Travel 3.0 Represents the World’s First Decentralised, Social Distribution-based International Wholesale Travel Co-op
(TRAVPR.COM) NEW ZEALAND - August 25th, 2017 -
SOCIAL MEDIA PIONEER - “THE BAREFOOT MILLIONAIRE” - PARTNERS WITH NEW ZEALAND BUSINESS INNOVATOR TO CREATE A DISRUPTIVE APPROACH TO GLOBAL TRAVEL & LIFESTYLE
Travel 3.0 Represents the World’s First Decentralised, Social Distribution-based
International Wholesale Travel Co-op
TAURANGA, NEW ZEALAND, 25 August 2017 – For New Zealand entrepreneur and business owner, Leanne Hollinshead, it was a frustrating and often rough start. Determined to provide New Zealanders and Australians with a better, more reliable and discounted travel service, she began reaching out to some of the largest online travel companies around the world. With brick-and-mortar travel companies on the decline, Hollinshead figured that this second wave of travel companies – tapped into the global supply chain through online giants, Priceline.com and Expedia – could provide her with the “out of the box” solution she needed. So she partnered with the most unlikely of celebrities to create a company that’s rocking the travel world in eight countries already!
A little backstory though… Leanne was already a successful travel broker herself, and readily knew of 20-30 others, many of them stay-at-home moms or disabled persons, who could benefit from becoming part of an online travel company.
But what Leanne found was not only disappointing, it was downright deplorable. This second generation of online travel companies were often poorly managed, focused more on swindling as much in start-up fees and other costs from unsuspecting aspiring entrepreneurs than they were on complying with laws, ethical guidelines or travel industry standards. Some were basically the travel industry equivalent of a “diploma mill”, charging up to $2,000 for a “certificate” that claimed the recipient was somehow magically a travel agent, without any meaningful training or coaching.
Other companies were engaged in unethical business practices, and rife with the kind of ex-cons and Ponzi schemers you would expect to find in a dingy backroom warehouse poker game.
Undeterred she kept investigating company-after-company, and just when she was about to walk away in disgust, she heard about someone who was going to be coming out of retirement to join one of those travel networks. His name was Dr. F. Gianmichael Salvato, and he was better known in the direct sales and social media worlds as “the Barefoot Millionaire”. Dr. Salvato was best known for having co-founded the world’s first enterprise social media platform – a B2B network called MyFreeOffice, back in the early 1990s. Over his four decades in the field of direct marketing and personal development coaching, he was personally mentored for eighteen years by the late Mr. Jim Rohn (mentor of other industry giants, including Anthony Robbins, Mark Hughes, Eric Worre and Darren Hardy). He developed a global sales and marketing team of 358,000 men and women, helping to create five millionaires, and providing tens of thousands of families with a steady second-income of two to three thousand dollars per month.
After Parkinson’s Disease causes a catastrophic accident in 2007, Dr. Salvato retired in 2008. But two years of reconstructive surgery, six years of physical therapy, and a total of eight years of watching what was happening to the online travel field resulted in his becoming restless and eager to “get back in the game”.
And when he did, his experience was much like that of Leanne Hollinshead. This was not an acceptable standard, and Dr. Salvato believed that left unchecked, this second wave of travel companies would not be commercially viable for much longer.
“We live in a world that is growing increasingly connected, and at the same time, led by industry disrupting companies that are decentralising the marketing and distribution channels used to deliver goods and services to a digital world,” Dr. Salvato told a group of aspiring entrepreneurs recently at a conference in Atlanta, Georgia in the U.S., “And if the companies providing goods and services through more traditional means, including the direct sales and online marketing industries, don’t realise this, they’re going to be left behind.”
It was right after that conference, when Hollinshead and Salvato met, and began sharing their frustration over the incompetent and unethical characters plaguing the online travel industry. And as they talked, Gianmichael began to share his vision for a third generation of travel and lifestyle acquisition. He called his idea “Travel 3.0” – a radical departure from the brick and mortar travel agency model (Travel 1.0) and a superior approach to the online travel network opportunities (Travel 2.0) – which would decentralise the access to the global supply chain, provide standarised and quality travel agent and brokerage training, and something no one else could offer…
At the core of what Leanne and Gianmichael created was a promotional system that could change the world… not just the travel industry. They developed an approach that would enable small business owners, large corporations, individual home business entrepreneurs and non-profit agencies to extend the reach of their own companies’ marketing message, reward customer loyalty, and incentivise referrals… by giving them access to a virtually limitless supply of FREE $300 VIP Travel Insider Cards, which their customers, friends, neighbours and associates could use to save an additional $300 on air travel, hotels, resorts, cruises and more, through Travel 3.0’s professional Travel Concierges in New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Pacific Islands, United States and Canada.
Demand for these incredible $300 gift cards was insane! Salons wanted them to use as a customer reward for referring a new client. Car dealerships were giving them away as an incentive for test-driving a new vehicle. Medical professionals, massage therapists, accountants and realtors were giving them to their clients as a thank-you gift.
And the customers were LOVING it. They were able to book hotels and resorts, even timeshare condos for 50% less than even the best online pricing. Cruises, all-inclusive resorts and spa get-aways were more affordable than ever before.
Of course, that also meant that Leanne and “the Barefoot Millionaire” needed to expand their sales team and travel concierge members on staff. “Right now, we could use an additional 500 to 600 sales professionals in New Zealand and Australia alone,” Leanne told us, “And we need another 600 or 800 throughout the United States and Canada later this month!”
Leanne Hollinshead’s story is an inspiring story of what happens when innovators, dreamers and servant-leaders make the decision to leave this world a better place than they found it.
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