Blog Notes

1. I don't know what is happening with the link colors. I did not change them, and they all appear to be correct in the template. I am suspecting it is a Google issue and hopefully it will resolve itself soon.  If not, I will go in and manually tweak colors for better readability.
2. A post about Cruise To Cash briefly appeared today. It was supposed to be published tomorrow. So there is nothing nefarious afoot and it will appear tomorrow.
   

YTB Scoops The Travel Industry

It seems that not only was YTB the first company to think of putting the Internet and Travel together, they are the first to develop the concept of a "Traveler's Profile".

Yes, you heard it here first (well maybe second if you listened to their calls or visited this site)--YTB has an exclusive on the "Traveler's Profile". No longer will travelers need to constantly repeat the basic information and the not-so-basic information. No more forms to fill out. And to top it all off--it is automated!  I simply cannot believe that no one has thought of doing this before 2009!  Just imagine a concept where your travel agent can keep the following information:

• your name
• DOB
• addresses and phone numbers
• your passport information
• frequent flyer information
• car rental program data
• hotel guest program information
• itineraries
• payment profiles
• emergency contact information

Yes and to think that this is available exclusively to YTB Referring Travel Agents:

At, Sharnese Travel & Cruises we have a feature that eliminates all that hassle, making it easier than ever to plan your next trip- introducing The Traveler's Profile.

The Traveler's Profile allows you to create an individualized profile that is securely saved within the system. Each time you return to the site, your profile information is ready and waiting for you, eliminating the need to re-enter all of your personal data. This exclusive feature is an added convenience that sites like Expedia and Travelocity don't have. In fact, it is exclusive to Sharnese Travel & Cruises!

Gosh, what will they think of next? I bet they will develop plagiarism as well. One particular post on that blog was completely lifted from another source without reference. I mean who could have thought about ripping off someone' s writing besides YTB?  What do you think of that?

A YTB Blast From The Past

The other day, I came across some older promotions and sales pitches on YTB.  How many of these "facts" hold true? How many of these "dreams" are still alive?  

The obvious key to success for the author of all of these columns is recruiting. What's the lure? Tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in your bank account. Instant tax deductions for your vacations. I wonder how many in YTB have actually added tens or hundreds of thousands to their bank accounts? We know the answer from last year, I guess we need to wait for an income disclosure for 2008!

Ah yes, recruiting and the dangling carrot. This unreachable carrot has been dangling in front of the author's nose for over 4 years now, and he is still no further along. I venture to guess he is probably behind where he was several years ago. In October 2006, her was poised to be a director by December 2006. In July 2007, he could almost touch it. Now in February of 2009--where is that carrot?

But for someone who likes to claim that he is all about the customer experience, these columns seem to contradict that. There is not too much discussion about selling travel (other than to himself for a tax deduction). But that is not surprising, because as has been said ad nauseum, people in YTB that sell travel do not make any substantial money. People that recruit for YTB have a better chance, but only if they are positioned closer to the top of the pyramid.

YTBitis Sweeping The Country

The worst symptom of all…most whom are infected with YTBitis experience increased bank accounts of Tens, sometime Hundreds of Thousand of Dollars. 

Need A Tax Deduction? Own A Business!

To be in business, you merely declare it. And by doing so, you can magically turn personal expenses into tax deductions.

Our hobby is cruising. So we became Travel Agents. It is customary for Travel Agents to preview cruise ships so we can inform our clients. BAM! All our cruising just became a tax write off. We also took a trip to Disney earlier this year, and took the kids. Why? Don’t you think it might be necessary to get a 3 year old and 5 year old perspective on what they liked about Disney?

Team YTB Is On The Move

We learned at the trade show, that YTB has a Directors Challenge for anyone who becomes a director by 12/31/06, YTB will DOUBLE the Director bonuses for life. For example if you have 2000 RTA’s in your downline as a Director you receive $100,000 instead of $50,000 and so on. This has inspired Doug and me to work even harder to reach director by the end of the year. 

When you have someone who is interested in the business call Doug and give him a warm introduction, then stop talking and let Doug take it from there. Many of you know this works first hand, because you or someone on your team joined after being on a 3 way call. The team member who gets Doug on the most 3 way calls will win a prize. Also, you can win a prize by participating in thirty 3 way calls between now and 12/31. We have 12 weeks left, so that’s just an average of 2.5 calls per week.

Your Ticket To Paradise

With just a few core people that we have personally found, they have found others that have grown our team to over 200 at this time and we are getting closer every day to becoming Directors ourselves. We see it, we feel it, and it’s so close we can almost touch it.

Another One Bites The Dust

I follow several YTB blogs and just wanted to point this one out. Here is one of the more successful RTAs and Reps that has quit. He has identified what YTB is, and more importantly what it isn't. You can read his entire post here, but here are some excerpts:

• My first year (2007) in YTB wasn't anything to brag about. Nevertheless, I was in the top 5% in the company. It doesn't take much because most members don't do anything.
• My experience with YTB started out well. Since I was mislead and actually told lies when I signed up I had no doubts I would make a ton of money. I built a decent downline, which by now has shrunk to 18 paying members. Everyone else has dropped out. Very few in my downline ever did anything, which caused me to feel guilty because I talked them into something that did not work for them.
• Last fall I listened to Coach Tomer telling us that YTB was unfairly targeted just as Roger Clemens was. That was the whole theme of that Saturday morning's call. That was the beginning of the end for me with YTB. If YTB falls in the same category as Roger Clemens, a cheater and dishonest person who will likely spend time in jail soon, then I don't really want to be associated with YTB.

Congratulations!

Sound Familiar?

• We are poised to enter 50 countries around the world next year.

• Traditional travel agencies will be going out of business like they did in the 90's.

• Joining World Ventures you have 0 overhead.

• 100% positive cash flow with zero liability.

• Endorsed by many prominent people & celebrities alike

• #1 Travel Agency for Carnival Cruise Lines.

No, it's not YTB. It's the New Kid in Town. Or, should I say old Kid in Town since they have been around for awhile. World Ventures. Same song, different tune.You pay $400 to join to point people to book travel to on your website. There is a monthly fee just like YTB and if you sign up 6 people they waive the monthly fee. Most of the money is made in recruiting your friends, family, co-workers and neighbors.

So, just who and what is World Ventures? And, why should we care? According to Peter Stilphen, MCC, World Ventures is indeed a travel MLM and on his naughty list. Mike Azcue and Wayne Nugent founded World Ventures after being involved in another MLM called GTT. World Ventures income figures released in 2007 show only 26.3% of the people made money. The average income was only $200. Sounding familiar again? Seeing a pattern?

And, when you question the figures and say anything about the company the flock rises up and tells you we (TTA's) are jealous, going to be extinct and they are going to take over the world. Big sigh. Here we go again.

What is it with people believing this stuff? Is it because of low self esteem? Wanting to be rich? Lured by greed? Or, is it that travel is sexy and fun? I am sure psychologists and cult specialists could enlighten us all day on the motivation of people to join these companies. But, the bottom line is they hurt the travel industry. Last count I saw was upward of 55,000 untrained World Ventures reps running around passing themselves off as travel agents to the consumer. This hurts all of us.

The sad thing is once one MLM goes away there are more awaiting in the wings with the promise of riches and the lure of easy money and traveling like the pros. If you are as fed up as I am here is the petition to sign asking for regulation of the MLM's.

http://www.pyramidschemealert.org/PSAMain/home.html

A Ponzi Scheme Defined

This was originally in a MSN article, but I could not copy and paste the slide show into this blog, so I have recreated it. It highlights many salient points that are appropriate with the travel MLM/Card Mills that are operating today.  As you read through this, most likely you will be nodding your head in agreement. Is it no wonder that Jerry Brown and Lisa Madigan have taken notice and taken action? With the California and Illinois Attorneys General either prosecuting or investigating, are others far behind?

How Ponzi Schemes work

Since Charles Ponzi defrauded thousands in the 1920s, investors have continued to fall prey to such schemes. Here's why.  --Source: The North American Securities Administrators Association

# 1 Ponzi's allure

• Ponzi schemes work by paying old investors "dividends" from new investors' principal.(YTB pays the lion's share of bonuses from money received by new RTAs. This is substantiated by their SEC filings)
  

# 2 Variety and confusion

• A flood of new investment vehicles has made it difficult to identify frauds. (While not dealing with investments, yet, YTB is adding all sorts of ancillary products. In addition, with the other MLM outfits like Traverus and GTI, it does become confusing to determine legitimacy. YTB counts on this.)
  

# 3 Greed

• High rates of return and "guaranteed" low-risk strategies lure even conservative investors. (If anyone has attended a YTB "Opportunity Meeting" they flash the success stories like Julliet St. John and Ron head, but neglect to mention that their own income disclosure indicates that the vast majority of participants earn nothing. The low risk is the minimal investment and no investment programs.)
  

# 4 The appearance of success

• Early investors receive "proof" through high initial returns. (Undoubtedly the top people in any pyramid scheme will receive the high initial returns. Look at Ron Head, Rick Ricketts, Andy Lakey, Bill Hoffmann and others who are always highlighted and paraded as "proof" of success.)
  

# 5 The herd instinct

• Those investors then promote the scheme to friends and others. (When you have tens of thousands of people all led by financial earners, they will take that success as an indicator of theirs and promote it to anyone and everyone. As a matter of fact, one of the key "tools" in MLM is to promote the opportunity to everyone within a three foot radius of you. It is called the Three Foot Rule.)
  

# 6 Fear

• As the scheme unravels, some still promote it for fear of losing out amid mass withdrawals. (YTB is currently experiencing this right now. In March of 2008, they had 138,000 RTAs and right now they are just about to go under 90,000 and are losing about 300 RTAs per day. Yet there are many, the majority, who do not see the warning signs--IATAN, RCCL, dropping RTAs, lawsuits, falling stock prices, and most recently the decision by NCL to terminate them. These people will continue to believe and promote hoping for success that is out of reach and they will continue to do so until the company eventually collapses. One onlly needs to look at the loyalty some of the Joystar agents exhibited who are now in dire straits.)
  

# 7 The Tooth Fairy syndrome

• Some refuse to relinquish their faith in the business acumen of the alleged mastermind. (Well, I am not sure there is ANY business acumen in ANY of the alleged masterminds. None of them have ANY experience in travel and they all have experience in questionable MLM outfits. AL Williams, selling fuel additives, etc. Their acumen is suspect when they deal only with Board insiders and make sweetheart deals with privatelyheld sister companies. However, they ALL talk a great talk and have amassed a large loyal following. The followers of YTB management are quite literally zombie-like.)
  

The Hidden Cost Of MLM

TO:  Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Disney Cruise Line, Walt Disney Travel Company, Globus, Trafalgar, VAX Vacation Access, Travel Impressions, Cunard Line, Seabourn, Collette Vacations, MSC Cruises, Costa Cruises, Apple Vacations, The Mark Travel Company & Brands, Travel Guard and the rest of the travel suppliers who deal with the MLM travel agencies.


RE:  Additional costs to deal with MLM

I bet you thought that offering a 16% commission and a few marketing bucks was a great deal to deal with an MLM when you started. I bet you are wrong. Have you ever taken a look at the hidden cost of dealing with an MLM? When reputation is everything in this industry, I am surprised that you all are willing to sacrifice your hard earned brand image. Please consider the following:

Are you gaining more clients? Or just discounting your product?

• The bean counters all see the dollar signs for the bookings. But it has been proven that most of the sales are to themselves. So it is logical to assume these MLM participants would likely have traveled in any case and purchased via a more reputable means. All that is accomplished here is to cheapen your product by discounting--something many of the suppliers themselves prohibit. The alienation of your sales force by doing so is a whole other discussion. Perillo Tours found out that 90% of their YTB bookings were for the agents themselves. Sort of defeats the purpose of hiring an "agent" to do your marketing doesn't it?
  

What's happening to your reputation?

• What happens when one of these untrained MLM participants makes an attempt to market your product? I am sure you have seen some marketing attempts--many have been highlighted on this blog. And do you really want someone trying to sell your product, when their goal is to sell them into their scheme so they can travel for free?
• What happens when one of these so called "agents" decides to collect almost $100,000 from high school seniors and run with it? While Carnival obviously had no responsibility in that matter, the cruise line's good name was certainly dragged through the mud.
• What happens when you do offer reduced rate travel and these MLM participants descend and are soliciting your full fare paying customers? What type of taste does that leave in your customer's mouth? And why do these MLM "agents" need to be continually reminded on how to be professional?
  

What's happening to your money?

• Cruise lines are becoming more and more dependent on onboard revenue for their profitibility. Has anyhone bothered to do a study of the amount of money the MLM clients actually spend on board as opposed to that of a traditional agent? What about the MLM participants themselves? I was on a Carnival ship in November and witnessed a MLM agent from Traverus bragging that they got the cruise for next to nothing, had weaseled out of tipping, smuggled in a lot of alcohol and soda, and brought insulated drinking cups to keep them well lubricated. With all that planning, I am sure a nickel did not make its way to Carnival.
• Sure you pay some of these MLM companies top tier commissions, but for that, one would expect that the agent does the lion's share of the work. Are the MLMs pulling their weight? Have you looked at the time your internal people spend hand holding and re-training the MLM participants time and time again? Is it really worth it to pay 16% commission? I recently heard that a major cruise line flew staff from Miami to St. Louis to answer consumer calls during YTB's recent Sail-A-Thon.  I suppose they did not want a repeat of the "service" handed out at last year's event. Honestly, it makes more sense to take the booking direct and not pay a commission at all.
  

How do your employees feel?

• Have you ever questioned your front line empoloyees about how they feel dealing with the MLM agencies? I have. It is not pretty. You need customers for sure, but you also need employees who are excited to work for you. Why not offer an anonymous survey and allow them to voice their opinions? 
• Ask your BDM's their honest opinion. I am sure you will be shocked. Be sure they know you want to know how they feel and not what they think you want to hear.
  

Do these "agents" know the product?

• On a recent blog post, a YTB Referring Travel Agent was insistent that a "tender" was money. While that is certainly a definition of tender, it is not the case in the travel industry. Most likely this agent is advising clients that while in George Town, Grand Cayman that they need to take money to get ashore.
• Speaking of the Caymans, the RTA that took off with the high school seniors' money--she advertised that the "boat" "docked" in "Grand Caymen". What impression is left on the consumer? And why are suppliers facilitating it?
• When Royal Caribbean made their move, most of YTB insisted that Lisa Bauer's promotion to the VP of the Hotel Operations was really a demotion for "dissing" YTB and that she was in charge of changing sheets in the pre-and post cruise hotels.  Seriously, I am not kidding.

Is the interference worth it?

• From what I hear, many suppliers have received subpoenas from the California Attorney General requesting access to many financial documents related to the current suit against YTB for operating an illegal Pyramid Scheme. While I am sure that all suppliers operate on the up and up, additional governmental scrutiny can never be a good thing.

It is obvious the cost is far greater than the commissions paid. The MLM "agents" are not earning their commission and quite honestly, your continued dealing with them is slowly but surely eroding your very own brand image. Royal Caribbean took a bold, brave step in 2007 by eliminating YTB from their agency list. Other smaller suppliers followed as well. Last week, NCL came to the realization that dealing with an MLM is simply not worth it.

Right now, each supplier needs the support of people that know the product and are professional, legal and ethical in operating their businesses. I challenge that you are not getting this with YTB, Traverus, GTI and the rest. Richard Fain and Adam Goldstein reiterated their belief in a trained professional agent to move their product. I applaud them. Traditional Travel Agents are very relevant to travel suppliers, and they are proving that relevancy each day.

How relevant are the MLMs?  How committed to you are they? Have you listened to one of the YTB Saturday morning conference calls? This week, the word "travel" was mentioned exactly once--when they said they "started with travel" and moved onto flowers and cars. Both Traverus and YTB are now focusing on selling potions and lotions. YTB is selling home decor, financial services, meat and food, cakes and peanuts, and more. Don't believe it, go click on the links. These MLM companies are only  dedicated to travel as long as they can use it as the sexy lure to recruit new members.


You all received a copy of the petition withnearly 3000 names of travel professionals asking for you to throw your support to the agents who produce for you. If you need a copy of this petition, please send me an email and I will be happy to send it.

Now that 2/3 of the major cruise lines in the world have seen the light and have made the business decision to not deal with the MLM/Card Mill/Pyramid companies, don't you think it might make sense for you to take a look as well?