New Online Service Enables Travelers to Search Specific Travel Agent Expertise and Find Their Match

PLYMOUTH, Minn., Feb. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Travel Leaders – America's top "traditional" travel agency brand – is today providing the traveling public with an unconventional, innovative way to more easily connect with travel agent experts nationally, via its Travelleaders.com. Dubbed "Agent Profiler," the special geo-located online service promises to match the most appropriate Travel Leaders travel agent with each individual traveler, based on the consumer's own unique criteria and needs. Travelers can select expert counsel based on biography, experience, destination knowledge, specializations, certifications, awards, and even by appearance.

"Travelers want 'experience' behind their experience. With the use of travel agents continuing to rise, Travel Leaders' Agent Profiler further elevates the travel experience by offering consumers a new opportunity to browse for the travel agent specialist who most appeals to them," stated Roger E. Block, President of Travel Leaders Franchise Group, who noted that since its inception, Travelleaders.com has always provided consumers the ability to find the Travel Leaders location nearest them. "Now with close to 1,000 participating travel agents from throughout the United States live on Travelleaders.com, the traveling public can take advantage of our bona fide travel authorities, who provide full representations of their expertise and knowledge – including all their destination and lifestyle certifications – along with photos and a biography. And since it is also geo-located, it further enables consumers to select the travel agent who best matches their individual needs for personalized service that no online travel site can touch."

Travel Leaders' nearly 1,000 travel agent experts from throughout the United States can be found on Travelleaders.com's "Why Use A Travel Agent" page. Once there, consumers can set specific parameters and criteria for the type of agent they desire, based on destination knowledge, travel interest specialties, desired location of the agency, and also by agent name. All totaled, there are 2,555 combinations of travel specialties covering 72 specialty niches, 264 destinations and experience with 67 top travel providers.

"The beauty of Travel Leaders' Agent Profiler is that all consumers can easily set specific criteria for the type of agent they desire, based on destination knowledge, travel interest specialties, desired location of the agency, and also by agent name," Block explained. "Agent Profiler's distinguished niches range from more prevalent practices like 'Luxury,' 'Culinary & Foodie' and 'Safaris' to much more highly-defined areas like 'Film,' 'Cycling' and 'Golf.' Travelers can also find specialists for the most exciting destinations around the world from A to Z – Antarctica to Zambia, while the savviest of travelers can search for agents based on their individual expertise with specific suppliers from cruise lines to tour operators."

Four years in the making, Agent Profiler went through extensive quality-control audits to ensure that Travel Leaders' high level for minimum standards was strictly enforced and exceeded. "We hope that the journey for many more consumers will begin when they visit Travelleaders.com where they'll find the ideal agent to counsel them on how they can 'travel better,'" Block explained. "While each of our agents possess highly honed areas of specialization that make them unique, they have one common bond: they are always there for their clients from the moment they start planning their vacation right up until the time they safely return home. Our Travel Leaders have their clients' backs throughout their journeys."

Block pointed to one particular passage from Travel Leaders' Agent Profiler site that he said neatly sums up why this new online service will prove invaluable to the end consumer:

Travel is our passion and our life work. It's what we do all day every day. We have been to many of the destinations, resorts, off-the-beaten-path excursions and planned trips to the destinations you want to experience. Our first-hand travel experience, education, and ongoing training with tourist boards, cruise lines, resort chains and other travel companies make us travel experts who can make sure your vacation turns out just the way you imagine, every time.

"Anyone can place destinations and promotions on a website, but Travel Leaders has earned consumers' trust by moving them from an online experience to a one-on-one personalized dialogue with specialists ready to speak with expertise and passion," Block explained. "The human contact with a specialist is an essential part of the Travel Leaders difference."

Travel Better. To find the Travel Leaders location nearest you, go to www.travelleaders.com or call 888-206-TRIP (8747).

Travel Leaders is transforming travel with a new name that boldly embodies our commitment to our vacation and business travel clients via a progressive approach toward each unique travel experience. As one of America's top ten-ranked travel companies, Travel Leaders has assisted millions of travelers through our strong roots – the former Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates, TraveLeaders and Tzell Travel Group joined together in 2008 to form one of the industry's fastest-growing and robust networks of travel agents. Travel Leaders Franchise Group can trace its beginnings to 1984 as the Carlson franchise system "Ask Mr. Foster Travel," which itself was North America's first travel agency chain established in 1888.

SOURCE Travel Leaders

Related Links

http://www.travelleaders.com