24 talking shop
WISE COUNSEL Barbara Charlton
Barbara.Charltontravelcounsellors.com 0845 0587 290
Time to conquer the peak booking season!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! And that's to all the travel professionals out
there who are primed and ready for action for our peak early booking season. Hopefully you planted the seeds of goodwill in December, and made sure your clients knew where to come for expert advice when they are ready to book. After all, with the recent NATS computer failure, and subsequent cancellations and delays, the travelling public have yet another reason to make sure they book with someone they can trust.
CELEBRATING MILESTONES I have just celebrated 21 years as an agent, and the last 12 have been as a self-employed Travel Counsellor. Where does the time go? I’ve been very lucky to see a lot of the world but a ‘countries visited’ map on
Facebook recently made me realise how many places I have yet to tick off, most of them in the Far East and South America. I am busily entering every competition possible to get myself out there on a fam trip! Speaking of anniversaries, next month I am celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary. It is quite obvious to me now, that getting married on February 24 was not very well thought out, since every year my anniversary falls in the school half term. Whenever possible we have always gone away outside school holidays to avoid crowds, strikes and over the odds prices, and this year will be no different. But before that, I am planning
a late getaway for this January. I just can’t decide between a cold and crisp Northern Lights trip, or a relaxing beach and fl op trip.
LOOKING AHEAD I hope that you have all made your goals list for 2015, and that you are including personal as well as professional items. As most travel professionals are in it for the love and passion and not the money, the two are often one and the same. I would really hate to dread going to work on a Monday, but as long as there are other people wanting to explore our small part of the universe, I will always be happy to help them. But even the best jobs come with their downsides. For me, that was the dreaded annual FSA insurance exam which I took in December. While it is a necessary evil, it did just remind me how arranging adventures is so much more enjoyable than talking about pensions, bonds and investments
Will Barbara choose this or sunny beach?
all day long – for me at least. But it’s great that we are all different – each to his own, as they say. For now it's heads down, crack on and come March it will all have been worth it when we check our sales and look forward to a relaxing Easter rest.
Be inspired!
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