JohnnyColombia

I´m a partner in a travel agency, Mundo LAN user, Avianca Grupos user, we just booked a big chunk of a LH flight and we often charter our own planes too.

Count me in for participation in a new Travel Planners' forum.

SkiAdcock

Thank YOU for fleshing out why you think it would be a beneficial forum in posts # 1 & #8. That helped me with deciding this could be beneficial to FT & to FTers.

It might be a bit of a leap of faith that if we build it they will come, but this is a forum that I think would get input & not be a dead forum.

Cheers.

jackal

The only "large group bookings" I've done have been during FT dos* here in Alaska, but I've gotten such an amount of satisfaction out of planning those events that I'd like to consider a career doing something like that.

This forum sounds intriguing to me for that reason.

*No, our Alaska FT dos are not just "meet at this restaurant for dinner"--they're full-on excursions involving planes, trains, and automobiles and overnight stays in faraway places. Check them out:

• http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...ch-2009-a.html
• http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...14-2010-a.html
• http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...7-29-30-a.html
• And this year's: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...24-2012-a.html

Mary2e

The only issue/concern I would have with a Travel Planning forum is that it becomes a fishing ground for travel agents looking to drum up some business.

Helping each other plan group events/travel is one thing, making it a business resource for travel agents is entirely different.

JohnnyColombia

Clarifying what you mean by that

Are you saying that flyertalker123 says "I am booking for 15 people to Vienna" and RandomAgent says "I can book that for you"

Is that not already adequately covered by this

Commercial and Charitable Messages
a. Commercial posts. Posts containing promotional messages for commercial products or services - including but not limited to Internet sites, business advertisements and solicitations to donate miles or points – are prohibited and will be removed. FlyerTalk is not a marketplace and nothing is to be offered for sale or conditioned on an exchange of money or barter. Nothing in this rule is intended to prohibit exchange of travel coupons as allowed by the rules of Coupon Connection. If you spot a commercial post, please report it.

Mary2e

Yes, It may be, but it's just more work for the mods to clean it up. It also would cover PMs and emails. No solicitation should be clear right up front. But like I said, that would be my only concern.

JohnnyColombia

I hear ya, and isn't it always the case that if you say "no solicitation" up front in a "read me" thread, the people that ought to read it normally don't.

But the same could be said for other forums on FT

Travel Photography
Q What's the best DSLR for nature photography?
A Nikon blah blah blah, my shop has an offer on at the moment PM me.

UK & Ireland
Q Where can I stay in Devon?
A My B&B in Brixham is lovely

Hawaii
Q What to do on the Big Island?
A My surf school might be of interest to you

Car Rentals
Q Wow Avis Anchorage is quoting me $10,000 for a Chevy Aveo for a week
A I will rent you a jalopy for 50 bucks.

Spamming by commercial suppliers doesn't seem to be a major problem on FT. Compare it to Lonely Planet where there is an abundance of spam and fake reviews of commercial entities.

goalie

Very valid points and my concerns as well

Mary2e

True, but if anyone posts those types of threads, and they do, often they are reported and disappear quickly.

bhatnasx

I when FlyerTalk decided to allow commercial posts in user's signature lines, that line is pretty much non-existant these days.

I agree with Mary2e's point.

Also, if this were to happen, it should be called an Event Planner's forum, not a Travel Planners forum. Travel Planning is a little too generic, IMHO.

Event planning forums already exist (limited, but they are there). I'm assuming that most people that want to plan an event would probably have at least a chain/brand in mind (especially here on FlyerTalk) and I think the discussion for that would me most applicable in that chain/brand's forum.

Although I can be convinced, I just don't see the need here on FlyerTalk.

tom911

If the Talk Board established some rules about trial runs for forums, this would not be a problem. Give it a few months and if the activity is not there you can close it, much like the Senior Forum was closed for inactivity.

Q Shoe Guy

I don't see this as any different than the people who are selling other travel products on here, like KVS, and who have become company reps. Is KVS even a company? At the end of the day, this will drive traffic to the site or it won't and that is what IB is looking for....we can pretty much forget about the altruism as it for the most part went out the window years ago! Don't see any problem with this at all, and as Tom 911 said if the board proves to be inactive it will be closed.

Kagehitokiri

yes, but there might be other things that could be included in the new forum, for example - groups, meetings, events, negotiating, contracts and 'employer-side' things like corporate travel policies, incentive travel

has there been discussion in the past about a group travel or 'employer-side' forum?

bhatnasx

To my knowledge, no.

I don't think that it's a bad idea for a forum, FWIW....I just don't see any demand for it.

I know several of my fellow TB members are open and supportive of building almsot any new forum you can think of - and this one is specifically travel related, which is good...however, I believe that for a forum to be "successful" there needs to be questions/answers/discussion...there has been little to no group or travel or event planning questions here on FlyerTalk with the exception of the occasssional - "I'm doing a wedding, what can I get out of it?" type threads...which, again, I believe would belong in the specific brand fora - which is where you can currently find them.

And as for closing forums, doubt we'll see too much of that...the Religious Travelers forum, probably the most under-utilized forum on FlyerTalk - has had ~350 threads since it's inception in 2005 - just over 6 years old & around 60 posts a year & a good majority of them are about Kosher meals on certain carriers or in certain cities - questions which could just as easily have been answered in the airline or regional fora, most likely...but hey, it serves a need, I guess...and as this is my last year on TB, I'm sure I won't be around to recommend the closing of it...

I guess before I'd be supportive of this, I'd like to see examples of true demand for it...

Kagehitokiri

there are definitely execs, owners, corp travel dept people on FT

my point was that a potential forum could cover a whole range of topics, but a question for some is whether people would want to publicize things like negotiating results or corporate travel policies (in a more public way when its an actual forum vs other thread)

one problem with hotel forums is when youre comparing hotel programs
mileagebuzz is the only option

could also be a place for DO technical discussion, might encourage more discussion?