✈️ 20 Travel Startup Ideas (Low-to-Mid Budget) I discussed the many business opportunities in travel for VC investors and entrepreneurs and want to expand with some practical possibilities that you might find very interesting (and profitable). It’s a billion-dollar industry of course, and has a bright future despite current geopolitical, migration, and recessionary issues. People…
Your Career in Travel? Are you looking for a new career? Drained by another week doing work you have no interest in? Are you starting to dream of a more engaging, inspiring, and rewarding workday, while enjoying a whole swath of cool benefits? Who isn’t right? After all, the employment market is shrinking and changing…
Travel Business Opportunity: The Right Plan for VC’s and Entrepreneurs Travel remains a growth sector with amazing possibilities, even when there are lulls in consumer or business-related bookings. If this is that lull, then the sector must be promising for the years ahead. The US and global economy is expected to improve, and any easing…
Upcoming Tour Operator Conferences and Conventions The Travel and Tourism sector is readying for an exciting winter season along with growth in trips and tour bookings in 2026 as the US and global economies continue their growth. You’ve got some outstanding events planned for this fall, such as Tourpreneurs “TourWeek” in South Carolina, and US…
🍁 Why Canadians Still Make a Great Choice for Outsourcing The US is undergoing a fantastic economic, cultural and business transformation launched via tariffs, deregulation, tax reduction, cheaper energy and artificial intelligence. Growth will be phenomenal. In 2026, the FED rate will drop allowing small US businesses to enter the boom times. We’ll see burgeoning…
La Jolla: A Coastal Drive Toward Culinary Elegance The Pacific Coast Highway in southern California is renowned as one of the most beautiful drives in the world. For travelers over 50, the views, sunshine, and California ambiance is nothing short of marvelous. For those who revel in pleasant drives as part of a great travel…
How You Can Beat AI Travel Agencies With OTA’s and new AI travel agencies impinging on your audience and customer base, you’re understandably concerned. Young travelers are open to AI-driven travel planning and services. Agency owners on the other hand appear to be resisting anything that carries that artificial intelligence tone to it. However, as…
Google is Fading? It’s Actually Rising Oh, the AI hypesters. All of them so eager to push their new Agentic AI, Chatbots, AI apps, and AI-augmented services and infrastructure. And many of these AI followers lash out with rhetoric about Google being a digital Dinosaur, whose user traffic will suddenly disappear. Much of the rancor,…
Responsible Tourism Response to the Anti-Tourism Surge Anti-tourism rallies and sentiment are sweeping across Europe, combined with excessive immigration pushing Spaniards, Greeks, Italians, French, British and other nationals to reject mass tourism. Even in Mexico City, the chant “Gringos Go Home” is catching media attention and adding to the growing rancor for tourists that locals…
Helping You Achieve Your Potential This year’s travel season is a little challenging, but we know it’s going to pick up as the economy strengthens and the tariff issues weaken. I aim to help improve your 2026 results and build your travel website content quality, along with your web and social outreach campaigns for some…
Small Business Marketing Report The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) says its latest Small Business Optimism Index in July, rose 1.7 points to 100.3, slightly above the 52-year average of 98. Uncertainty remains (fell 8 points from June to 97) and is a big factor in growth and hiring intentions. Yet, respondents feel the…
A Rejuvenating Drive Through Portugal’s Historic Cultural Regions Avoid the overtourism in Spain, France and Italy with a rejuvenating road trip into Portugal’s quiet regions. Portugal Solves Your Destination Stagnation Are you feeling a little “destination stagnation” or maybe just tired of the familiarity and overcrowding of France, Greece, Italy or Spain? Many are, and…
How LLM GPT’s Help us Create Great Content AI LLMs are a major change in how travel consumers experience search and content on the web. ChatGPT and Google Gemini are the two new AI search engines gaining significantly in the search marketplace. Many users love the comprehensiveness of answers to their questions — their pre-trip…
Sales Boost: Grab Your Low-Hanging Fruit If you’re not as interested in massive traffic and getting placement on prestigious travel sites, there is an alternative. The fastest, least expensive way to grow bookings and revenue is to harvest your agency’s contact list. And the process of reaching them all, impacting them and moving them forward…
Best Marketing Analytics Solutions for Travel Businesses The only thing worse than knowing your digital marketing isn’t working is not knowing why. Which is why we need deeper insight. In this post, I present some great analytics software solutions for you to review and I think you’ll be surprised at what could be the right…
Give the Gift of Travel You know all about the joy of travel. It’s lifted your spirit, empowered your confidence, and broadened your awareness of how the world is and could be. But many others haven’t had that pleasurable, healthy vacation getaway. And perhaps now, your heroic side is awakening, and this might be the…
Ready Your Travel Company for the 2026 Boom! The latest travel stats are reflecting an unsettling trend of travelers avoiding the US and consumers spending less. Travel experts feel this will extend into more revenue and booking losses for the years ahead. While the economy has flagged amidst the Trump tariffs, there are many positive…
Have you Given Up On SEO? SEO has been in vogue in digital marketing for over 30 years, before I started in 1998. And for the last 15 years, the rumors of SEO is dead were part of the buzzword narrative, to sell more SEO. In reality, the doomsday phrase should have been “SEO is…
The Ultimate Guide to PPC Optimization and Lead Generation At some point in time as a small business owner, you have launched an online ad campaign on Facebook or Google, and likely discovered how difficult it is to produce leads and revenue. Your budget suffered and so did your confidence. Then you wondered if ppc…
Moving Forward with Your Travel Content I just visited an interesting and luxuriously branded website at Velyagroup.com that you’ll instantly recognize as unique and elegant. What a great start to build a unique spot in the travel market landscape! There’s something Velya Group may be missing though — real, authentic content experiences for their audience…
The Untapped Wealth of Search Engines In other posts, you saw how much consumer online search traffic there is – trillions of searches by consumers actively seeking products/services — to fulfill their intent. It’s not like social media where users are inundated with irrelevant, low-intent topics/ads they have little interest in. And social doesn’t connect…
Blogs Drive Engagement, Leads & Revenue Today, with the competitive noise, spam and AI-generated material on social media, blogs, websites, customers need travel agencies or Realtors that are relevant, authentic and trustworthy. Your blog is ideally suited to communicate the values they respect and the offer that matches their intent. When a blog is designed…
Meeting the SMB Challenge Ahead: A New Strategy The US and especially the Canadian economy are not powering small businesses in 2025 and economic indicators are signalling trouble ahead. Not to be dour here, but rather to suggest that business reorganization and marketing optimization are a practical adaptation to the reality of the deteriorating economy….
Build Deep Insights of Your Targeted Travelers If you’re fortunate enough to have website traffic, social engagement, leads, and traveler inquiries, you may still struggle to convert those leads. It’s because they’re not getting the content experience that meets all their needs. You can improve conversions through understanding the why’s and whats via user-intent analysis,…
Massive Global Market: Your International Content Strategy How nice would it be to relax and enjoy an amazing and massive flow of travel customers from across the globe, wowed by your brand and content, fully trusting that booking with you is a great decision sure to satisfy? Sometimes a wider audience is the solution to…
✍ How To Optimize Your Travel/Tour Descriptions Hundreds of millions of travelers are online, mostly using Google, and they follow a finding path to destinations, hotels, trips, tours and more. Everything they see on their path to travel fulfillment, that stream of travel content is a description of a desired experience. The final destination…
💵 Buy Now Pay Later a Growing Opportunity in Travel Market While many wealthy Canadian, European, and American travelers can easily pay for their vacations and trips, most others are stretched to make them happen. Not being able to buy a travel package right away, as expected, means they don’t. And that results in making…
✈️ Fun Trip Ideas for Summer & Fall 2025 Summer of 2025 is arriving and a lot of Americans don’t have travel plans. Travel surveys show travelers have put off their trips due to economic or political friction issues. But when the summer heat and sunshine arrive, we’re longing to lounge on a beautiful sandy…
⚡ Why You Need Me on Your Travel Marketing Team If you own or manage a traditional travel agency, you’re likely concerned about keeping your loyal clientele, and creating more bookings and clients via word of mouth. Travel is competitive and the market is aging, changing, and it has slowed which I’m sure you know…
The State of Hotel SEO Travelers from Europe, Asia, South America and in North America conduct billions of searches for hotel rooms. Given the scarcity and cost of hotel accommodations, they may see the hotel search as the most important aspect of their itinerary planning. All travelers need a place to stay. SEO is a…
🛡️ Bulletproof Hotel Marketing While the leisure travel market has returned to surpass pre-pandemic levels and B2B travel continues to recover, there remains significant headwinds for small to mid-sized US hotels. While hotel businesses spend fortunes on physical assets and advertising, it’s wise for CEOs and marketing managers to reconsider the power of digital marketing…
Fix the 7 Weaknesses of Traditional Tour Marketplace & Operator Models Tours as relevant, integrated parts of the travel experience are becoming an essential part of the travel value proposition for many travel companies. It’s because tourists expect more from companies, something many travel companies can’t deliver. There’s opportunity then for innovative, audacious entrepreneurs, to…
🤩 How Tour Companies & Marketplaces Can Attract Travelers & Tour Guides A new view of the global tours market is evolving. Tour companies, tour guides, and tour marketplaces are awakening to the realization that tour quality itself is central to the fulfilling travel experiences that travelers want. And customized, personalized tours may work well…
😎 Compelling Reasons Why You Should Choose the Travel Sector I’ve worked with clients in many sectors, but I’m most enthused about the travel sector. I’ve found real estate and the sports equipment sectors stimulating too. But there’s just something about travel that puts it front and center. It’s not just about living the good…
🚗Top Tour Marketplaces Online The tour industry has grown in leaps and bounds, as global travelers search eagerly on Google, Bing and tour company websites for interesting travel experiences. Travelers want something invigorating or interesting to do for a sense of personal meaning, and a feeling that they’re immersed in these wonderful places. It’s all…
Launch and Scale a Better Travel Agency The travel market forecast for the next 5 years is positive. The world craves new, novel adventures and experiences and in the era of AI job loss and business destruction, travel will hold its own. In fact, AI CRM and AI travel planners eliminate mundane work and satisfy…
Navigating Challenges and Threats Through the Next 5 Years Without good insights into demand, trends, challenges and threats, it might be hard for travel agency owners, DMO chiefs, and hotel managers to feel really confident about their travel marketing strategy — whether for 2025-2026 or the long view. With the stakes high, going down the…
🧭Navigating the US Travel Landscape for 2025-2026 The US travel industry is already navigating some choppy waters this year for a number of reasons. There’s the vascillating and painful import tariffs along with immigration rules that deter inbound international travel. And many are holding off until the fledgling Trump economy begins to accelerate in 2026….
How AI Tools Empower Your Key Personnel for Big Bottom-Line Impact It’s estimated that 25% of digital marketers have been replaced by AI powered software tools. In fact, companies are reorganizing and flattening their employee/freelance hierarchies given the pluses that AI is providing. Aside from the customer-side tools available (e.g., AI travel itinerary generators and…
Visibility is Everything Whether you’re in the travel business or in real estate sales, being discovered and getting your message heard is paramount. And I’m reminded of what SparkToro’s well-known CEO and co-Founder, Rand Fishkin said recently — that discovery is the next big marketing objective, ahead of clicks. Because as he puts it, being…