ASTA Launches ‘My Travel Agent Rocks’ Blog
by Marilee Crocker /ASTA is spicing up TravelSense.org, its consumer website, with a blog called “My Travel Agent Rocks!”
Launched this week, the blog spotlights stories of agents who have saved the day, provided extraordinary service, or created a dream vacation for clients. Stories can be submitted (to PR@ASTA.org) by ASTA agents themselves or by consumers.
“This website both reminds the traveling public of what agents do for them every day and brings new clients directly to our members,” said ASTA president and CEO Zane Kerby.
A central feature of TravelSense.org is its “Find a Travel Agent” tool, which lets consumers search for an agent by geographical location or expertise and provides ASTA agents with live sales leads.
Needed to be told
ASTA said it was inspired to launch My Travel Agent Rocks after reviewing the many nominations it received for this year’s Extra Mile Award, which will be given out at the 2014 ASTA Global Convention, Sept. 14-21 on the Norwegian Breakaway.
“We thought, these stories need to be told,” Kerby said.
Initial posts on the blog will feature the three top nominees for the Extra Mile Award – Ken Smith of Dreams Come True Travel, Hollie Schmitt of Memory Making Travel and Paul Iacono of Journeys Beyond the Ordinary.
The new blog, along with design changes to TravelSense.org, is intended to “refocus the attention on how to find a travel agent, and what agents do for you, the traveling public,” ASTA said.
$1.3 million in leads
ASTA also hopes to draw the attention of nonmember agents to the benefits of membership, which include referrals from the Find an Agent tool. “Getting just one new client from this tool is worth more than an entire years’ worth of ASTA membership dues,” Kerby said.
By way of example, he cited an inquiry that came in last week, saying, “I have a group of 30 going to Las Vegas in November. Who can help me?”
More than $1.3 million in sales leads were fed to ASTA members from the consumer site in the first six months of 2014, according to ASTA.
In the last 18 months, traffic to the site has increased to about 54,000 unique visitors per month, up from 30,000, ASTA said.
Promoting the site
ASTA will be promoting the TravelSense.org website to the public via newspaper and magazine advertisements and local op-ed pieces, a spokeswoman said.
On Sept. 6, it will bring the site to the attention of hundreds of journalists by stuffing TravelSense.org flyers into race packets for the National Press Club 5K race. “Wherever we see an opportunity, we’re going to grab it,” the spokeswoman said.
Future plans for TravelSense.org include using the site as a conduit for dialog with ASTA or with agents. “If consumers have a recurring problem, we want to hear about it so we can fix it,” ASTA said.
The changes to TravelSense.org are part of ASTA’s ongoing mission to promote the use of travel agents to the traveling public.
“ASTA is charged with promoting and defending the travel agent community, and we are very proud of our advocacy, the defending role we play. This is a step forward in the promoting side of our mission. And you’ll be seeing more of that from us,” Kerby said.