Danjo

Hi there,


I’m planning to start a travel agency at Toronto. I think this is one of the best place where I can get a good suggestion. I was working as a truck driver and now decided to start a business with my friend in partnership. As a travel agency, we need to advertise our business focused on targeted customers.

According to the current trend we decided to market our business through online. After studying the current marketing trends and suggestion of my friend who owns a restaurant achieved his goals by direct mail advertising from [name/link of business removed], Toronto. Do you think direct mail advertising is better than online advertising for travel agencies? I’m not sure about trying this method in a travel agency. Please share your opinion of choosing this stream of advertising or any other you prefer.

Thanks.

LondonElite

I have no idea about which channel is better, since I throw away all flyers that come to my house/office without even looking at them, and I use adblocker software so I see no online advertisements either.

I would advise you to think very carefully about what type of travel agency you want to start. There are some reasonably high startup costs associated with GDS access, and you obviously need to be highly knowledgable about airfares and ticket mechanics. Will you cater for business or leisure travellers? If it's the former you'll need to break into a market where there are lots of professional suppliers, and if it's the latter you'll be expected to know a lot about the destinations you are recommending.

I wish you good luck.

WorldLux

You'll need to be extremely competent. The only reason I still use travel agencies for certain trips is that they can resolve any problem regarding reservations (be it tours, flights, hotels, cars, etc...) with the push of a button or a phone call, whereas OTA (online travel agencies) often refuse or make the process altogether time and cost expensive. If the service, you'll be offering is very basic, you'll not go far.

In any case, running a travel agency has become a very difficult market as people somewhat have gotten the idea, that booking on the internet is always cheaper.

To be frank: Mail advertising goes directly to the bin.

BearX220

How much do you know about the travel business? Presumably you know how many travel agencies were wiped out by the Internet in the '90s and '00s. To succeed you will have to prove you can create more value for clients than they can create for themselves hitting Kayak hard. Your marketing channels are the least of your worries; your core value proposition is the main challenge.

craigthemif

Err... am I the only one who things that this doesn't really seem like a legitimate request for help by the OP, but simply to get people to click on the link and/or to help it with SEO? Otherwise, just ask generically about direct mail vs. online...

I suppose it could be a non-English native speaker trying to target similar IN Toronto, but the OP is doomed to failure if he or she thinks that online advertising would work in competition with direct channels and OTAs who spend millions on online advertising.

jackal

Good eye. One of the least obvious spam links I've seen in my time here.

Link removed. Spam is not allowed on FlyerTalk.

jackal
Moderator, Information Desk