ShoreTrips: Noted for unusual travel programs

From: ShoreTrips

5205 N. Ironwood Rd.

Glendale,WI 53217

Contact: Barry or Julie Karp, 414-964-2100

or Jordan Fox, 414-352-2645

(Glendale, September 8, 2010) — Opportunities for unique shore experiences around the world abound today for cruise buffs around the country thanks to ShoreTrips Shore Excursions, a travel company based in Glendale. ShoreTrips won an Innovation Quotient Award last year for creating memorable but affordable shore excursions.

Just a few examples:

* ShoreTrips enables people cruising the Caribbean to swim with the dolphins at a marine park in Cozumel.

* Vacationers cruising to Italy can experience a personalized shore excursion in Rome that will include visits to Vatican museums, the Roman Forum and the Sistine Chapel.

* Cruisers on the Black Sea can take a shore excursion to the historical city of Yalta in the Ukraine that includes a visit the Livadia place, the site of the historical Yalta conference in 1945, where the leaders of the U.S.A., Great Britain and Russia planned the future of postwar Europe.

For some time, ShoreTrips owners Barry and Julie Karp, long-experienced Milwaukee travel agents, had been aware that people were complaining about expensive but substandard shore activities offered by cruise lines at their ports of call.

“We saw a need to improve the shore experiences of travelers and began to develop creative, reasonably-priced excursions for them,” explains Barry. “This was an area that never before was addressed nor developed. Until we created ShoreTrips–our cruise ship passengers relied on the cruise line for their in- port activities.”

To accomplish their objective, the Karps developed an SOP that identifies the most popular ports of call for American cruises, contacts local tourist boards, reads local books and magazines, and scans the Internet for information about those locations. In doing so, they learn the names of local travel people mentioned the most. The Karps themselves then go to that port in person to interview them. That way they learn the best and most interesting things to do and places to go on a shore trip.

“Because we were travel agents, we knew the needs of travel agents around the country and designed several ways to help them succeed and add profits to their revenue streams using our ShoreTrips program,” says Julie. “These aids are unique to us, such as ways for them to earn commissions from us and marketing tools personalized for the traveler, such as customized email blasts, flyers, and a group booking system.

“We have a fully automated Internet-based booking engine has been lauded as the best by numerous travel agents and tour operators around the world.”

The ShoreTrips innovative SOP has made their business venture a successful one.