What is the best tool?

The best tool is the one you use. 2 short stories:

In 2008, I did some consulting work for David, a high performing travel professional who left his top executive position with a cruise line and opened his own advertising shop. He was great at what he did - he had a tremendous network and reputation in the travel industry, and landed major deals, one after another. I wondered what system he used to stay on top of everything and close so well? Did he have an awesome CRM that allowed him to see real-time analytics with different stages of his deals? Did he have an automated system that followed up on proposals and provided performance reporting at his fingertips?

Turns out, all he uses is his phone to call and email, plus a notebook. That’s it.
No fancy platform or tools. I observed him in many of our meetings and sure enough, he’s on his phone most of the time, and he scribbles madly on his notebook and takes extensive notes.

Second story - I was in the market for a telescope because my teen daughter has taken up an interest in astronomy. I attended an astronomy enthusiasts meeting and asked the lead presenter what the best telescope is. He said he owned dozens of telescopes, many of them advanced. His favorite telescope however is an Edmunds Astroscan.. you can google what it looks like - I can’t decide if it looks like a child’s toy or a bong. He liked it best because it was the one he used the most - it’s simple to use, there’s no assembly required. Whenever there’s a clear sky - he whips it out, puts it on the hood of his car and enjoys the stars.

I find that in our increasingly complex and digital world, there are so many fancy applications and online tools available to ‘streamline’, ‘scale’ or ‘automate’ your travel business. I fully support using some of these, as long as travel professionals learn how to use them well and put in the time to use them consistently. Travel agent tools don’t have to be advanced or best-in-class.. to be effective, they just need to be simple enough to be used consistently. In the same token - travel agents don’t need a ‘comprehensive’ business process, it just needs to be easily repeatable that results in a quality outcome.