Are you debating whether to use a ‘live’ travel agent to book your golf cruise vacation or to go it alone by using the Internet on a ‘do it by-yourself’ effort?
Travel agents, especially niche agent specialists, are a priceless resource when you’re spending hard earned income to take a pricy trip. Travel Agents are paid a commission by the cruise lines; golf resorts and wholesale tour operators and other vendors. Some travel specialists charge service fees – some don’t.
“Having a travel agent in your corner is like having a trainer in your corner in a boxing match – no one in your corner when you need them most? – You’re lights out! You’re on your own.” Says Lori Henderson Webber, co-owner GolfAhoy Cruise Planners American Express Travel Related Services. We don’t charge additional booking fees at GolfAhoy. We’ll get you exactly the same cruise or golf cruise with all applicable discounts and specials, at exactly the same price, from the cruise line or tour operator you might have found online. The travel vendors pay us a commission. Our clients take pride in sending us referrals. They like to be able talk to a real live person about their golf holiday plans.”
- Charisse Jones, national business travel correspondent for USA Today “travel agents serve a vital service”….
- Gayle King, co-host CBS This Morning “swears by travel agents”….
In the case of golf cruises, booking directly with the cruise line will not yield the potential benefits of booking with a golf travel agent professional – that you have spent the time to develop a good business relationship with. No cruise line will notify you, “Hey, a new promotion has started that will lower your cruise fare price by hundreds.” It just does not happen.
An alert professional golf cruise travel agent considers the initial sale as just the start of the process and will work your booking throughout its life and follow up with you after your sailing. They are investing time in their clients and will gladly work with the cruise line to lower the fare when some new promotion comes up that applies.
Odds are very high that the end result will be the beginning of a beneficial relationship yielding great savings over your lifetime and a richer travel experience too. Travel agents have a lot of “been there, done that” experience, helpful destination information and contacts of their own to share.
“CBS This Morning” ran a feature story with reporter Charisse Jones, national business travel correspondent for USA Today, and co-hosts Charlie Rose and Gayle King, which reported on the future of the travel agency industry. In the report, Ms. Jones concludes that travel agents “serve a vital service,” and co-host Gayle King added her own support by stating she “swears by travel agents.”
Here are 10 reasons why using a golf-travel-agent professional is your best choice.
- You Google “golf cruises” and come up with about 47.5 million results. Need a little help editing those choices?
- Remember when you used that obscure website to book your pre-cruise hotel, and when you got there you spent your time overlooking a parking lot?
- How many hours were you on hold with the airline when your flight to meet your cruise ship was canceled because of a snowstorm?
- Did you really mean to spend your golf cruise vacation on a ship whose one pool was filled all day with screaming children?
- Who knew that when you booked that golf cruise on a barge or tall mast sailing vessel it would be a small cabin with no air conditioning?
- No one explained to you that in April and September golf courses in Hawaii aerate and seed fairways, and so you showed up for your golf cruise with your golf bag and spent a week playing Putt-Putt or Mini Golf.
- How about the time you really needed a restful golf cruise vacation with your spouse, and you ended up inadvertently booking yourself on a sailing with a huge group of gays and lesbians or a nudists group cruise?
- Yes, I guess that cruise line must have used a telephoto lens when they took a picture of those cabins that you saw on their website.
- I suppose contacting the Attorney General to resolve the fact that the cruise line has billed your credit card three times instead of once for your onboard purchases is your only recourse?
- It was definitely odd that there were no cab drivers at the airport at 3 o’clock in the morning when your el-cheapo flight finally landed, but booking a transfer to your pre-cruise hotel or departure port would have been a good thing to remember when you purchased your airline ticket, cruise or hotel online.
Having a bonded, licensed, insured Travel Agency in your corner is priceless!
Larry Olmstead, a contributing travel writer in Forbes on ‘Why You Need a Travel Agent’ says, “If you like to travel, locate a good travel agent and start using them regularly. This is a resolution you will find easy to keep, because once you try it you will enjoy better – and often cheaper – trips than ever before.”
“Just a couple of years ago, headlines were about the demise of the travel agent, about to go the way of the Dodo and the dinosaur. Guess what? Travel agents are not only still here, they are experiencing a rebound – despite (or because of?) the myriad internet travel tools available.”
“So why should you use a travel agent? There are many, many good reasons, which I will explain. But the bottom line is that they know more than you do, they are better connected than you, they have access to benefits you can’t get otherwise, they can often beat any other prices available (even online, yes), and after you have planned everything, they provide a safety net during your trip that you simply won’t get by booking yourself or simply by buying travel insurance.”
“To be frank, not everyone taking a trip needs a travel agent. The benefits they offer increase as your travel becomes more luxurious, expensive, and specialized. Need a cheap flight to Florida to visit family and a night at an airport hotel en route? By all means let your fingers do the walking. Need a cheap cruise on a mass market ship like Carnival? Yes, you can book that yourself. But I’ve already written at length here at Forbes about why if you are taking any higher end cruise or a specialized golf cruise for example, you would be foolish – I mean making a really big mistake – not to use a top cruise agent or golf cruise travel specialist.”
“In fact, in any of these scenarios, if you don’t use a travel agent you are likely making a costly mistake, no matter how much you think you know. I travel for a living and write on travel for a living and I still use a travel agent. To be clear, I am talking about true experts, the really good travel agents who add value, not the ones running full page ads of deals in the Sunday papers. The best travel agents are essentially consultants, and many prefer “travel advisor,” because it is their advice, expertise, and connections that are of great value. A few have become hyper-specialized, and in some cases, like booking a cruise, golf vacation, space travel, or a very specialized theme trip like art, music or polar exploration, you will want to seek out a niche specialist.”
Golf and Cruise Niche Specialists in the United States
GolfAhoy pioneered the ‘golf & cruise’ concept in 1988. They’ve been the travel industry acknowledged leader in the golf cruises specialized market segment for over 25 years and operate GolfAhoy Golf Cruises for couples, singles and groups aboard 193 different cruise liners including the ships of Azamara Club Cruises; Carnival Cruise Lines; Celebrity Cruises; Crystal Cruises; Cunard Line; Holland America Line; Hurtigruten Cruises; Le Ponant Cruises; MSC Cruises; Norwegian Cruise Line; Oceania Cruises; Princess Cruises; Regent Seven Seas; Royal Caribbean International; Seabourn Cruise Line; SeaDream Yacht Club; Silversea Cruises; Windstar Cruises. GolfAhoy is the North American GSA (General Sales Agent) for all international golf cruise tour operators.
Destinations Hawaii; Caribbean; Mediterranean; British Isles; New Zealand; Australia; Asia; Ireland; Mexico; Danube River; South Africa; Mauritius; Sandals Golf Resorts.
Anthony Webber & Lori Henderson Webber · Owners at GolfAhoy Inc.
PerryGolf – Wilmington, North Carolina. 910.795.1048 Golf Cruises
PerryGolf is a provider of international golf travel to twelve of the world’s most memorable golf destinations: Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Personalized golf travel itineraries combine the world’s leading golf courses with safaris, cruises, wine touring, local culture, cooking instruction and sightseeing along with attendance to major golf events including the British Open and the Ryder Cup.
Their 2014 Golf Cruise portfolio offers sail and motor yachts to hotel barges meandering along inland waterways in England, Scotland and France. PerryGolf offers a diverse collection of all-inclusive golf and cruise experiences including a golf yacht program on a classic and fully restored Mathis-Trumpy wooden yacht that sails between Charleston and Savannah in the South East United States Atlantic coast.
Cruise Lines represented Azamara Club Cruises; Le Ponant Cruises.
Destinations Scotland; Ireland; England; Wales; France; Spain; Portugal; Italy; South Africa; Australia; New Zealand; Canada.
Colin & Gordon Dalgleish · Founding Directors of PerryGolf
Gordon Dalgleish, a co-founder and president of PerryGolf, is named as one of ‘Condé Nast Traveler’s’ top niche travel specialists.
Kalos Golf – Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 919.942.3464 Golf Cruises
Kalos began transporting golfers comfortably and stylishly on golf cruises to the top courses in Europe over 20 years ago. They’ve expanded their selection of uniquely designed golf cruise itineraries to their current offering of 13 golf cruises in 2014. Kalos says their golf cruises combine the best of global golf and touring with the relaxation of sailing on small, luxurious vessels. They claim that unlike companies that fill their ships with hundreds of passengers, Kalos Golf charters five-star vessels that accommodate no more than 90 guests.
Lines represented Sea Cloud Cruises; Silversea Cruises; Seabourn Cruise Line.
Destinations Baltic; British Isles; Spain; New Zealand; Rhine River; Mediterranean; South Africa.
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