Are the stories true: Is your business booming right now?
Marianne DeIulio's phone is ringing off the hook with people who want to travel.
"These last few years have been great for my business as I have a lot of word-of-mouth, happy clients who are referring friends and relatives to me," said DeIulio, an independent travel consultant with Just Travelin'.
She is so busy that she's considering hiring an assistant to help with paperwork, balance reminders, thank you cards and general back office work.
"Growth is very good, but I don't want to get too overwhelmed that I start to neglect the little things that have made my business so great," she said.
Sara Locke's business has been on the rise for a couple of years now, with last year ending at 200 percent against fiscal year 2015.
"Online booking is becoming less appealing as travelers realize that there is no time savings to booking themselves unless their only concern is to sort by price and book that lowest price option," said Locke of Book Better Travel. "Our clients want more value, and they come to us to ensure that they are getting it."
Daniel Hauptfeld, Marketing Director of Katarina Line, said that his company has always had strong bookings from Europe but is now seeing increasing interest from North America, especially for their small ship cruising in Croatia.
"It's catching on as Americans and others realized that it is very similar to river cruising in Europe," he said.
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Virtuoso continues to see healthy increases in sales as well.
"Our 2016 annual sales were more than $21.2 billion, which is a new network high and up 37 percent from the previous year," said Terrie Hansen, Virtuoso senior vice president, marketing.
"For summer 2017, we're seeing a 9-10 percent year-over-year increase. Virtuoso has also added 33 percent more travel advisors (more than 15,200 total now) due to growth both at existing member travel agencies as well as agencies that have recently joined Virtuoso."
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