your destination. It can
          offer tips on the climate and how to dress. It can
          tell you whether it's better to take a bus at your
          destination or to hail a taxi.
               When looking for a travel agency to deal with,
          your first question should be, "What commission do
          you pay to outside agents?" (That is what you will
          be considered.) If the agency won't pay you a
          commission (and a sizeable commission at that) for
          the business you bring in, find another agency.
               The second most important question involves
          free tickets. Who gets them? You or the agency?
          Travel agents receive free airline tickets and
          vouchers for free hotel stays all the time in
          exchange for the volume of business they bring the
          airlines and the hotels. But make sure that these
          tickets are also available to outside agents.
               Ask about other outside agents working for the
          agency. How many of these agents organize tours?
          What kinds of tours do they organize?
               And inquire about support for outside agents.
          Will you be given a manual? Reservation forms?
          Guidebooks? Will the agency maintain records for
          you?
               And shop around. Don't settle for less than
          you think you should be getting. If you don't come
          out of the deal with at least a free trip,
          something's not right.

          Book with a tour company -- another alternative
               If you're intimidated at the thought of making
          all the arrangements on your own, but you don't
          like the idea of having to share your profits with
          a travel agency, you have a third alternative.
          Decide on the tour you want to lead, and then book
          it through a tour company that offers free trips to
          individuals who reserve a certain number of spaces
          on their package trips.
               Globus-Gateway, 95-25 Queens Blvd., Rego Park,
          NY 11374, for example, offers a free trip for
          anyone who books 16 people on any of its tours to
          Europe and one-half off a trip for anyone who books
          eight people on a trip to Europe.
               Saga Holidays, 120 Boylston St., Boston, MA
          02166, offers one free trip for 20 bookings.
          Destinations include Europe, Asia, the South
          Pacific, and South America.
               Travel Plans International, P.O. Box 3875, Oak
          Brook, IL 60521, offers one free trip for 20
          bookings on a safari to Africa.
               Toucan Adventure Tours, 1142 Manhattan Ave.,
          CP #416, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, offers one free
          trip for 12 bookings on a tour to Mexico.
               Newmans Tours, Suite 305, 10351 Santa Monica
          Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025, offers discounted
          trips for 10 bookings on trips to New Zealand.
               The following companies also give
          complimentary trips to anyone who signs on five or
          six other people to travel with them:
               * Ambassadors World, 5601 Roanne Way, Suite
          314, P.O. Box 9751, Greensboro, NC 27429
               * Bryan World Tours, P.O. Box 4156, Topeka, KS
          66604
               * Friendship Tours Inc., P.O. Box 2526,
          Shawnee Mission, KS 66201
               * Travel Careers and Tours, P.O. Box 91102,
          International Airport, Los Angeles, CA 90009
               In addition, almost all major cruise lines
          offer free tickets to anyone who can sign on 15
          paying passengers.
               Most major tour companies around the world
          will offer terms very similar to these.  Unlike the
          American companies, most are unwilling to publicly
          advertise their terms.  They want to meet you or
          discuss the situation first, but the net result
          will invariably be along the lines discussed here.
          These are practically world-wide industry standard
          compensation rates, and not usually negotiable.

          Trip tips
               You and five strangers are sitting in the
          airport lounge. They answered your ads in travel
          magazines, and now they are counting on you to take
          them on a memorable tour of the castles of Bavaria.
          How can you make sure that all the tour
          participants feel like they're getting their
          money's worth -- and still have a good time
          yourself?
               Well, you will have to work a bit. After all,
          these people have paid you money. Following are a
          few tips to make sure all goes smoothly.
               1. Take charge. The old saying that too many
          cooks spoil the soup applies here. As the leader,
          you should make all the arrangements and all the
          decisions -- within limits, of course. Ask for
          input from the group, but don't waste time debating
          every move.
               2. Be flexible. Itineraries are made to be
          broken. Don't be more concerned about following
          your original schedule than you are about enjoying
          the trip. Take advantage of opportunities as they
          present themselves.
               3. Make sure that no one feels left out or
          overlooked. Ask if everyone is comfortable in his
          room. If his luggage arrived safely. If there is
          anything special he would like to do or see. Don't
          ever let anyone eat alone during an unscheduled
          meal (unless he prefers to do so, of course).
               4. Make time for yourself. Promise your group
          your undivided attention from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.,
          for example, but make everyone know that he's on
          his own after that (except for one planned night
          out).

          For more information
               For more on traveling as a tour leader, read
          Travel for Fun and Profit by Larry King, available
          from Dreams Unlimited Inc., P.O. Box 20667,
          Seattle, Washington 98102; [phone]. The cost
          is $12.95.

          Leading a tour with a twist
               We've a unique suggestion for anyone who loves
          boating, loves to travel, and is ready for a change
          in lifestyle. It requires a little more commitment
          and investment than organizing a single tour a
          year, but the payoff is potentially much greater as
          well. If you follow up on our idea, you could earn
          a comfortable living -- and spend your days
          floating down the riverways of Burgundy, France.
               The idea is to lead guided tours of the French
          countryside -- in your own passenger barge. As we
          mentioned already, this is not something to be
          undertaken lightly. And it is not something to be
          undertaken by a total novice. You should have a bit
          of experience in the boating industry.
               But don't let these words of caution
          discourage you. This could be the opportunity of a
          lifetime, a chance to live out your dreams.
               Dennis Sherman did it. He had been crewing on
          boats, primarily as cook, for years. Mainly
          interested in barging, his knowledge of the
          industry served him well when it came time to take
          the plunge and purchase his own passenger barge.
               "The barging industry is small and close-
          knit," he explains. "If you want to get into it,
          your best source of information, especially about
          boats for sale, is word-of-mouth."
               Dennis' first piece of advice is that you
          shouldn't try to buy a working barge and convert it
          into a pleasure craft. Too timely and costly, he
          says. Neither should you try to build a barge from
          scratch -- that is, not unless you have nearly
          unlimited capital to invest.
               The remaining option is to purchase a barge
          already operating as a pleasure craft. Without
          contacts in the industry, it's paramount to begin
          by contacting a barge  agent. Dennis recommends Joe
          Parfaitt, Chantier du Nivernais, 89000 Mailly-La-
          Ville, France; tel. [phone]. Parfaitt has
          his own shipyard. In addition to barge sales, he
          handles  conversions
               When you've found a boat you're interested in
          buying, the next step is arranging the purchase.
          Find an independent lawyer who is experienced with
          Americans doing business overseas. Dennis consulted
          Catherine Kessedjian, 27 rue des Plantes, 75014
          Paris, France; tel. [phone]. Experienced
          with handling the details of setting up a
          corporation in France, according to Dennis, dealing
          with Catherine "is like one-stop shopping," because
          she is capable in all areas.
               Dennis set up a French corporation to handle
          the barge operation and an American company to
          handle the marketing. This enabled him, with the
          barge operating under a French corporation, to
          arrange financing in France.
               Dennis chose France as his location, because
          that's where the barge that he wanted to buy was
          operating. But there are other reasons to choose
          France. The country is striving to attract new
          small business, and therefore, any new venture in
          France is eligible for tax-free status for the
          first three years and considerable tax breaks the
          next two years.

          The capital investment
               How much does a venture such as this cost?
          Dennis estimates $250,000, including purchase of
          the barge, any improvements, first-year operating
          expenses, and professional fees. True, that's
          hardly free. But think of the return. And after the
          initial investment is made, if your barge company
          is successful, you'll not only be able to travel
          the French countryside for free for the rest of
          your life, but you'll also have a comfortable
          annual income. And the equity in the barge.
               Dennis' barge, called the Papillon, travels
          the Burgundy region of France. Spring and early
          summer, it cruises in the Nivernais; in June, the
          barge moves to the tree-lined waters of the
          Burgundy Canal; in late summer, it cruises the
          River Seine and the Canal du Centre, through the
          heart of the vineyards of Santenay; in the fall,
          the barge heads back to the Nivernais. It makes
          one-week cruises for a 33-week season.