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Even with a sluggish economy pinching
some travelers’ pocketbooks, David
Rojahn has found success in what
experts say remains a continually growing and
lucrative market: family travel.
Rojahn, president of DTR Travel Inc. in
Denver, started his agency 15 years ago. But
four years ago, he shifted gears and began
catering specifi cally to family travel.
“With the migration of customers to online
booking, family travel was the market where
we could see growth,” Rojahn said. “We tend to
attract families of fi ve or more because it’s hard
for them to book online.”
In the past two years, surveys have found
that family travel grew at a faster rate than
all other sectors of leisure travel as weary
consumers took refuge in reuniting and
reconnecting with family and friends.
Last month, a Travel Industry Association/
Ypartnership survey found that 63 percent
of respondents believe leisure travel brings
family members together and 58 percent feel
leisure travel is very important to their wellbeing.
An American Express Travel survey of 501
U.S. adults also found that nearly 90 percent
said they would continue to travel — despite
economic pressures — to pursue personal
passions.
All of that has meant good news for agents
tapping into the family travel market, including
Rojahn, who said he is seeing a growing number
of multiple families also seeking to vacation
together as a group.
DTR specializes in family travel to Mexico
and Rojahn said he scouts out the region four
or fi ve times a year, developing personal relationships
with vendors and suppliers and posting
his own hotel inspections and reviews on
his Web site.
Rojahn said a key marketing tactic that has
ensured DTR’s success has been its investment
in search engine optimization to boost his
agency’s Web site returns among top search engine
results for family travel.
Experimenting with key words or paying
search engines for placement can mean the
difference between landing a family group or
not even being seen. TravelAge West recently
did a Google search on “family travel,” and
pulled up 67.2 million sites. Knowing which
key words will land your site at the top of that
list is crucial.
Experts say another key is to feature destinations,
resorts and other offerings on your
site, but don’t give out all of the information.
You want the customer to call you for more
information, not go directly to the source.
And Rojahn suggests agents seeking to lure
family travelers online hone their writing
skills.
“In the online arena, one typo can lose you
business,” said Rojahn.
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