Catching the travel bug: how one agent's clever marketing campaign helped stem a slow sales season. (Retail).(Brief Article)

Travel Agent, September, 2002 by Holly, Tricia A.

This summer, Bonnie Lee, owner of Travel Quest in Monticello, Minn., decided she was not going to moan about commission cuts, competition from the Internet, a weak economy or consumers hesitation to travel. Instead, Lee thought up a clever marketing campaign to get people excited about travel.

"Travel should be fun, and that's the message I wanted to send," says Lee, who transformed her banana yellow Volkswagen Beetle into a mobile marketing vehicle. With the help of her husband, who operates a printing company, Lee was able to superimpose supplier logos on her car, thereby officially transforming her vehicle into the "Travel Bug." She then e-mailed her preferred suppliers photos of the car, which she named Bodacious Bug--or Bodi for short--along with some...