Let's get one thing straight, I've never been to a travel expo before a couple weekends ago. Further more, if you had asked me to describe what I pictured a travel expo to be like, I probably would have described something very similar to Comic Con vendors along with my own personal fantasy touch of a gladiatorial stage where all the trips I've been dreaming about battle it out to see which one should be my next.
Needless to say, that's not quite how it went down on Friday.
First off, there were a variety of people there, so my initial plan to wow all the vendors by being the young, cool kid did not go as planned.
If anything, I think they found me to be more of a space hogger (taker-upper? Apparently hogger isn't a work...but you know what I mean).
And I'm not making this up. The prime example is that at one point during the night, my friend and I stopped at a stand to look at the tours they were offering, the lady smiled at me, but when an older gentleman stepped up next to me, she stood up and started telling him about all their offers with superfluous eloquence. And there I am. Right next to him, trying to eavesdrop on the advertising spiel that I myself, did not receive, and she ends up asking me if I'd mind stepping to the side so she could show him one of their safari trips in AFRICA. The safari trip that I was looking at 5 seconds earlier!
I walked away feeling like a spurned girlfriend. Was it my age? My hair? The fact that I showed up wearing workout clothes? Why didn't they want to advertise to me?
The most ridiculous part of it all is that I don't even like being advertised to...until someone is purposefully advertising to me in favor of someone else. Then all the sudden I start feeling like I'm missing out. I get FOMO big time when I can see that other people are getting something I'm not getting.
Which, actually, may be a really great place for travel agency to go with their advertising. Do this now, because otherwise you'll never get to do it and you'll be the odd man out for the rest of your life.
Not bad, travel expo. Point you.
However, I still prefer my gladiatorial battle of the trips.
Needless to say, that's not quite how it went down on Friday.
First off, there were a variety of people there, so my initial plan to wow all the vendors by being the young, cool kid did not go as planned.
If anything, I think they found me to be more of a space hogger (taker-upper? Apparently hogger isn't a work...but you know what I mean).
And I'm not making this up. The prime example is that at one point during the night, my friend and I stopped at a stand to look at the tours they were offering, the lady smiled at me, but when an older gentleman stepped up next to me, she stood up and started telling him about all their offers with superfluous eloquence. And there I am. Right next to him, trying to eavesdrop on the advertising spiel that I myself, did not receive, and she ends up asking me if I'd mind stepping to the side so she could show him one of their safari trips in AFRICA. The safari trip that I was looking at 5 seconds earlier!
I walked away feeling like a spurned girlfriend. Was it my age? My hair? The fact that I showed up wearing workout clothes? Why didn't they want to advertise to me?
The most ridiculous part of it all is that I don't even like being advertised to...until someone is purposefully advertising to me in favor of someone else. Then all the sudden I start feeling like I'm missing out. I get FOMO big time when I can see that other people are getting something I'm not getting.
Which, actually, may be a really great place for travel agency to go with their advertising. Do this now, because otherwise you'll never get to do it and you'll be the odd man out for the rest of your life.Not bad, travel expo. Point you.
However, I still prefer my gladiatorial battle of the trips.
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