Message from our Board Chair
Hello Friends in Travel!
Brenda and I just got back from Ireland with our group, our first extended tour in over 2 years. It was a great time, a wonderful shared experience with our travelers and the friends we made in Ireland, but it really made me recognize how things will be different going forward. How different our expectations are when we interact with each other sitting on a motorcoach, staying in a hotel or eating in a restaurant. As much as I think we’d all like to go back to the way it was before 2020, it isn’t and we aren’t. My hope is we’ll be better for it, and continue to come up with healthy, safe and efficient ways to service our travelers. That we’ll no longer talk “restrictions” but expectations. I know that by next Peer Group we’ll all have great stories and advice for each other after another year of travel experience in this changed environment.
“No touch” has become one of those expectations. Many restaurants no longer have physical menus, but you scan a QR code when you enter their establishment and you can see the menu on your phone. Have you thought about the use of QR codes when promoting your group travel? I appreciate the ability to do everything from my phone, and I would venture to say others do too. We heard at conference that our PTOs are creating personalized websites for our travelers to see our personalized trip information and our travelers can sign up and pay for their trip right on that site. How convenient! If I could send a newsletter with trip information along with a QR code for them to scan and it takes them right to our website, even better! Or you could use a QR code to show the full brochure for a trip, use a QR code to bring people to your newsletter content, the possibilities are really endless. You can easily create your own QR codes for free, one site I found is www.qr-code-generator.com. I know we’ll give it a try; I’ll be interested to hear if anyone else has success with this or maybe you are currently using them successfully. What a great call to action!
So, here’s to our foray back into travel! I look forward to hearing your creative ways to connect with your travelers! I’ll leave you with a quote from Maya Angelou that resonates with me. We happened to have had a really funny, knowledgeable and endearing motorcoach driver/guide while in Ireland. When one of our travelers asked me what was my favorite part of the trip, I told them it was Philip, our driver. He really made the trip extra special with his genuine nature, stories and humor. I don’t remember any of the “facts” he told us while on our adventure, but I’ll always remember the fun we had with him and how well he took care of us.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
Allison
Allison Whalen
Summit Club Director
F & M Community Bank
Preston, MN
