BARBARA CHARLTON Regular columnist Barbara was voted Most Helpful Travel Counsellor of the Year for two consecutive years.


E: Barbara.Charlton@travelcounsellors.com T: 0845 0587 290


talking shop WISE COUNSEL We live to sell another day! Happy New Year!


Well that’s a relief to know that the Mayan prophecies were wrong and the end of the world is not very nigh after all! And it’s a big welcome to 2013. This year has a lot to live up to after the feel-good factor we had in 2012 with all the national celebrations and Olympics.


I had some feel-good factors myself


in December, apart from Christmas of course, when Santa bought me an iPad and other fun stuff. Long-time readers may recall that


over the last four years, when my clients have booked Santa Lapland trips, my daughter Hannah has used her acting skills to deliver the tickets to surprised children in an elf costume. Her accent was excellent and the children (and parents) loved the whole event. So earlier in the year whilst speaking to a new referred client, I mentioned that if I booked the trip for them they would also get this special treatment. It was a done deal. Or so I thought. However, when the tickets arrived Hannah was too busy. She's 21 now and not so susceptible to the previous free child labour! Plan B had to be devised and implemented. This consisted of me scouring


Amazon and eBay for a suitable Mrs Claus costume on a budget. I managed to get a cute grey bun wig, gold-rim glasses, a white mop hat and apron at a good cost. It didn't stop there though! I had


to buy red furry material and a white fur trim and dust off the sewing machine. I spent a long afternoon making a big cape without a pattern and everything was ready! The whole morning went so well! I had the children spellbound with my accent (more Ukrainian than Lappish but they were only fi ve and eight years of ages so I think I got away with it) and kept my character throughout. Even the audience of assorted relatives ended up in tears!


Main picture: One of Santa's reindeer taking a break before next Christmas. Inset: Mrs Claus (aka Barbara) en route to her Santa Lapland trip presentation


SANTA'S HELPERS Caribtours picked up the last ‘Most Helpful Tour Operator' award. Pictured l-r– Nicola Sweeney, Davinia Wright, Keshma Fagoo, Mark Robinson, Isabel Sampedro, Ania Pielok, Louise Gray, Jo Clewlow, Georgina Santiago, Abigail David, Jo Ellis


I departed after leaving the children a sheet counting down the days until they left for Lapland and left that house feeling I had done something really worthwhile. I really feel it’s these special


touches that make a difference and enable you to create a real emotional connection with your customers, making the whole experience truly unforgettable for them – something I love to do as a travel agent.


Shhhh, it's a secret! And now, to introduce a new section of my column for a New Year. This is where I want you all to pass on to other agents your 'Best-Kept Secrets'. You can then pass them on to your clients for a bit of a wow factor at time of booking, or even better, keep them for after the sale to maintain contact with them. See the right-hand column for our


fi rst two Best-Kept Secrets! But fi rst I thought I'd add a couple of my own, just to kick off the proceedings: When it comes to views to be


beaten, one of my favourites is the view over Emerald Bay Island at Lake Tahoe, California. Whilst on the California SuperFam


a few years ago we stopped here for some pictures. You can climb up into the hills to avoid any passing traffi c noise, park yourself down and just breathe in the serenity and beauty of the view. But make sure you take a


“The best of the Best Kept Secrets will win a Hotel Chocolat goodie box!”


decent pair of walking shoes. If clients are travelling to the Maldives I would always suggest that they nip into the local supermarket before they go and buy a bunch of the one-use underwater cameras, as they charge an absolute fortune for them on the islands, as well as batteries for your own cameras. The batteries advice also goes for safari travellers, along with another tip of taking a second camera with you on all game drives. A lot of the sightings will be once in a lifetime experiences for people, and if one camera just dies on you, it’s quicker to grab camera number two than fi ddle around trying to change batteries. Animals don't tend to sit still and pose for us! The best of the Best-Kept Secrets


every month will win a Hotel Chocolat goodie box! So come on, share with the readers of Selling Long Haul, email me on Barbara.charlton@ travelcounsellors.com. And remember the words of Albert Camus: “You are forgiven for your happiness and your successes only if you generously consent to share them.”


A SLICE OF NYC Natalie Carlisle has a great recommendation for all those sweet-toothed people visiting New York City. She says: "If you go to New York and you love cheesecake (who doesn't?!) you have go to Juniors Cheesecake. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. "Juniors' website says ‘Hail a taxicab anywhere in New York City and tell the driver: "take me to the best cheesecake in New York" – odds are you'll end up at the corner of Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues in Brooklyn, at Juniors'."


GONE TO THE DOGS IN ALASKA Sally Dejong has a must-do for those cruising Alaska: "If you do one excursion, make it the helicopter fl y-in dog sledding. "It’s such an amazing once in


a lifetime trip, " she said. "The sight and sound of about 70 excited dogs barking as we climbed out of the helicopter will stay in my mind forever and the views as you fl y over glaciers while they played Somewhere over the Rainbow was totally mind blowing."


www.sellinglonghaul.com • January 2013 57


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