Note that unlike the normal search content module, you cannot choose which search fields to include. The Search box has different basic and advanced searches. Clicking the Advanced Search link shows the additional search options.  Clicking Basic Search takes you back to the regular view.

NexCite Cruise Search - Basic Search

NexCite Cruise Search - Advanced Search

 The search box allows your customers to use many of the more powerful features of the agent search, such as selecting a cruise line, ship, port, and more. 

Your customer can be as broad or as specific with date searches as desired.  They can select a month/year from the drop down, and then optionally choose a specific day.  If a specific day is selected, then a “Start Date Options” box appears that allows them to choose their flexibility options.  That way, they can say “I really want to leave on this day, but show me things that depart before or after that date by some number of days”.

To add the search box to one of your NexCite pages, simply complete the following steps:

• Edit the page you would like to place the Cruise Search Box on
• Click the sideways “Edit” button for the area of the page where you want to place the Cruise Search Box
• Click the “Insert Content Module” icon
• Choose “Cruise Search” from the Module Type dropdown list
• Enter your selections
• Click “Update“
• Save your page
• Publish your page

I can see where it would normally take a lot of time, not to mention the creativity to write an interesting article or tweet, however in only a few minutes I can go in and find a couple of tweets on travel topics, an interesting blog from a supplier and now a couple of hot deals and click to send to both my Facebook and Twitter followers. The beauty of the Share a Resort, Top Vacation Values and Supplier Guest Blogs is that they include links back to my website.

I did a Tweet a few days ago of a Funjet Vacation Value. It went to my Facebook and Twitter. If my followers were interested, they could click and view the entire promotion on my website. And, because I have the Funjet (GoFunjet) booking engine integrated into my NexCite, my clients could even proceed through the entire booking process online.

Now I can see using Social Media Marketing in several ways to sell travel. Using Agent Socialink enables me to keep sending interesting articles, blogs and even deals to my followers. I can also see adding special group promotions and working the viral marketing side of social media to market to friends of friends. The potential of social media is tremendous for travel agents, you just need to get started, build your followers and use Agent Socialink for your everyday Social Media Marketing. Get started today.

•  Traveling is good for the soul and spirit. If you are ready for your next travel experience, we are here to make it happen.
• Window shopping is fun no matter what you are shopping for! So if today you are shopping for travel, we’re here to tempt your senses and help you dream. And if you want to move from shopping to buying, we’re ready to make your dreams reality.
• Travel is experience. Put our experience to work for you. We have been around the globe. We’ll help make your next trip a life time experience.
• So glad you came here to begin your next travel experience. We love using our expertise to help our customers truly see the world.
• Welcome to our digital travel store. We are so glad to have you exploring the world with us today. We want you to know we have live travel experts ready and waiting to share their experience and create your next vacation. Click around and explore, and we’ll do the rest!

If you already subscribe to our Supplier Highlight Pages, this content has been updated for you automatically.  If not…

Supplier Highlight Pages are a great way to add regularly updated content to your website, without having to make any changes yourself. The Supplier Highlight Pages are managed by Passport Online on behalf of the individual suppliers.

Want us to add Supplier Highlight Pages to your NexCite? Simply fill out our Supplier Highlight Page request form and we will add them.

To add:
The Cruise Supplier option uses the standard way of building the Quick Search options. Only now, you can add “Cruise Supplier” to the list of included options when creating a Quick Search Module.

After  that:
The Cruise Supplier option will show up as a pre-populated dropdown list in the Quick Search. The list of cruise suppliers is specific to your agency’s custom filters and preferences to not include any that are “excluded”, or filtered out.  The search results will then include only the selected cruise supplier’s offers.

If you need help adding this option to your search, just give us a call or send us an email.

Check out this interesting video from VFM (a company that helps hotels distribute their rich media content to the OTAs). It will give you an idea of just how valuable rich media content is becoming to the consumer in their decision process. Agents – be sure to mention ResortPort to your key resort partners. We already have close to 50 Starwood properties in ResortPort, and will have 16 Outrigger properties in by the end of the year!

Example of a “Me Too!” page:

Whether you’re searching for a Caribbean cruise, a vacation for the entire family or simply a trip leaving soon, call or email us and one of our skilled agents will get in touch with you right away.

Example of “How We’re Unique” page:

Are you looking for an amazing trip to Paris? One filled with visits to places that most guide books don’t mention? Great, we love planning those trips. Two of the agents in our office, Dorothée and Amiée, grew up in France – they can also provide you with a few words and phrases in French that you’ll want to have handy when you get there. Dorothée and Amiée visit Paris, along with the rest of France, several times a year and can tell you the best places to eat, which museums you’ll want to see, and which to skip, and even provide a suggested walking tour of the various quarters in Paris. We can even tell you our newest favorite French wine!

When you book a Paris getaway with us we’ll work with you to find out the activities you are most interested in, as well as the sights you most want to see. This allows us to provide you with a map and detailed information outlining those places we know you’ll enjoy. Want to see samples of our maps and itineraries?  We have our most popular one’s posted under “Suggested Itineraries”.

While you may not be a Paris specialist who knows every hidden sidewalk café from Pont Mirabeau to Pont de Tolbiac, I know that you have something special that you offer to your customers. Now, it’s up to you to explain this to your potential customers, because do you really want to be competing with every other travel agent to sell a basic 3 night package, or do you want to sell something unique that you are passionate about?

• 20 photos downloaded directly from your camera (I’m assuming that each photo is only 1MB, which is a low estimate, so you may only get 5, or even two)

OR

• 585 photos properly sized (I’m assuming images between 20 – 30KB, which should be big enough for most uses)

Which would you rather have? Of course you’d rather have 585 properly sized photos. In addition to simply being able to use more photos, each photo will also download faster for your customers. Remember that no matter how good your site is, if it takes a long time to load your customers will never know that your site is great because they’ll click the back button before it even finishes loading.

So how do you properly size your photos? There are a number of options ranging in cost from FREE to $700 or more. If you are just getting started with your web site, you will probably want to start with one of the free options, and move up to a fully functional graphics program later.

Here are a few of the better free options:

ShrinkPictures.com: Simply upload your picture, choose a size and save your newly resized picture.

Image Resizer by Microsoft – Part of their PowerToys collection: Download and install image resize, and then simply right click on a photo you want to resize and choose the size you want. It’s that simple.

Perhaps you’ve been using one of the free options and are ready to move on to something with more features – in that case Adobe’s Photoshop Elements provides many more options than a free program, but is still priced reasonably at $140.

If you are looking for something that provides you with nearly every option you could ever want; Adobe’s Photoshop might be right for you. However, keep in mind those added features don’t come cheap – starting at $699 you will have to pay for all the extra options (but if you are willing to make the investment, you’ll love being able to do things like create panoramic photos out of several individual photos, retouch photos and much more) .

There are probably hundreds of other programs you could use, find one that works for you and start using 585 photos instead of 20!

After listening to her genuine concern we did a bit of brainstorming together.  I mentioned how we could help her make her site more effective and that we were here to help her with that. I suggested we could add Facebook or Twitter to her account for her. She said she would look at some sites and get some ideas and would sign up for email services. She decided to do more research to make NexCite work better for her.

This discussion ended well, but it made me think of all of the other agents that we talk to. Most of them are so busy that they do not have time to work on their website or find creative ways to stimulate new business. While talking to her, I started to think about how different her perspective was from the one I recently read about in the recent article on CNN titled “Are Travel Agents Making a Comeback?” If you can get a chance, read it because it’s very exciting news.

This article tells me that this is an exciting time for travel agents because clients are looking for that personal attention and there is a need for that agent to customize that trip for them.

Instead of thinking about your business in a negative way, why not think about the positive? Think positive and do something about it. It’s your business.

Think of new things you can do while you finally have time to breathe. If your phone is not ringing, here are a few suggestions to turn it around:

• Update your customer list: make sure you have the correct info for every customer on it. Ask yourself “When was the last time I talked with this customer”? Follow up with them.
• Are you sending emails to your customers? If you don’t have time, let Passport Online send emails out for you twice a month. It’s free.
• If you have recently booked a trip for one of your customers, did you then go into AgentPort and create an email with that offer in it. Then simply send it to your existing customer and ask them to share their great upcoming trip with other friends and family. I had an agent tell me that he booked a cruise for a couple celebrating a 50th anniversary, and he asked if friends and family were going. They didn’t even think about that, so he asked for a list of friends and family. He sent an email out to 60 names and he booked 20 people to join that couple. You don’t get the business unless you ask for it.
• One of my customers said she did a lot of group tours, but I didn’t see any of that info on her website. Are you listing your group info? Are you emailing that offer out to your group list? Here is a wonderful example of a travel agent’s site that shows all of his own group cruises.
• Social networking.  Are you set up with Facebook and Twitter?

Because this agent took the time to make a call, and have a conversation, we were able to talk about the NexCite possibilities, but there is a bigger picture here. You may have the tools to grow your business, but they won’t work if you don’t actually use them.