Beyond the Handbooks
Welcome to Beyond the Handbooks — practical insight from the minds behind the manuals.
This is the podcast for travel advisors who want to think deeper, sell smarter, and build stronger businesses — beyond what fits on the page.
Hosted by the authors of the best-selling Travel Advisor Handbooks series - CLIA Hall of Famers Michael Akana and Christopher Grum, plus Elite Cruise Counsellor Scott McAlister.
Each episode, we take the concepts you know, the challenges you face, and the questions you don’t always get clear answers to — and talk through what actually works in the real world.
Because our handbooks are just the beginning.
Let’s go beyond.
Beyond the Handbooks
Should I Specialize?
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Michael, Chris, and Scott discuss whether or not advisors should narrow their focus and specialize in a specific niche of travel.
Welcome to Beyond the Handbook. Practical insight from the minds behind the manuals. Your hosts are the authors of the best-selling Travel Advisors Handbook Series. Hall of Fame Cruise Counselors, Michael Lakana and Chris Crumb. And the late cruise counselor, Scott McAllister. It's time to go beyond the handbooks.
SPEAKER_01You've probably heard the phrase, Jack of all trades, master of none. Today we're gonna play on a variation of that. It's a question we get from time to time: should I specialize as a travel advisor? Should I focus on one particular area? And I know because I was once a newbie travel advisor, as we all were, uh I know that initially, when you first open your agency and you want the money to start coming in, you're happy you don't take a booking to anywhere by anybody on any airline to anything, because you so want that that money to come in. And then I think what you learn as you start to go down the road a bit further is you start to realize that being open to everybody and being everything is just not a realistic business model for most of us. And so the question becomes: should I specialize and to what degree should I specialize? And I'll start with our agency that Scott and I work for, and that's uh Premier Custom Travel. We focus on four main areas cruises, theme parks, the sandals and beaches resorts, and then some guided tours. That's the areas we work in. We don't do a lot of pre-build it, you know, from scratch, FIT stuff. We don't do like Vegas trips and New York trips. Those are things that are just not in our wheelhouse, and we don't bring a lot of expertise to. Um so we focused on the areas where we do. Now we used to be open and do everything, and we realized that narrowing that area made a lot more sense for us. But I wanted to get you guys and your individual takes on should I specialize? And if so, how narrow should that beam be? Um, Scott, we'll go to you first. What do you think about specialization? And what would your recommendation be to a travel advisor who's starting out and asking that question?
SPEAKER_02You know, my general answer is gonna be it depends, right? Because what specialization looks like to me is gonna be different than what it looks like for just about anybody else. Um without naming names. We all have a a good friend in the industry who specializes in a in a particular uh cruise line, and she does very well in that. She's always in their top 100. I think she's in the top 10 annually. That would not work for me because I don't have access to the right clientele. So could I make it work? Probably. Would I spend a lot more time and energy and effort to make it work than if I were to focus on something else where I have that built-in sphere of influence or what have you, which she has in that segment? Absolutely. So is that a good use of my time? So that's why I say it depends. Because when I give that answer, people always ask me to well, what do you mean it depends? It either is or is not. So, well, no, not always. Uh, it really does depend. Um for me, specialization might look like just doing cruise and not doing much with land, or it might look like I'm gonna focus on theme parks, I'm not gonna touch cruise. That's still specializing, it doesn't have to be limited to one cruise line or one theme park. So there's also varied degrees of specialization. So that's what it's all about a stick by my answer. It depends. You'll you listen to your heart, basically.
SPEAKER_01Well, as old as you are, I knew depends were gonna come up eventually, so there's that.
SPEAKER_02That reminds me of put them on the list at H E B.
SPEAKER_01But you know, it's one of those things where I'm I'm glad you brought up the idea of knowing your audience because I think that's an important point. One of the reasons that Premier Custom Travel focuses where we do is because that is where our audience base is. You know, we're we're based in Texas, at least three uh two out of three of us are, and uh, we have a very large cruise port nearby. So we had not really considered when we opened the company that cruise would be a product for us, not to mention our strongest selling product, which it is, it's about probably 80% of our business, but that was not in the original business model. But what we did is we adapted to what people were looking for and what our customers that were finding us were looking for. And I'm glad we did, believe me. But it's one of those things where you've kind of got to do the old read the room thing, Michael, and understand what is it your customers want, and also what can you bring them. And I'm curious to hear your thoughts, Michael. Specialization, yay or nay.
SPEAKER_00Yay, yay. Um California. I would say if you're new, specialize, if you've been in the business for a while, specialize, and um and I'll tell you how it worked for me. Um yeah, I'm in the San Francisco uh Bay Area, and the only port really, uh the only significant port is uh San Francisco. Um in that we can uh we can drive there um maybe an hour's time, uh clients can uh drop off luggage as much as they want, no flights, do a round trip, and so that really worked as an area of specialty. Now, did I sell other things? Absolutely. But if you wanted to know what ships were going in and out of San Francisco, well, it was easy because only one was home ported. If you wanted to know, you know, all the dates and times. I had not only the cruise line information, but learned early on how to pull the port information. Uh, what docks uh were were being used, um, you know, what were the timings, and then what were some of the other ships coming in? Um, so really learned um the cruise line, the cruise ship, uh the uh port of embarkation. And then what that told me is well, okay, well, what are the destinations? Well, really, there's four. I mean, there's Alaska from San Francisco, there's Hawaii, there's the Mexican Riviera Riviera, and then there's the coastal that's really it. Um, and so what that meant for me, it was a relatively small, contained um area of expertise that you'd be surprised not very many travel advisors were that deep into what's happening. So off the cuff could just answer somebody's question. So it really worked for me back then. Now, is that what I specialize in now? Well, probably not so much because now that my business has grown and was able to see where my clientele wanted to go, now I've been specializing more in luxury to travel and more remote destinations. So specialize? Well, it worked for me. I highly suggest it. Uh, Jack of all trades, one thing that I do ask is when a client wants to travel, is call me first. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I like that. Call me first, and maybe I can't fit the bill. You know, and it's interesting, you guys have both talked about, and I and I hinted at as well, the focusing to a certain degree, and you may need to narrow your circle very, very, very tightly. And for some other people, it might be a bit broader. And you know, I think it comes down to also knowing your market and knowing the demographics and the socioeconomics and all the other things as much as you can learn them about the area in which you sell your product. Because, you know, let's face it, we're based in Texas, and sure, I've got clients all over the world, but generally speaking, the bulk of them are here in Texas. And so I have to work off of what are the people in my area? What is their average income? What's the average age? Are they family related? Are they retired? What because that affects what I'm trying to offer to them. And I'll give you a great example, and this is kind of what you have to think about uh as an advisor based on where you are. You know, we're in just outside of Houston, so we're about an hour from Galveston, and I've got a wide variety of cruise lines sailing out of Galveston. I've got everything from Carnival all the way up to Regent Seven Seas cruises and luxury level sailing out of that port at any given, you know, not year-round necessarily for all of them, but I've got those options in my back pocket. So I know that if somebody's looking for a budget cruise, we might go Carnival or Royal Caribbean. If they're looking for luxury, I might say, hey, did you know Regent's going to be here for these number of sailings or whatever it may be? Not saying any brand's better or worse than the other one, but my point is this. You know, one of the things that Carnival has made their business model out of is being an affordable cruise line that you don't have to fly to. Most people that take a Carnival cruise are driving, and that's their whole business model, is you're saving a family a ton of money by not making the family a floor or four fly somewhere because that could easily be a couple of grand just by itself. And so if you are near a carnival port, that might be a brand that makes more sense, and you may have a lot more people interested in that because they know it's there. If you're in Omaha, Nebraska, where you are landlocked and not picking on Omaha at all, or you could be in uh Oklahoma City. Well, that's a little close to Galveston. Let's go a little further north. You could be, say, uh, I don't know, Scott, what? Um, Billings, Montana. Let's just go there. You know, you're in a place that is a little more isolated, is where I'm going with this. Then you've got to consider, okay, if I have a cruise client, they're gonna probably need to get on a plane to go there. So we need to factor that in. And budget-wise, I need to find the clients that have the money to be able to do that. Otherwise, I may need to recommend a different type of vacation. So if your portfolio is only uh a certain aspect of travel, and that's not of interest to the people that are in your area, you're kind of just waving the flag and nothing is happening, Scott.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so what I'm hearing, and we talk about this at our seminar at C's, we talk about it in our first book and everything, but this is why it's so crucial to know your numbers and know how to mine the data in your database. Because with the Premier Custom Travel, with Chris and I, I'll speak for both of us on this because we talk about it, so I know it to be true. Our clients today, a lot of them are the same clients we had 15 years ago, but it's safe to say our lifestyle has changed. Their lifestyle has changed. What I can afford now is different than what I could afford 15 years ago. My clients are the same. So we are adapting our business model to our clients, going back to read the room. So will it change? Lord, I hope so. Uh I hope it changes for everybody. Michael gave a great example of that also. But so for me personally, I've made the decision in 2026 to even specialize a little bit more than what PCT is specializing in. And I'm I've begun focusing more on, not exclusively, notice I didn't say exclusively, but more on Europe, European and North America river cruises, land-based vacations, and some stuff like that. So I'm getting even a little bit more specific in what I'm focusing my business on, but some of that's because my clientele has changed enough. Notice I said my clients have changed enough, same clients, different budgets now that we're 15 years older, in a different place in life. So I'm focusing more on that because that's where my clients are interested in going. So why why push that away? Why fight that? It's it's wants to come to me.
SPEAKER_01And your budget might be the same, it might be higher, it might be lower, but your style of travel and your style of interest may have changed. Because, you know, let's face it, when we're in our our our 20s and 30s, we might be more into the party crowd, or we might be more, you know, and again, I'm not picking on any cruise lines, but Carnival in the real fun ship atmosphere might be exactly what we're looking for. And partying the night away till 2, 3 in the morning, uh, or maybe being on uh Royal Caribbean and being out on the promenade with the live music and dancing until midnight. But then we might turn around and get into our, I'm not gonna say where we are now, but older, and we might decide, you know, that was fun, but I can't do that anymore. And so I need uh a ship that goes to bed at five o'clock in the evening. I'm not gonna name names, but you know, we we need to go to a different direction. But in all joking aside, the point is, is that's why there are 30, 40, 50 different cruise brands, and we haven't even talked about land-based stuff. You know, there's certain all-inclusive resorts that are hopping at night, and they are big, big, big boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. The steel drums go until two in the morning and then keeps going after that based on what you drank uh until six in the morning. But there are other ones that are more laid back, and at night it's just a chill vibe. And there's nothing wrong with either of those, but you gotta know which one fits your audience. Michael, take us home on Should I Specialize? Final thoughts.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I said absolutely we should specialize, but you know, as one of the three authors of the Travel Advisors Cruise Line Handbook, I would like to claim that I have at least a cursory knowledge that's fairly broad across the industry. So to say you you specialize doesn't mean ignore what's out there. I mean read the trades, read the news, attend travel conferences, uh find out what's going on with the other lines. Um, and that's gonna serve you really well, not just in positioning somebody, say, to uh or transitioning them to another line, but knowing the value of the product you sell. Love it, Scott. Any last thoughts?
SPEAKER_02You know, it could be as simple as you still represent 20 different cruise lines, but you're gonna specialize in group cruises. You know, so it doesn't mean you have to necessarily narrow your partnerships to specialize. You can stay in the arena and with the same partners you've been doing business with, your trade partners for 15 years, but just switch from you know individual to groups or multi-gen or what have you. That is a specialization.
SPEAKER_01And it doesn't mean you can't go outside of that box every once in a while. You might be a carpenter that builds houses, but every once in a while somebody might need a table.
SPEAKER_03Thanks for listening to Beyond the Handbook. Visit Tahandbook.com to order our books. See our upcoming schedule of seminars at Steve and listen to episodes on demand. We'll see you next time when we go Beyond the Handbook.