Our newspaper advertising program is winding down for the 2009 tour season and now it’s time to start planning for the 2010 tour season. We will begin advertising our 2010 tours in the Fall. You can view our newspaper advertising program here. See which newspapers are available here.
Now more then ever, it is crucial to advertise. People are still looking to travel, but you have to advertise to find them because they won’t find you unless you do. What better way to advertise than to have someone pay for half the cost? To get your newspaper reserved for your travel agency please call 800-968-9161 and ask for Justin (ext 253).

When was the last time your website was indexed by Google or Bing? (Bing is Microsoft’s Re-branded search engine). Find your site on either of those two search engines and click on the link called either cached or cached page. A note at the top will show a date indicating the last time that search engine re-indexed that page. Search Engines love new content, so the more you update your website the more often the search engines will index your pages. This also helps on your rankings. So make sure you update your pages as often as possible.

Now’s the time to block your group space for 2010 in order to secure the best dates. If you block your group space before July 30th, you’ll receive free promotional assistance for your group. Choose one of these options: 200 customized direct mail pieces, 100 customized postcards, or 1 webpage. To reserve your 2010 Europe group, contact Justin by phone at 800/968-9161 ext. 253 or through email.

Our current special that we are promoting is Savings of 0 to 00 per couple on our September 16th & October 5th departure of our 15-day Heart of Europe SQ Special Itinerary, if your clients book by July 15, 2009. As many of you have requested, we will be sending a promotion designed to be forwarded to your clients via e-mail. It will follow this Update in a separate e-mail with the subject line of; “Current Europe Special” Click here to see a sample of the “Current Special.”

The early booking deadline for fall departures is coming up on June 24th. If you have clients interested in booking the fall departures please follow up with them and let them know of this deadline and save them some money on their Europe vacation.

Here is a simple, cost-free step that will help to improve Local Online Search results for your agency. Go to Google, and in the search box type in “Travel Agent 00000″ but replace the zero’s with your zip code. Does your agency come up in the search? If yes, consider yourself lucky and know that you may not be there very long without acting NOW. If NO, consider the next step a secret that 95% of your local competitors do not know about YET. Go to http://www.GetListed.org, and follow their directions to CLAIM your local listing on Google, Yahoo & MSN. Do you need a website to do this? NO. Does it cost money? NO. So what are you waiting for?! Why even do this? Read this article. Stay tuned for more search engine tips in future Image Up-Date emails.

Be sure to check out the latest AVAILABILTY AT A GLANCE bulletin, listing the 2009 departure dates still available for sale. This bulletin also notes which departures are GUARANTEED and what DISCOUNT amounts we are offering for each departure date. Please note that our September 14 departure of the Heart of Europe Special is almost sold out, but we do have a September 16 and October 5 departure available. Encourage clients to hold their space as the ‘Special’ departure dates are filling up within a few weeks of opening new departure dates. The 12-Day London, Paris, Rome Tour has been very popular this year. We have sold out the September 11 departure, but still have availability for a September 18 departure and we are currently offering a 0 per person (0 per couple) discount for land and air inclusive reservations on this departure, if booked before 6/24/09. To see a list of the current discounts available for each departure and a list of guaranteed departures, please click here.

Our current special that we are promoting is Savings of 0 to 00 per couple on our September 16th & October 5th departure of our 15-day Heart of Europe SQ Special Itinerary, if your clients book by June 24, 2009. As many of you have requested, we will be sending a promotion designed to be forwarded to your clients via e-mail. It will follow this Update in a separate e-mail with the subject line of; “Current Europe Special” Click here
to see a sample of the “Current Special“

That’s what an agent recently did when she mailed out 100 of our free postcards to some of her client leads and booked two couples. It really was that simple: we printed the postcards, shipped them to the agent, she addressed them, stamped and mailed them. Two weeks later she has 4 people booked on a 2009 tour and is very happy she took the time to ask for the 100 postcards. Would you like to do the same? Click on this link and we’ll send you 100 free postcards and maybe you can be our next success story.

A number of Image Tours’ departures are already GUARANTEED DEPARTURES. Better yet, your clients can still get the 0 per person Early Booking Discount on these guaranteed departures, while space lasts. To see a list of the current discounts available for each departure and a list of guaranteed departures, please click here. If you have any questions please call reservations at 800-968-9161 and press 1.