July 2020 Newsletter

It has only been a few months since our last newsletter. Yay us! This is what is inside…

• What’s New With ABHT
• New Sample Itineraries
• Event Calendar
• Virtual Travel Destinations
• Recent Blog Posts
• Thank You For Your Support

WHAT’S NEW WITH ABHT

Now that we have all this time on our hands to write and send out newsletters, they should come out every month right? Well, maybe we have the time but it doesn’t always make it to the top of the priority list. We are also working on updating our website to a new platform so that has been more of a priority.

During the month of April, we Zoom’ed together almost everyday because we missed each other during the quarantine. To make it fun we chose some themed days to dress up or pick a virtual background. Some of those theme days you can see in the photo collage above. We had to do something to keep us entertained! 

Things have been pretty slow for us the past few months and our office hours have been reduced slightly to Tue-Fri 9:30am to 4:30pm. We are still answering our phones even if they don’t ring very often! We have been spending most of our time servicing existing clients and moving or cancelling their trips.

However, we do have a few new trips we are working on so that is exciting! As destinations are opening up, people are wanting to travel again. We have a few blog posts that might help inspire you to dream of travel again. We just added one from Viking Cruises who are hosting multiple destination themed presentations each week in July. Also, in July we are continuing to co-hosting Virtual Vacations once a week to a new destination. See the destinations below. 

Earlier this month, we co-hosted an online cooking class to make Pad Thai and Monica won the cooking kit (see images below). It was so much fun and over 100 Travel Advisors joined in on the fun. It was so popular that we will be doing it again at the end of July so read the details below. 

Monica also ventured out with her family in early June to Hood Canal. Things had just opened up so it was nice to get away for a few days with her family. We will all be doing more local and short trips over this summer so stay tuned what we are up to. Wear a mask, keep social distancing and stay safe!

Finally, don’t hesitate to call us to have us help you with your next vacation! You can contact us by phone or email.

~Your Travel Gals~
Andrea, Monica, Tia & Cara

NEW SAMPLE ITINERARIES 

We are working on rebuilding our website as the platform we are currently using is no longer being supported. In the meantime, we wanted to highlight some recent additions to our website that you can enjoy for now. 

• 10-day package to Cultural Kenya
• 8-day Thailand Indulgence Super Special Package
• 8- day Maui Island Getaway
• 7- or 14-night Greece Itinerary

Stay tuned for more with the launch of our new website soon!

EVENT CALENDAR

We have been hosting free, fun & informative destination themed travel nights for the past year. Most of them are at our office in Lynnwood but we are also experimenting with other locations as well. We have some nibbles, wine and bubbly water while we share some information about specific destinations. We would love for you to join us or share these events with someone who you think would be interested in attending. Please RSVP and bring a friend! All of these events can be found on the Event Calendar on our website too. 

Of course, all events right now are postponed. We had a Discover Tahiti event in April that we had to cancel for now. We also had low turnout for our Discover Greece event so that may show back up later this year. Stay tuned for when we can add these events back to the calendar. 

• Viking Cruise Night – Sept 24th

Let us know if there is a destination or you are interested in learning more about!

VIRTUAL TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

We have been busy during this down time by co-hosting these amazing Virtual Vacations with one of our trusted travel partners. These have been very well received so we are continuing them through the month of July. They are a lot of work for our team but it has been worth it! We will be publishing the events about a week or two prior so please stay tuned to our mailing list and website. 

• Thu July 9th – Tahiti (French Polynesia, Islands of Love)
• Thu July 16th – South Australia (Wildlife, Wilderness & Wine)
• Thu July 23rd – Bali (The Famous Island of the Gods)
• Thu July 30th – Fiji (Where Happiness Finds You)

As a thank you for helping promote these Virtual Vacations, one of our Travel Advisors (Monica) won a few gifts as a thank you which has been really fun. A few weeks ago she won a Pad Thai Cooking Kit and we joined a free online cooking class. See the images below! Also, we had a fun Facebook Live Video where she opened the box so you can see what is inside the kit. We are co-hosting the cooking class again at the end of July so sign up and order your Pad Thai Cooking Kit.

1. Watch Facebook Video of Pad Thai Cooking Kit
2. RSVP Fri July 31 @ 3pm PT – Free Online Pad Thai Cooking Class
3. Buy Your Pad Thai Cooking Kit 

Also, she won a trip to Australia next year so thank you to everyone who has participated! Monica and her husband are looking forward to a trip to Cairns, Australia and they will be adding on a few more destinations as well. 

Finally, we have traveled (virtually) to these destinations so sign up for the replay of each presentation. You can share these with friends if you like! Make sure to register YOUR NAME and enter OUR EMAIL ADDRESS (info@goabhtravel.com) to protect your email address and your friend’s!

• Australia (general overview)
• New Zealand
• South Pacific (general overview including Tahiti/Fiji/Cook Islands)
• South Africa
• Kenya
• Thailand
• Botswana
• Queensland, Australia
• Japan

RECENT BLOG POSTS

We have some new blog posts and thought we should share them with you! Also, in order to save and share our newsletters more efficiently, we started adding them to our blog. We even have a guest blogger who has provided some more fun content for us. Check out what is new!

• Virtual Travel Destinations (Mar 2020)
• Ready for a Weekend Getaway? (May 2020)
• Are You Ready to Travel? (June 2020)
• Traveling Virtually with Viking (June 2020)

Do you have an idea for a blog post or want to contribute? Let us know!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

We love our clients and we know it has been a tough time this year. No one could have predicted it would result in a complete and total shutdown of our industry and many other businesses as well. We have been able to get a business loan to get us through and we were able to reduce some expenses as well. We appreciate all the love and support our clients have sent to us over the past few months.

We know this isn’t the time to be planning trips. At least not for travel within the next few months for MOST destinations but we are ready to plan your trip for the end of this year and into 2021. We can also process your Consultation Fee now and plan your custom trip when you (or your destination) are ready. Or, you can put down a deposit on your Consultation Fee and we will hold your place in line. We anticipate many people calling us when things start to open up again. Why book on your own when you can have a professional as your advocate? Sign up below if you are interested. Only 10 people will be allowed to participate. 

If you are really determined to book travel on your own, please see our “Book Your Trip!” where you will access our affiliate links and we may receive a small payment for those services. 

We are here for you regardless of when you want to travel next. We will persevere. We will become stronger in the end. Please continue to sing our praises and how we helped you in the past. A review on Yelp is always appreciated. We very much appreciate each and every one of you!