My name is Stephen Joyce, CEO of Rezgo, a software as a service booking software for tour and activity operators. This is my personal blog focused on technology, social media, and best practices for travel and tourism businesses. I\'m passionate about what I do and I\'m happy to share my experiences with you.
These are the first things I would do. I would start researching and educating myself as much as I could about the type of travel business I had interest in starting. I’d spend 1 month reading and learning, gathering informational resources, connecting with people and companies that could help me. Here is a list to get your started. I’ve curated the list so I am bias to these resources as... Read More...
On September 6th, 2012, LinkedIn announced huge changes to Company Page design and user experience, which completely changes the way we view the platform as a marketing tool. “For companies, this means a more powerful way to build relationships with your target audience on LinkedIn,” said Mike Grishaver from LinkedIn's Product Management team. This all sounds great, doesn't it? The question... Read More...
The Owned Inventory Merchant Model is an inventory acquisition model and a contracting strategy used by travel wholesalers to acquire hotel room inventory. In a nutshell the wholesaler pre-pays or guarantees cash upfront for inventory, better pricing and more favorable terms and conditions. Tour and activity providers can leverage the same strategy to their advantage by flipping the conversation... Read More...
In my most recent Tnooz post titled "Putting the supplier cart before the distributor horse in travel" I discussed how creating open inbound APIs could help to foster connectivity between supply and distribution and encourage those who are not using online systems to adopt them in order to open up distribution opportunities. In addition to this discussion I also wanted to share my thoughts on who... Read More...
In a recent article I wrote at Tnooz, I discuss a big entrepreneurial opportunity I see in the tour and activity market by selling 1-day activities to in-destination travelers via a mobile only booking app. This would be a pure transactional business via traveler’s mobile devices, one that I am very familiar with having successfully built and sold a youth-based ski travel agency or OTA, where we... Read More...
In my latest Tnooz post titled "Australian distribution strategy could be template for other tourism boards" I talk about the opportunity that national tourism boards have to engage with small businesses in their countries. Although I know there are countries out there other than Australia that have developed a national tourism strategy, none that I know of, have been as committed to making it work. I'm... Read More...
In this day and age, when customer service seems to be outsourced to the farthest reaches of the planet, is it not surprising that people expect that your "customer support team "will be nothing more than a veiled attempt to placate their need to speak to a live person. I think that most technology companies have done themselves a disservice by reducing their customers to nothing more than annoyances... Read More...
Last week I wrote a post on Tnooz about PCI compliance and credit card safety. The reason for this post was to draw some much needed attention to the importance of server security. The bottom line is that everyone from the small operator to the massive hosting provider is responsible in part for the safety of the data that is stored, displayed , or transmitted by them. What surprised me the... Read More...
One the biggest challenges I see working with tour and activity operators everyday is the challenge of payments. In order to move this cash laden, on site dependent business sector into one where advanced bookings and electronic distribution is the norm, we need to face this challenge in earnest. In my latest post on Tnooz titled "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly of Tourism Payments" I look at some... Read More...
As the founder of the Travel Business Academy, a professional program that teaches entrepreneurs globally how to start a travel business, I am always searching for stories about successful travel entrepreneurs that I can share with our members. Travelzoo is in the news lately, with rumors surrounding an impending sale of the company, so I did a little research online to see what the story was behind... Read More...
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