by Robin Amster
Last updated: 8:00 PM ET, Tue August 22, 2017
Knowing a great deal about a few areas of travel--versus a little about many-is called specialization and it's a strategy that a growing number of agents have embraced as the path to success.
One agent, however, has taken that strategy a step further by specializing in-and selling-just one product.
Dina Dini, of Wellington, Florida-based Dina Dini Travel has specialized and sold virtually one product-Amtrak Vacations in the U.S. and Canada-since becoming an independent agency in the Avoya Network. Her 2016 sales were more than $300,000.
Following a 25-year background in aviation-she retired in 1995 as All Nippon Airways' director of reservations for North America-Dini decided to make what she calls a life change that led her to a new career as a travel agent.
Following a friend's recommendation, she checked out the Avoya network online and signed on in 2014.
Dini took advantage of the host agency's Live Leads program right off. The patented program matches customer leads-via internet, text, phone or mobile app-with one of Avoya's independent agencies. That lead was for a cruise but it wasn't a great fit for Dini.
"I was overwhelmed," she said with all of the cruise line promotions and other factors involved in booking a cruise. "I had a momentary panic and thought, 'did I do the right thing?'"
[READMORE]READ MORE: To Niche or Not to Niche[/READMORE]
Enter Amtrak Vacations.
Avoya sent out an email saying it needed Amtrak Vacation specialists and Dini answered that she was interested.
The niche was a natural for her.
"My background was in air so I was a specialist there; I likened it [rail] to air where each client was a PNR and it all fell into place for me," she said. "I've done rail travel in the U.S., in Europe and in Japan, so I do love it. That brought it home that I'm comfortable doing this."
Dini also believes specialization is the way to go, especially for new-to-the-industry agents.
"Specialization is critical for starting out because there are so many products out there and if you don't know a product well it will come across," she said. "A generalist can't know as much as you'd probably want to know about the product. Specialists set themselves apart."
Step one for Dini was to learn everything there is to know about Amtrak Vacations and that meant learning the rail line's schedule and making certain she had the most solid knowledge possible of U.S. geography.
"Knowing a product inside out so that you can almost quote it with your eyes closed, gives the client confidence," she said. "When you spread yourself too thin and someone asks that one question and you stumble, you lose credibility."
Most of Dini's business comes from Avoya's Live Leads, but she also has clients who are family and friends and repeat clients who want to take multiple Amtrak vacations.
[READMORE]READ MORE: Why I Specialize: Travel Agent Nicole Thibault[/READMORE]
But there are also repeat clients who want to venture beyond a rail vacation to take a cruise or land vacation, she said. Her approach in that case is the same as it's been for rail travel: learn as much as she can.
"Cruises, Europe...I'm also fortunate because I've done so much travel, chances are I've been there if someone asks me about a destination," she said.
Dini's Amtrak Vacations clients include families, seniors and honeymooners-yes, she said, Niagara Falls is still a big seller for honeymoons. Many of her senior clients, she adds, are Europeans, Australians and New Zealanders who want to see the U.S. by train, sometimes taking three- to five-week long rail vacations.
Millennials too are clients, a fact that might not fit the image of this generations' travel preferences.
But Millennials love doing cross country train vacations, according to Dini. "They love the experience of riding the rails; they'll often ride the train cross country and then fly home," she said.
Trains today also have facilities that some travelers might find surprising, Dini said.
Amtrak's Coast Starlight which runs from Seattle and Los Angeles via the San Francisco Bay area-one of the country's most spectacularly scenic routes-offers, for example, movies and wine tastings in its Pacific Parlour Car in addition to a dining car, café and sightseer lounge car.
Train travel's golden age may be gone but Dini believes that with trains like the Coast Starlight it could be returning.
Interest in rail vacations has also increased as some U.S. consumers, hesitant to travel internationally, have turned to domestic vacations. Thirty-two million customers, 85,700 a day, traveled on Amtrak in 2016, according to the company.
"Because of world situations, there are people who've said 'I had planned to go to Europe but I'm a little bit nervous now,' so I want something completely unique," said Dini. "They ask me, 'what do you suggest?'"
She always has the answer.
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