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Trabler Travel Tales

by Walt McConville

135 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0523; ISBN 1-55369-710-3; US$16.50, C$18.75, EUR13.50, £9.50

Have you ever wondered just what goes on behind the scenes in your average travel agency? These hard-hitting stories portray little-known facts that may either comfort or disturb you, depending on actual circumstances.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts or Table of Contents      catalogue info

About the Book FIFTEEN FICTIONAL FANTASIES Founded on Fact Sexy, sensational, and sometimes scary. Such are the situations assaulting us in this tome of tell-all travel tales. Terry Trabler, the author's alter ego, gives us an inside glimpse of a glamorous industry that, groan by groan, has grown and GROWN. A really-must-read for agents and adjudicators alike!

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About the Author After completing his education in Vancouver and Calgary, Walt was employed by International Petroleum Company for 11 years in Ecuador and Peru. On returning to Canada, he was 37 years in the travel field "telling people where to go," managing various agencies, and escorting worldwide tours and cruises until his retirement. Past newsletter editor, archivist, and vice president of Victoria & Islands branch of the Canadian Authors Association, Walt currently tutors an authors' poetry group, while attempting to reconcile today's trendy "shock-type" literature with previous conventional styles. He has written seven books, a couple of plays, three musicals, and over 500 poems, technical articles and short stories published in Canada, Peru, the U.K., and U.S.A. Walt's travel expertise shines through these fast-moving and intriguing short stories, based on years of sharp observation and humorous perception of people's reactions to what takes place far from their familiar home front. Walt McConville has also written a collection of "Poems With Punch" in a book called "FIERY FACETS." It can be ordered from PRIMROSE PRESS at 317-1236 Verdier Avenue, Brentwood Bay, BC, V8M 1P3, Canada, for $15.95 Can/$10.95 U.S. per copy, plus $4.00 postage and handling for the first and $2.00 for each additional book, autographed by the author." Walt's novel ANXIOUS IN TALARA is also available through Trafford Publishing. Kindly visit its web site at www.trafford.com/robots/00-0231.html.

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Sample Excerpts

TRABLER BACKS PARTY-POOPERS

Although shameful and in retrospect difficult to condone, it nevertheless must be acknowledged that in the pioneer days of our nation success in "subduing the savage" was managed with barrels of booze. Unscrupulous traders introduced Indians and Eskimos to the white man's "firewater" as a means of obtaining better terms from the natives in their bartering transactions.

Occasionally, of course, this procedure would backfire when certain natives got too deeply into the alcohol and took to the warpath. The heads that planned the party then got scalped.

In the early days of the travel industry the big barons of big transportation similarly blandished their agents by bottle in an attempt to buy their loyalty. A railroad would launch a sales promotion, (and much later, airlines copied the same formula) by overwhelming their protégés with abundant libation.

My name is Terry Trabler. As owner/manager of a travel agency for more years than I care to remember, I vividly recall the days when such "presentations" took place.

The seminar site was usually a well-known hotel, although now and then it could be the posh Union Club or a trendy golf clubhouse or other recreation complex.

The program seldom varied. Drinks would be served to all and sundry along with hot and cold hors d'oeuvres or nibblies. After an hour or so, as the imbibing agents began to achieve a comfortable glow, the host sponsors would usher them into an adjoining room--where they were exposed to either a film or a slide show extolling the company's destinations and services.

"This drill is all fine and dandy," said my friendly competitor Mike Johnson one night after such a seminar, "but your average Joe Blow agent reports to his office only a muddled version of what the promotion was all about."

"You mean a convivial atmosphere tends to impair cerebral retention?" I suggested, quoting from a recent trade magazine.

"Exactly,Terry. Speaking for myself, afer three or four drinks I'm apt to be a bit vague when it comes to recalling, say, an aircraft configuration or a categorical price structure."

"Good point, Mike. Which translates into relaying a half-baked picture to our clients, right?"

"Right on. We're actually failing them if we're not passing along a clear picture of what we supposedly learn at so-called professional sales presentations."

"So how can we improve on the situation?"

"Terry, I've been thinking about this for quite a while. If my people at Keating, you folks at Trabler, Gerry Smythe and his gang at the Auto Club and a few other top-producing agencies held a series of meetings, we just might come up with a dozen or two recommendations for suppliers. If enough of us got on the band wagon, they might even listen."

"You mean we'd go to the airlines, cruise lines, car rental agencies, tour operators and hotels, with suggestions on how they should run their business?"

"No, Terry. Only suggestions on how they could make their seminars a little more helpful and meaningful."

"Well, we can try.The idea's good, Mike, but most of these guys are quite hidebound and I'll wager we meet with sarcastic opposition--not necessarily from the reps themselves, but from the people in control."

"Terry, I always believe in giving the other fellow a chance to say his own 'no.' But if we keep hammering away, who can tell what we might achieve in the long run?"

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The idea appealed to some of the other agents. It sounded so simple and logical. We would recommend that all suppliers' sales reps give out brochures to the agents at the beginning of each seminar. These would be gone over in depth, paragraph by paragraph, and price chart by price chart, iving everybody the opportunity to ask questions and take notes. Immediately after, when all the agents had absorbed the information, refreshments would be served as a reward for their patience.

Mike and I as spokesmen for the group, following numerous discussions and suggestions, outlined our deliberations to the various suppliers in our immediate area.

"You fellows must be out of your mind," they told us. "To begin with, by cutting out the customary liquor we'd probably draw less than half the normal crowd. And the no-shows would be circulating a garbled version of our message."

"But your message is garbled already," we protested. "In the current setup, by the time it gets to the agents most of them are too sloshed to sort out the details."

"Well, tough bananas, guys. We can't possibly undermine years of established tradition."

"But you're just working against your own interests since misinformation is worse than no information at all."

"Sorry. Even if you should be right, which we doubt, there is no way we could compromise. Our Higher-Ups call the shots and we're obliged to comply--no matter how you or we react. Orders are orders. Sorry, no deal."

After hearing the same line of reasoning from some twenty suppliers Mike and I felt as though we'd been tugged through a knothole backwards. What appeared to us a logical solution struck them as outrageous. Hell hath no fury like somebody whose pet addictions one tries to eliminate. Each call showed us what a tough job we'd undertaken.

"Don't propose doing away with a time-tested formula that everybody's happy with," one supplier quipped. "Upsetting a comfort station would raise a stink we'd never stifle."

So it continued, year after year. The same old rigmarole -- the same old diehard objections, even from people we took to be reasonably broadminded and innovative.

"Mike," I finally suggested, "instead of using this shotgun approach why don't we single out one particular supplier and really concentrate on getting his cooperation?"

"It might work," he conceded."So far we've tried just about everything else with no success."

(Continued in the book)

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Catalogue Information

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