For this new year's newsletter, I was tempted to reflect on last year and to discuss the complexities of COVID-affected travel at length. Instead, I’ve decided to keep that short and to move on to a more lighthearted matter which I hope will set the tone for a brighter year to come, while we wait for the dust to settle.
Indeed, I recently assisted some customers with undertaking their trip in the midst of Omicron. Even domestic travel requires flexibility and an adjustment of your expectations, but international travel requires even more vigilance, and the ability to be ready for anything. The media, and even other travel agents, may be trying to promote travel that has opened up to here or there – and yes, certain international destinations are more straightforward than others as long as you just go there and back – but the truth of the matter is that there is more complexity and volatility than ever before. This is especially true of multi-destination itineraries, which require constant monitoring of multiple countries’ ever-changing restrictions and requirements (just take New Zealand as a recent close-to-home example). Even with my expert help, mistakes were made (we're only human after all - yes,
that includes me ^^) and many lessons were learned. Fortunately, everything was fixable and through much labour and collaboration it all worked out in the end.
The key take-away here is that yes you are able to travel, but please have an extensive discussion with me so you can make an informed decision as to whether or not it is worthwhile for you to travel now, or if you would do better to mearly plan and book now for travel closer to 2023 and beyond.
Now for the lighter matter! We hear a lot about how technology separates people today. You sit on a bus or in a coffee shop, and well over half the people have their heads down, absorbed in whatever is happening on the small screens in front of them. Or you hear about how when technology does “connect” people, it’s often not a genuine kind of connection. We post the highlights of our lives on Facebook and skim the surface of things in sound-bite texts and on Twitter.
But what if a simple app could actually help you reach out to someone in a very tangible way?
My mum, bless her, still handwrites and sends physical postcards to everyone close to her! Not only when she travels either, but also for their birthdays, Christmas, New Year, etc. This is important to her, and she feels that this is a more “real” way to stay connected with the people she loves – especially those who are far away, say, on the other side of the world, like me :-(. Now, I don’t go quite that far, but I use the next best thing… I would say:
The next best way to stay connected...
As we are in full swing of summer vacations, Christmas, and New Year, I think it’s a great time to introduce you to Postagram. This is a free app that you can use on your iPhone, Android phone, and it allows you to use your photos and send postcards to anyone in the world — not digital cards, but actual printed, glossy, high-resolution, happy-surprise-in-your-mailbox printed postcards.
Here’s how it works:
- From your phone, launch the Postagram app.
- Select a photo from your phone, Facebook, or Instagram account.
- Write a personalised note on the postcard.
- Select or enter the name and address of the desired recipient(s).
And once you’ve set up your free account, you just click Send, and your postcard is created and delivered.
That’s it!
It just costs US$3 to send to pretty much anywhere in the world including Australia and New Zealand, Europe, Asia, etc. (only US$2 if you send to the USA) and though it can sometimes take a few weeks as it uses the US postal service, It’s a real steal for sending a high-quality print item that is so personal.
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