The merits of travel industry fluency

Independent travelers often have a love/hate relationship with the travel industry.

The love: Transportation networks make things easy. Beds of all calibers are usually easy to find. Information about places we’ve never been to has been collected and bound into books.

The hate: The industry’s ability to funnel large numbers of people into a single place. Over-marketing. Price gouging.

The love and hate aren’t always on equal footing: It’s easy to be more conscious of the negatives than the benefits received. But no matter its shortcomings, it’s important to be fluent in the workings of the multibillion dollar per year travel industry.

-You have to know when the high season is to know when it’s off-season.

-It’s good to keep abreast of niche products that just might work for you, like the multi-stop tickets Jessica recently posted here.

-There are needs within the industry that you might be able to fill, in exchange for cash or free travel.

-Knowing what’s on offer in a given city — hotels, travel services, guides, etc. —  gives you at least a backup plan.

Though we often travel outside of it, why else should vagabonds have a working knowledge of the travel industry? Interested to hear your thoughts…

Photo by Jan Van Schijndel via Flickr.

Posted by | Comments (1)  | November 10, 2010
Category: On The Road, Vagabonding Life


One Response to “The merits of travel industry fluency”

  1. The merits of travel industry fluency « Minimalisttravel's Blog Says:

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