"lSnow Bird" wrote
>I am in YTB and you are wrong about a card mill.We have to go through
>rigorous training before getting our card.
Absolutely incorrect. You do not need ANY training to be a YTB "travel
agent". You can get training from CLIA, but it is not required to be a YTB
agent.
> We don't need Royal Caribbean, etc.
Sure. Then you don't have a problem that they dropped you.
>They just eliminated us
>because of a petiition of 2,000. greedy travel agents that signed it,
>and they didn't want the pressure.
>we are the largest booking agency of Celebrity
>Cruises.
Really? You did know that Celebrity is part of Royal Caribbean Inv. and you
are no longer allowed to sell their cruises? Now tell me, if you were the
largest seller of Celebrity cruises, why would Celebrity (Royal Caribbean)
drop you?
>We are not a card mill as everyone mistakingly thinks we
>are. We have online training, CLIA training, etc. available daily.
None of which is mandatory to join YTB and be a "travel agent". All you
need is money... no experience necessary.
>Please get your facts straight before criticizing your competitiors .
FACT - YTB's "compensation plan" talks about making money selling
memberships via an MLM plan http://www.ytb.com/downloads/YTB_comp_plan.pdf
The fact is that most YTB agents do not sell enough travel to make enough
commissions to pay their fees. The ones who make money are the ones selling
memberships to other people. Kind of like this guy:
http://travel-pro.blogspot.com/ Scroll down to "March Madness and the Fast
Start Program". YTB is all about selling memberships in an MLM format and
damn little about selling travel.
You might also note that YTB stock has dropped from a 52 week high of $9.50
a share to 83 cents a share today.
>Please before bashing a company get your facts straights!!!_Irene
I think after 15 years of being in this business, I pretty much have my
facts straight but lets look closer at YTB
http://www.modernagent.com/Resources/Editorial.aspx?n=34239
There are 135,000 "agents" and they sold a total of $450 million dollars in
travel sales (twice what they sold in 2006)
That means that each "agent" sold $3333.33 in travel sales (BTW - that would
be one good sale a year). Assuming that YTB is paying you 60% of the
commission and they are getting an average of 12% per sale, it comes out
that the average YTB agent is making $240 a year in commissions. (12% of
$3333 = $400 60% of $400 = $240) Let's be generous, let's say the average
agent makes all the commission... $400 a year. They pay $500 to join and
another $600 per year in monthly dues.
One figure YTB NEVER gives out is the number of agents who quit every year
without making any money selling travel. Their business model in predicated
on getting more and more agents to join. Selling travel is just secondary
to building the "uplines" and selling memberships.
Now, from the looks of the financials, the pyramid may be starting to
crumble. Look at the stock prices!
--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com
May 12, 2008 - 5 nt New Orleans http://www.cruisemaster.com/fantasy.htm
October 26, 2008 Sleazy 5 http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy5.htm
Feb. 8, 2009 Solstice Valentine http://www.cruisemaster.com/solstice.htm
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