Step 1: Profile of travelers

One of the most important aspects in choosing the destination, is the age and interest suitability of the travelers, or a group of travelers. The age and interest can vary significantly across – young couples, middle aged friends, retired couple, a young family with kids or a larger family with older parents and younger kids. Similarly, destinations can vary significantly offering – honeymoon cottages or couple only hotels, all-night party and shopping, adventure activities, leisurely family fun with large common areas, tourist attractions with skip the line access for elders, theme-parks and water-parks for kids of different age groups. The information on profile of travelers is essential for your travel consultant in filtering the options, or to suggest alternatives.

Step 2: Time and duration of travel

Travel planned for a particular time of the year can rule out certain destinations due to unsuitable weather or even due to overcrowded tourist places during high season. This is also important since certain tourist attractions are closed during certain parts of the year, or you could be facing long queues and crowded places during high-season. This can also significantly impact your travel expense, without delivering commensurate pleasure. Your travel consultants can provide valuable information to avoid such misadventures, or even suggest options based on flexibility on dates of travel or alternate destinations. On the contrary, if you have a destination in mind, you travel consultant can suggest the most optimal time of the year, balancing the weather and avoiding extreme high-season. This advice can make your trip memorable, while delivering the bang for you buck. In fact, you might be able up the leisure and luxury experience, while keeping your travel budget the same.

Each destination has certain essential attractions to offer and then certain options based on your interests. Our endeavor is to ensure each attraction chose should be experienced leisurely, rather than in a hurried or superficial manner. This not only makes the visit memorable, but also helps your travel consultant choose the best local agents to make your visit comfortable. You definitely should avoid cheap and transactional local operators, who can be rude, unresponsive or inconsiderate.

Based on the essential attractions, you travel consultant would provide you options of different itineraries which can match your proposed duration of travel. It is important to note, that there should be a minimum threshold depending on the destination, to make the trip worthwhile e.g. if you are visiting a large city like London or Paris, you would require a minimum for 4 to 5 days to make it worthwhile. At the same time smaller cities can be planned for lesser number of days or clubbed with other cities e.g. Phuket for 3 days combined with 2 days in Bangkok or Krabi.

A related aspect of time and duration of travel, especially for international travel, is to plan your travel ahead of time. This increases the number of options, reduces the travel expense, as well as, avoids any visa delays impacting the travel plan. The ideal period to plan ahead is 3 months for Europe, US, Africa and Latin America, and 1 month for most of Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Middle East. Then there are certain exclusive experiences which need to be planned almost an year in advance e.g. northern lights viewing in Scandinavia, cherry blossom season in Japan, skiing at certain slopes in France, Switzerland or Austria.

Step 3: Objectives of the trip

The purpose of the trip provides useful information to the travel consultant to match the attractions and itineraries for the destination to these requirements. This is again a very important input which will help your consultant in providing you interesting information, which you might not have known earlier. E.g. a stag trip for bachelors or friends can be tuned to destinations and activities offering – sports, golf, adventure, whiskey tasting, car rentals etc., where as a bachelorette trip or group of lady friends would enjoy – shopping, wine tasting, spa treatments, limo and butler services etc. Similarly, trips for honeymoon, celebrating significant birthdays, family reunion can be planned keeping in mind activities an locations which make the trip memorable. Let your travel consultant suggest and surprise you with multiple ways of making it special.  

Step 4: Any destinations you want to avoid

If you have already visited certain destinations, and are not inclined to visit them again, it is an important input for your consultant. Most countries have lots to offer that you do not need to visit the same cities again or nature of experience can be completely different based on your itinerary, mode of transportation, and the kind of activities planned. E.g. you can experience Eiffel Tower by going up the elevator, or by having a meal at the restaurant on the higher level, or viewing from the Seine river cruise, or from a perfect viewing restaurant across the river, during the day for a photo op, or in the night to view the lights show. Your travel consultant can be your window to all of these possibilities, to make each experience unique and enjoyable.

What to avoid?

While a travel budget is an important input for your consultant, but do not start with a budget being your filter as this will take you down the path of similar destinations again and again.

Over influence by hearsay from friends or relatives can lead to you to be fixated with destination or itinerary without fully exploring better possibilities. While their feedback might honest and helpful, but it is based on their limited personal experience of one or more visits. You travel consultant can share richer experience with you.

Since choosing a destination is the most important decision in planning a trip, any change in this decision would impact the entire travel plan and consequently the travel expense, visa requirements etc. The decision to choose your destination should be made most consciously with due agreement with you fellow travelers and your travel consultant.

Thanks for reading. Please share your views and experiences with us. If you would like to know more, or have suggestions for another topic to be covered in this blog, please do write to us at info@corporatetravel.in