Posted by David Porter on February 9, 2017 · 1 Comment
Come Join Us
2nd Annual Scottsdale Luxury + Adventure Travel Show
Roaming Boomers Travel Services, along with Cadence Travel (our host agency), invites you to the 2nd Annual Luxury + Adventure Travel Show in Scottsdale, Arizona at the beautiful Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale Troon North on Saturday, March 4th from 1:30 – 4:00 PM.
Explore luxury and adventure travel brands as you move from booth to booth. Who knows, perhaps you’ll discover a bucket worthy destination or experience that you’ve never even heard of before.
Come Join Us. 2017 Luxury + Adventure Travel Show!
It’s Free & Fun!
Thinking about an African Safari? We’ve got that covered. Thinking about a sailing-yacht adventure in Bora Bora. Got that covered. Thinking about a European river cruise? Covered. Ocean cruise in the Baltic’s? Gotcha covered. Expedition sailing in the Galapagos or the Antarctic? Covered.
You get the idea right? You’re going to be able to rub elbows with many of the world’s great travel brands to ask questions, explore destinations, and much more. It’s a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
Plus, if you like travel catalogs, you’ll be able to bring home scores of ’em from brands like Viking, Oceania, Windstar, Silversea, Zeagrahm Expeditions, Star Clippers, Hyatt, Jumeirah, Doyle Collection, Kurtz Ahlers, Big Five Tours + Expeditions, and many more!
Plus, of course, we’ll have scrumptious complimentary appetizers and wine.
So, have I convinced you to come join Carol and me for a fun afternoon at our 2017 Luxury + Adventure Travel Show? We hope so!
Here’s the details:
What: 2017 Luxury +Adventure Travel Show
Where: Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale Troon North, 10600 E Crescent Moon Dr, Scottsdale, AZ 85262
When: March 4, 2017 from 1:30 – 4:00.
Why: You’re going to find fabulous bucket-worthy adventures as you stroll from table to table noshing on delish appetizers and sipping wine.
To register your attendance, please complete the following:
Note: we only have room for 120 of you, so register soon to assure your spot. Don’t delay!
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our travel newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.
Posted by David Porter on February 3, 2017 · Leave a Comment
TSA Warning: No READ ID, No Boarding Planes for 5 U.S. States
As we’ve shared with you in past articles, there has been a battle with a number of states and the TSA over acceptable ID at airport security checkpoints.
Well, it seems that 5 states remain non-compliant and as of January 22, 2017, the residents of these 5 state will no longer be able to use their state-issued driver’s licenses as identification to board aircraft in the U.S.
As of January 22, residents of Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, and Washington may not use your state-issued driver’s license or ID for domestic air travel.
Further, there are a whole slew of states who do not meet the Federal standards and have been granted extensions until later in the year; some in June, some in October.
Passed by Congress in 2005, the REAL ID Act established minimum security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards and prohibits federal agencies, like TSA, from accepting licenses and identification cards for official purposes from states that do not meet these standards.
To learn your state’s compliance on this issue, CLICK HERE. And for a TSA Fact Sheet on this issue, CLICK HERE.
What to do if your state is non-compliant, or about to become non-compliant? You’re going to need a passport to fly both domestically and internationally.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our travel newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.
Posted by David Porter on February 1, 2017 · 2 Comments
Newspaper article on us when we began to garner some local and national attention.
For The First Time In History, More Than Half Of U.S. Travel Agents Are Home-Based
According to a recent article in Travel Market Report, for the first time in history, more than half of U.S. travel agents are home-based.
I find it interesting how the business world is continually morphing, and in particular, how decades-old business paradigms are shattered on nearly a daily basis.
Heck, ten years ago, we all thought travel agents were a dead and forgotten industry. Little did we know that the travel agent of old would turn travel advisor, open home-based businesses, and experience one of the most remarkable comebacks in recent business history.
I can tell you that while Carol and I decided a number of years ago to forge a new path in our lives, we had absolutely no idea that we would give birth to a new and vibrant travel business.
If you remember, the 2008 stock market crash had decimated nearly half of our retirement assets. Carol and I had planned and saved for decades to pull this off, and this was a real blow to our plan as we were just two years into our early retirement. OUCH!
After sucking my thumb for a bit (Carol says a long time), we decided to see if we couldn’t launch a business in the travel world that would allow us to create a new income and allow us to continue the travel we had dreamed of for decades.
Roaming Boomers, Crystal Cruises Alaska 2017
In 2010, we launched The Roaming Boomers website. We saw that there was a massive shift occurring in the way the public was getting their travel information and we decided to take a leap of faith and start our own travel blog targeted towards the baby boomer traveler.
In just a few years, we had hundreds of thousands of boomers reading our articles each year, and remarkably, there was an overwhelming cry from our readers wanting help with their travel planning.
Therefore, in 2014, Carol and I launched Roaming Boomers Travel Services. A full-service travel agency that we operate right out of our home. We figured that because folks were interacting with us via the Internet and telephone, there was no sense in incurring the expense of a traditional brick-and-mortar office in some strip mall.
And you know what really boggles our minds? In just three short years, our home-based travel agency has blown its way into the top 10% of all travel agents, and it looks like before the month of January is over, we’re very likely to have $450,000 in travel bookings for the month. While I don’t know this for certain, we’re told that those in the top 10% of travel agents do $1 million of sales in a year, and we just did nearly half that in one month.
Can you see why our minds are blown? Remember, we were of the belief that travel agents were a dead and forgotten institution of the past. And here we are, six years from starting a website that no one had ever heard of, to having a vibrant and growing travel business.
Who’d a thunk?
So, as we’ve said many times in the past, Carol and I are very thankful. Thankful to have found a new business that incorporates our love of travel. Thankful to the readers of our website. Thankful to our travel agency clients. Thankful to live in a country where such a thing is even possible. Thankful that God has created a beautiful world for us to explore. And I’m particularly thankful for my bride of 31 years who is my daily companion in this unforeseen and remarkable journey.
In closing, we thought you might find it interesting to learn that the travel agency world is alive and doing very well. And we further thought you might find it interesting that over half of today’s travel agencies are actually home-based and that they are contributing untold billions in bookings each year.
Moral to the story? If you’re not already working with one of today’s new breed of travel advisor, perhaps it’s time you took a few minutes to chat with one of them to see what the fuss is all about. Maybe, just maybe, your paradigm will change and you’ll find a new travel advisor in your corner giving you advice, travel clout, and saving you a lot of time, money, and hassle.
And now, here’s a shameless commercial plug…
We would love the opportunity to share the benefits and value we might bring to your future travel planning. To learn more, call our travel agency at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online information request (click here) and we’ll reach out to you. Thank you, and we look forward to serving you.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our travel newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.
Posted by David Porter on January 28, 2017 · Leave a Comment
Viking Cruises Informational Evening. Click for larger view.
Early 2017 Booking Surge Suggests Strong Year for Travel
We shared with you back in November that after the election we witnessed an impressive surge in travel bookings. Well, now that the holidays are behind us, that surge has increased and we’re experiencing a dizzying flurry of travel bookings for 2017.
Let me give you two pieces of evidence from our own experience:
- On January 21st of this year, we held a Viking River and Ocean Cruise informational evening (pictured above). We booked a room that could comfortably hold 100 people. In two days, our event was sold out with 47 people on a waiting list. Fortunately, we were able to scramble and put together another back-to-back event to accommodate all of the folks.
- January is always one of the busiest months for bookings at Roaming Boomers Travel Services as the first quarter of the year is the cruise industry’s “wave season” and folks are booking ocean and river cruises for the coming year. Well, our bookings are up 45% from last year’s very busy January.
So, I suppose this begs the question: why are travel bookings up so much in 2017?
Well, there seems to be a new economic optimism from the recent presidential election. And, the U.S. Dollar is soaring against foreign currencies making travel less expensive than it has been in decades. The combination of these two powerful forces has ignited a fire storm of early bookings in the travel industry.
Moral to the story? Book Now!
If you’re planning an international journey in 2017, we highly recommend that you get your travel planning done right away. Consider that fact that there are 80,000,000 baby boomer travelers who all predominantly want to go to Europe, and many of those are looking for river cruises. The supply isn’t infinite and I’m afraid that those who wait a few months are going to find the best river cruises, the best ocean cruises, and the best hotels and resorts completely sold out.
Consider yourself warned. 😊
Carol and I are expert travel planners and we have the experience to whisk you through the massive crowds of folks looking to book a fun journey for 2017. Why try and go it alone when we’re here to come alongside and help.
To book a fun land journey, river cruise, or ocean cruise (anywhere in the world) call our travel agency at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online information request (click here) and we’ll reach out to you.
Not sure where to go, or what to do in 2017? Come poke around our travel dreams website for hotels, resorts, ocean cruises, river cruises, small group land journeys and much more, CLICK HERE.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our travel newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.
Posted by David Porter on January 25, 2017 · Leave a Comment
Viking World Cruise 120 Days
Los Angeles to London
5 Continents | 27 Countries | 55 Ports | 120 Days
Space is running out! Book by January 31, 2017 to secure your stateroom and receive over $18,133 in included value per guest.* Plus, for a limited time only, single travelers who book a Deluxe Veranda (DV2) receive 25% off our single supplement. Offer Expires January 31, 2017.
Journey on a small ship with only 930 guests, on the World’s #1 Ocean Cruise Line. Don’t miss Viking’s first-ever world cruise on January 5, 2018, as the newest oceangoing vessel in their award-winning fleet, Viking Sun®, celebrates her maiden season in the most spectacular way: by cruising around the world from Los Angeles to London.
And, you’ll travel with Viking®, named the #1 Ocean Cruise Line by Travel + Leisure readers in the World’s Best Awards 2016. In addition, it’s their 20th Anniversary—and what better way to commemorate this milestone with them than by achieving multiple travel accomplishments yourself?
Talk about a trip of a lifetime! To learn more, CLICK HERE.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up for our travel newsletter to keep abreast of our best travel tips, on-location reviews, exclusive travel offers, group travel events, and much more.
The Roaming Boomers
