Distinguish Yourself as a Travel Expert by Specializing in a Niche Tour Area

In the 10 commandments of marketing, “Get thee a profile” is at the top. The best way to distinguish yourself is to cultivate a singular expertise that will separate you from the rest of the market. Selling a niche or a particular special interest not only sets you apart but it also helps you target a particular client.

Niche marketing is a trend that is prevailing inside and outside of the travel industry. For example, even though Sears was the icon of its multibillion-dollar business, the department store chain got out of the catalog business in 1993, as specialty niche catalogs ranging from Banana Republic and L.L. Bean became the leaders of the mail order business. The Internet followed shortly thereafter, dividing consumers between those looking for low-price, mass market products online and an elite group that demanded even more specialized and customized attention from the best agents.

Survivability and profits are only part of the reason to specialize, however. The passion of selling the kind of journeys that you love will help you sell more and better. More importantly, it just might take that career of yours and turn it into a calling.

“I got into selling Australia back in 1999,” says Karolyn Wrightson, owner of Essential Down Under, an at-home agency specializing in Australia and New Zealand. “I couldn’t find the kind of travel I love to do in Australia in the marketplace. So I began creating that kind of travel. Now I attract clients totally by word of mouth, because they know I love Australia, and I know the country.”

The interest you pursue will attract the kind of client you’re seeking. It’s vital that you study those new clients as intensely as you have studied your specialty.

“Africa has a high rate of return, but most people can’t go back every year, because it’s relatively expensive,” says Bill Allpress, co-owner of African specialists Tamsin and Cooke. “You need to ask yourself how you can leverage your knowledge of that client’s taste into similar kinds of travel. If you loved a highly customized safari, what kind of cruise might you like? If you keep your niche too narrow, you can get hurt. Incidents such as SARS or an embassy bombing in East Africa can catch you with your eggs all in one basket. Specialize, but stay involved in other products as well. Once you know your clients, the most important skill, you can approach them with the products that are right for them.”

Marketing professionals hate reaching consumers to whom they can’t sell. They focus their advertising budgets on the magazines and broadcast networks that are reaching their target markets. When you become a niche expert, you add value to your potential with the destinations, suppliers and wholesalers who are targeting your niche. Developing a reputation attracts referrals from other agents, and successful niche agents make it profitable for the agents that refer them. “We do a bit of wholesaling with agents who send clients our way,” Allpress says.

Harmina Mulder, an independent agent with the Travel Society received the ultimate boost in reputation when Conde Nast Traveler singled her out as one of its Top Travel Agent Specialists in 2003. She has been named by the magazine every year since then, as the top Holland and Belgium specialist.

“I get calls from all over the country because of that recognition,” she says. “The customers who come to me for Holland and Belgium, because it’s such a small region, only constitute about 15 percent of my business. But they tend to be at the very high end. And there’s more profit in their bookings, because they tend to fly business class, use five-star hotels and travel on an FIT basis; and they don’t mind paying my fee.”

People with intense interests tend to be better educated, have more money and be more willing to spend it pursuing what captivates them during their travels. Research by Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell (YPB&R) shows a bright future for sellers of “complex” and “high-risk” travel services. Peter Yesawich says the Internet revolution is now about 10 years old, and 80 percent of American households are online.

“The Net is reaching its peak penetration and will probably slow down” he says, adding that travelers are still using it to research and find rock-bottom prices but increasingly feeling lost in something akin to a Tower of Babel. He points out that the average Google search for travel rarely goes beyond two pages. Some 68 percent of respondents in a recent YPB&R poll of frequent travelers said the Internet was too difficult and time-consuming to find what they were looking for.

In the same poll, 38 percent said they’d be willing to pay 20 percent more if they could get exactly what they wanted. This is great news for agents who know what they sell so well that they can deliver the most appropriate products to clients.

“Everything we do is highly customized,” Allpress says. “If we get it right for the client, we earn their trust for all kinds of travel. But you have to demonstrate your abilities.”

Adds Wrightson, “The trending shows that everyday people are more Internet savvy. More and more, they will be booking the ordinary packages right on their computers. You need to give them something they can’t get online.”

If you haven’t cultivated a special interest yet, look for that special activity or destination that compels you. You’ll know it’s love when you can remember the details without memorizing them. If you love Italy, you won’t need a map to know where Torino is. If scuba diving is your passion, you won’t need to Google “blue hole” to find the Great Blue Hole in Belize.

“Traveling in Australia changed the way I looked at life in a very positive way,” Wrightson says. “I wanted other people to have that kind of experience, and I enjoy creating it for them.”

Think of destinations and activities that are special to you and find out what destinations and activities have sizable followings in your community. Obviously, if you get involved with local organizations that promote a niche interest, you can have direct access to potential travelers. But if your business is online, your address is already “Main Street everywhere.”

Once you learn your niche intellectually and experientially, you need to network where your niche does. Take the specialist courses, and if there are travel shows, try to attend them to meet the suppliers. Most agents work with the many tour operators that are based in the United States. Reputable, established wholesalers provide a necessary level of security and comfort. It’s best to work with them as much as possible, but when you attend the travel shows that are held in various countries, you can meet with niche land operators and refine what you offer. A lot of activities also feature annual forums. Dealing directly can help you set more profitable net rates and give you a hand in customizing the programs, but you need to have utter confidence in your partners when you’re doing business directly overseas.

Most U.S. wholesalers can get you what you want in the destinations in which they specialize. Wrightson says it’s essential for specialist agents to be completely aware of what wholesalers are offering in their specialty destinations or activities. “Occasionally, I use a package from a wholesaler, because it fits the client that I’m dealing with,” she says. “You need to know to whom these operators are appealing. You need to know the difference between a Tauck tour and an AAT Kings tour.”

Finally, when you’re creating programs with the expertise that comes from your passion for a particular niche, you will be able to take professional pride in your work. After all that agents have been through merely to survive over the past decade, the market is showing an increasing understanding of the value you bring to travel. As the YPB&R research shows, there is a genuine opportunity right now for you to reestablish your authority as the ultimate expert in what you sell.