“YTB may well be the future of retail travel sales and deserves close study by the industry— not condemnation,” Phil Davidoff, president of Davidoff Associates and a former president of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) told Travel Agent in an interview.
Both Phil and his wife/partner, Doris Davidoff, taught two seminars at YTB’s recent national convention in St. Louis and offered praise for the quality of the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 agents who attended.
“The quality, degree of interest in travel as a profession and the awareness of the travel industry’s need for professionalism was clear to us,” Phil said. Phil and Doris are CTCs, CTIEs and MCCs, and long-standing "establishment" advocates.
The Davidoffs have been working with YTB to enhance its travel agent program along with another respected educator, Marc Mancini, who is assisting YTB in creating a comprehensive professional education and training program. “YTB is aggressively expanding its professional education program and we believe will produce productive and professional agents that will be a credit to the industry,” Mancini said.
“Virtually every new business model that has been developed in the industry— cruise-only agents, franchise agents and home based-agents, for example— have been targeted for criticism, sometimes unfairly,” Doris said. “YTB isn’t perfect, but their management is moving to build on their strengths.”
The Davidoffs stressed that they were advisors to YTB and that they maintain their independence. The two seminars on group travel, which they jointly presented, were attended by an estimated 450 at the first and 750 at the second.
“YTB is positioned to deliver market share to suppliers.” Phil said. “As long-standing champions of professionalism for travel agents, we believe YTB has the power to become a major selling force. They are aggressively marketing travel. And given the sheer numbers involved, YTB will produce a lot of well trained agents.
“What we suggest is that agents keep an open mind toward YTB and its agents. There are lessons to be learned for all of us,” Phil continued. “The real question is if they are expanding consumer demand for travel.”
The Davidoffs declined comment on pending legal action by the state of California’s Attorney General against YTB. The attorney general alleges that YTB has made deceptive claims to consumers.
Visit www.davidoffassociates.com.
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Well maybe the naysayers should cut ties with travel vendors who are sleeping with the enemy!! How a "bad" company like YTB could recieve the pinicale award from Carnival Cruise Lines or why travelocity, hotels.com and all those travel partners they have would team up with the likes of "those" people is absolutely beyond my comprehension...oh it must be because they know legit from not? If YTB really is all the negative they say they are then why are top travel vendors still asking to partner with them? And why have those that have been there from the beginning, except only one,continue their partnership? Sometimes ya just gotta say...HUUM!?!
Well hate to break the news, but YTB has got Everything in place and being a schooled Travel Agent in YTB I know what they are bringing on. It will be the BEST Travel Agent Certification Program EVER! So, Agents be prepared to be coming to our training to get trained as ours will be like I said the BEST in the industry, so like the old saying goes put that in your pipe and smoke it, cause YTB is SMOKIN!!!!!!!
No worries. In the time it takes to read these comments, this great company will continue to grow, the same people will continue to doubt, and many good and honest people will continue to build a solid income selling travel. I save my clients money more times than not. How fun is that?
Apparently there is a larger conflict of interest than the Davidoffs let on.
THey are members of YTB themselves so aside from being "industry experts" they also have a potential financial gain to make those statements.
Can Travel Agent magazine find out the URLs of their booking and recruiting sites?
Apparently ASTA (The ASTA of 2008 not 1992) disagrees pretty strongly with the Davidoff's assessment.
http://www.asta.org/News/PRDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=4330
The only way to fail in your business venture with YTB is not working the business! The training is there. The support is there. YTB doesn't take your money then tell you not to sell travel. YTB can't stop you from making money! Reps have to become students of the game. Reps must learn to take initiative to gain additional knowledge, take FAM trips to learn about the great places that are out that. Customers don't land you your lap. This is business. REPS HAVE TO PROMOTE THEIR BUSISNESS! I love YTB's business model.
To the guy who said, "leave God out of this", and others who chose to project this thought means that one, you truly have no idea of what this company is about and two, that you certainly are not a person of faith. That is ok. Our God loves you anyway. However, you naysayers have not done your homework when you project statements of opinion and not fact. Again, read the book, "ABC's", educate yourselves on the facts, also that our agents are required to attend training not only initially but ongoing. And as to the Coach, God Bless him, his dream and all of us who know, admire, respect and love him. As another said, "bring on the haters".
I am astounded that the Davidoff's and Mancini would compromise their standing in the travel agency community by taking up with YTB. They are no better than whores selling their books and training while singing the praises of pyramid schemes. Davidoff should be prohibited from using his past presidency of ASTA in this way. They have ruined their credibility with this cozy arrangement with YTB.
I was unaware that this had sudenly stopped being about business practices and is now a discussion of who is more righteous.
The issue here isn't how YTB is making money - MLM is fine if you want to get involved, more power to you.
The issue here is people with NO travel experience or knowledge claiming to be travel agents. This is akin to me purchasing a plunger and calling myself a plumber. A website and some supplier courses do not a travel agent make.
And leave God out of this. I've met some pretty shifty Christians in my time.
When I look at the negative comments made I think about a great book titled What Makes the Great Great.Greatness doesn't come without paying a price,I heard a Pastor once say that you know when you are
getting close to Greatness,because the Haters really start to come out.I Love The Haters
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