President's Message
By Gary M. Fee, OSSN President

OSSN MEMBERS END 2004 WITH STRONG OPTIMISM

OSSN surveyed members this month to ask how your 2004 travel business ended up. The majority of members reported that their business soared in 2004 with even higher expectations for 2005. Nearly 500 members responded to the survey. 87% stated their business was definitely up as well as their profits being up! 41% of members surveyed said their business was up 20% to 35% last year with 35% reporting their business was up between 10% to 20%.

Did over head expenses increase? 70% said yes which is not surprising as the cost of sales increased with the increase of gross sales.

58% of the OSSN members have been in the travel business from two to ten years and 18% more than 10 years. This is a seasoned group of sellers of travel.

OSSN has well as other travel industry educational bodies and associations have been telling Travel Agents that you need to get "focused" or get "niched." It is obvious by the results of this survey that OSSN members are listening to our educators as almost 74% stated they have a "niche" for their travel business.

OSSN members have set new goals for 2005 and they have constructed a plan on how to achieve their goals for the New Year. 86% have stated they have specific goals for this upcoming year.

OSSN, as well as other travel industry educational bodies and associations, have been telling travel agents that you need to get "focused" or get "niched." It is obvious by the results of this survey that OSSN members are listening to our educators as almost 74% stated they have a "niche" for their travel business.

Over 56% of the members surveyed said that terrorism has not influenced their sales to Europe but 49% said the devaluation of the Dollar against the Euro would influence their European sales.

Most important is that almost 80% of the members surveyed said they are enjoying the travel business more in the last 12 months than they did prior to 2004.

The bottom line for 2005 is very strong optimism with 94% of members feeling that the New Year will be even better that 2004!

Is this optimism shared by other industry suppliers and trade groups? You bet! As we move into our New Year, OSSN is here to help support your goals and needs as a member of the Outside Sales Support Network. Our optimism is shared with the majority of sellers of travel as well since we have seen the OSSN membership grow by an additional 1300 members last year. In spite of the ups and downs of our economy and global affairs it is apparent that the home based agent channel continues to flourish and is becoming the dominant distribution source for our suppliers.

Complete details of our year end survey may be found by clicking here: http://www.ossn.com/ossn_survey/dec2004/index.html

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