Home Past Newsletter Articles What Happens on a Fam Trip
What Happens on a Fam Trip Print E-mail
Written by Philip Banks   
When I tell people that I work for a travel agency, they usually comment that it must be great to be able to visit so many great vacation destinations. Travel is a wonderful perk of my profession. While we do get discounted and sometimes free vacations, Fam Trips are another travel perk we get. Cruise lines, tour companies, and convention and visitors bureaus sponsor these Fams, short for Familiarization Trips. A typical Fam will have 10-30 agents on it with one representative (leader) from the sponsor. On a three-night trip we will complete 10 to 20 site inspections (aka resort inspection). The second article in this newsletter is a detailed diary of what happened on a Cancun Fam I attended 4/30 to 5/3.

As I am writing this article, the Fam is still two weeks away. While I have not seen an attendance list, I already know some of the people who will be on this trip. Granted, I don't know their names yet but I know their characteristics. Let's meet them now.

Rhonda Rep: Rhonda is the representative of the Fam's sponsor. She is fun, efficient, and patient. She will try to make sure everyone has fun while learning about Cancun and the Mayan Riviera

Tommy Trashed: Tommy will close the bar down the first night. The next day, as we are touring resorts, he will be worthless. As the day drags on, he will stop walking the properties we inspect and opt to wait for us in the lobby. Luckily, he will recover in time to hit the bar when we get back to our resort for the night.

Lucy Late: Even though Rhonda is on a very tight schedule, Lucy will show up to the bus that takes us on our site inspections 20 minutes late. After the inspection, when it is time to go to the next resort, Lucy is not on the bus. After much searching, she is found in the gift shop. She found a little knickknack she had to have.

Vicky Veteran: Vicky has been in this business forever. She booked Noah's cruise for him. In fact, she has been in it so long, she can plainly see that the whole industry is going to Hades. Resorts aren't as nice as they used to be. The travel perks have gone way downhill compared to what they once were. This Fam is a disgrace compared to what she is used to.

Nancy Noshow:  Nancy paid $495 for a travel agent kit that included an ID card. She was told that the card would allow her to travel at a very low cost. Nancy has no intention of attending the site inspections because she does not sell travel. While everyone else is inspecting resorts, she is lying on the beach. On day two of our trip Rhonda will read her the riot act. Nancy ends up having to pay the resort for her stay.

Nora Newbie: Nora is brand new to the travel industry. Everything seems exciting and beautiful to Nora. Vicky befriends Nora and helps her see how really lousy the resort, food, and service really are. By the end of the trip Nora wishes she had been in the industry before everything was ruined.

Henry Hotelier: Henry works for the resort. His job is to show the resort to the travel agents. Upon arriving, Rhonda apologizes for our being late, see Lucy, and explains to Henry how we are way behind schedule. If each site inspection is completed in 40 minutes instead of the 45 minutes that was scheduled and we take a few more shortcuts, we should be able to make our evening dinner commitments on time. Henry smiles and assures us that it should not be a problem. An hour and ten minutes later, Henry is trying to show us the sixth of his eight specialty restaurants. Henry does not want you to be late to his resort but once you are there, he wants you to see every nook and cranny. If it shortens a site inspection at another resort, so much the better.

Please read the second article in this newsletter to see what happened on the Fam Trip.
 

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