Greetings from Las Vegas.  We’re here attending the Home-Based agent show and the Luxury Travel Expo, so I thought I would post with some news.

First, I know December is normally slow for Vegas, but this place (Vegas in general, not our shows) is visibly empty.  Wow, I don’t recall such emptiness in a casino.  The trade shows were another story.  I’m so impressed with the travel agents that made the investment to show up and participate.  Both the home-based show and the Luxury show were fairly well attended and the quality of agent was very impressive.  I can tell you one thing; our booth was a few people deep much of the time.

I want to thank all the existing Tripologists who visited our booth to share success stories.  Honestly, your successes were the best sales “material” for the new agents interested in joining Tripology.  When agents would stop to ask us questions only to have them answered by other agents who use us, I was so very happy.  It’s validation that Tripology works.  Having successful Tripologists on hand was even more important when the few agents came up to tell us they couldn’t make Tripology work for them.  The successful Tripologists gave out pointers on how they use Tripology, what their conversion rates are, etc.  It was a wonderful experience.

Thanks to Jamie from Wandering Puffin Travel who came to listen to my panel participation on “High-tech, High-touch; Making Technology Work for you” presentation.  Jamie shared some comments and his Tripology successes with the audience.  Jamie’s apparently closed more than $230,000 in sales from Tripology leads since he started using us.  Not bad for a $2,000 investment.

Here’s what else I got from the show:  the recession is hurting everyone but there is still business out there for the taking.  Now, it’s harder to get, it takes more follow up, longer lead-time and extra sweat to get the booking, but many people are still traveling. Oh yes, and they’re looking for a deal (big surprise).

I know last month was tough, but how are you finding business in the past week?  Is it getting better? Let me know.