TravelTube Interview: John Walters' Ireland Trip

Mark Murphy: Hi, it's Mark Murphy and this is TravelTube.com. I've got an interesting segment today because my neighbor John Walters did a trip to Ireland and used a travel agent for the first time in how long, John?

John Walters: Oh, decades. Over 30, close to 40.

Mark: A typical travel agent would look at my neighbor John Walters and think, "That guy never travels. Why would I waste my time reaching out to him?" Which would be a huge mistake. Because John, you did this trip in a way that was all first class.

John: Yes.

Mark: Starting with the plane. So you flew first class?

John: Yep.

Mark: What was that like?

John: Unbelievable. I've never been treated like that. It was unreal.

Mark: First time in first class?

John: Yes.

Mark: How hard is it to go back to not flying first class?

John: It's going to be hard. We just had a trip this weekend and we were slammed in the back and it was like, "How do we do it?"

Mark: Yeah, you're like, "This sucks." So you booked this trip and you found this travel agent. Was this a travel agent you looked up online or was this somebody that the family knew?

John: My fiancée Kelly has been friends with him. His name is Tom Ward, a premier travel agent out of Springfield Township, Pennsylvania. They've been in business, their family, for over 40 years putting trips together, and their specialty is Ireland trips.

Mark: Oh, so they actually specialize specifically in Ireland?

John: Yeah, but they'll send you anywhere you want to go in the world, but they specialize in the Ireland trips.

Mark: So how did you find them? Was it a connection you had?

John: Yes, Kelly went to school with Tom. You know, the Irish Catholic families, there's like six or seven kids in each family and it's just one of the kids she went to school with, all the brothers and sisters.

Mark: So what was the benefit of using this guide to book this trip?

John: For me, it's just peace of mind and the logistics of laying it out—the tickets, the hotels, getting the tour set up. Everything that we've seen was laid out in that itinerary and it was like clockwork without missing a step.

Mark: So did you give him a budget? Did you say, "Hey, we're going to spend 15 grand. What can you do?" Or was it more like, "Hey, we want to do this top tier and what would you suggest we do?"

John: More or less, yeah, to that. We told him we're going to fly first class because this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip and just nice accommodations. Not over-the-top super expensive, but in my price range that was very nice. All the accommodations were very nice hotels. Everything was great.

Mark: What was the best aspect of the trip? Was it the driver, the guide? What was it?

John: Our private driver. He was also a guide and was with us from start to finish.

Mark: He was with you from the start to finish?

John: Yes. We had another driver take us from Dublin airport to the hotel, dropped us off, we spent the night, and then it was the next day that we were picked up by Patrick, our driver. It was somebody that Tommy got, and it was just unreal. Nice gentleman, unbelievable.

Mark: Was this a guy they've used before?

John: Yes.

Mark: They probably used him for other clients, right? Did they use him for the family, or like a family trip? Because Kelly had been to Ireland?

John: Yes. She's never been with the private driver, but that was the best thing we could have done. It was a nice Mercedes-Benz van, like a travel van, and it was immaculately clean. Patrick was always dressed. He was a gentleman—opened doors, moved stuff, very knowledgeable of the country, and just a personable guy. Anywhere he went, he would talk to people and knew people, so we were hanging out with local people.

Mark: How important was that? If you had done it differently without that personal touch, how different would that have been?

John: I think we would have been lost, just even driving around in a foreign country. As far as me, I'm a little bit older and it wigs me out a little bit. I get anxiety from driving on the other side of the road. You get peace of mind with this, and you're going to go to the right spot, you're not going to get lost, you're going to be on time. It was unbelievable.

Mark: How regimented was the trip? Was it very flexible, or was it regimented where like, "We're going to be here at noon, and then at three o'clock we're going to be here"?

John: He laid that out where everything was on a time schedule, but there was plenty of time. It wasn't that we were rushed. When we went to Giant's Causeway, we had our vouchers and our tickets through Tommy and everything. He got us there on time and everything went through. We even did, I forget the name of the town where The Quiet Man was filmed—an old Irish countryside town, great movie. We went there and went on a tour for that. He started getting upset. We thought we were late, and we were looking at the itinerary and said, "No, Patrick, you got like another half hour." He goes, "Oh, okay, all right, I see it now."

Mark: So he was definitely going to keep you on schedule?

John: Oh yes, but it was your schedule. It wasn't like his schedule. It was what you guys decided with your travel agent.

Mark: What would you tell people that have never used a travel agent? Because this is the first time you used one in decades. And you really didn't use one because you were using it as a kid when your dad and mom would book getaways for you once a year. What would you tell people who have never used a travel agent?

John: I would definitely use it. For me, I could never do it. It would take me forever. Here, we talked to him two or three times, we sat down with him, we booked at eight months in advance, six months in advance, whatever it was. We were always in communication with him. But when things were changing, he would help us and tell us this. Knowledgeable—this guy's super knowledgeable. Had he been to Ireland a bunch of times? Yes, a lot. Yeah, I think he goes a couple times a year and he travels a lot. He's always checking out the properties.

Mark: So you were staying in properties that he was personally familiar with?

John: In some cases. Yeah, he said he stayed in a couple of hotels that we booked and they were all nice hotels.

Mark: Right, like a four-star type of level?

John: Yes.

Mark: So what would be the equivalent in the US, like a Marriott type of hotel?

John: Yes, like a Hilton or Marriott. It's not like a Motel 6 or nothing like that.

Mark: So you were in the unions, you work your ass off, you raise the family, you didn't really have time to travel, but now you're retired, you've got your cash flow, you've got your pensions, you've got a beach house, you're getting married. You'd be a really good prospect because if I'm thinking about when people retire, the baby boomers—you're at the trailing edge of the baby boomers—as they retire, the number one thing they want to do is travel. So are you already thinking about your next trip?

John: Yes. We have a little trip down to Merrill that we do every year, but the next one will be when my fiancée retires, probably in about a year and a half to two years. Then we're going to start planning a trip. She either wants to go on an African safari or go to like Austria and Bavaria, that area there and the Alps, and see that in the summer when it's warm, or go to the Seychelles. So that'll be the next big one that we'll do. It'll be first class.

Mark: Well, yeah, flying to Africa in coach, wouldn't recommend it if you can afford it. You definitely want to at least get business class. So that's interesting. Now, what would you say, because when I think about if you're a travel agent, you might be in a neighborhood with someone like John. You might not think of John as a prospect because you're thinking, "Oh, I deal with these high-end clients that want to go to the Four Seasons or they want to go to Tahiti or Bora Bora, or they want to go to Hawaii for three weeks." But you're missing out on so many prospects because as baby boomers retire, they now have the time. And as soon as Kelly retires, you're going to have a lot more time. He's got all the time in the world right now, but his fiancée still works. So you can't get away for months at a time. But the amount of money that these folks have to spend on travel, the amount of time they have—they're all around you. John lives across the street from here at the beach. And I never would think of John as flying in a flatbed first-class seat if I was a dumb travel agent. I wouldn't think of John spending a lot of money to go and have a private guide and a private driver the entire trip while in Ireland. So don't discount based on your preconceived ideas because there are, what, 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day or some crazy number? I mean, it's a crazy number. So that's something to think about. And for you, the fact that the first time you've really booked a trip, you turned to a travel agent to book it, what motivated that? Was it Kelly saying, "Hey, I know this guy, if you're thinking about going to Ireland, we've used him before"?

John: Yep, exactly.

Mark: And then you had all the confidence in the world because it was coming from a person you trust?

John: Yes.

Mark: What happened after you took the trip? You came back—what did the agent do? Did he follow up with you?

John: Yeah, he gave us a follow-up when we came back. He touched base through an email and just said, "How was the trip? Let me know and all that." And the way I am, old school, I picked the phone up and called him and told him thank you. It was such a great trip.

Mark: Was there anything you would change?

John: No, not at all. No.

Mark: And what was your favorite aspect of Ireland as the destination?

John: I just think the scenery and the architecture is breathtaking. You know, you look back and me being in the construction industry and seeing stuff that's like thousands of years old, like how did they build it? It's just mind-boggling. How did they do this? And the people were fantastic.

Mark: Go to Egypt and look at the pyramids. You're like, "What the heck?"

John: We've seen a lot of stuff. We've seen ruins that were like 500 years old and they were all disappeared during the famine. And then the Celtics, there were ancient Celtic symbols in the ground that were like three or 4,000 years old. And then we've seen tombs and we were hiking up hills. This is no joke, like an old man like me, I made it, but it was like—

Mark: Does it work out?

John: Oh yeah, you were tired at the end of the night.

Mark: That was great.

John: Yeah, no problem sleeping with the jet lag. No, it was all good.

Mark: That's great. What would you tell somebody who hasn't been finding new prospects? They're struggling. If somebody called you out of the blue or somebody sent you an email—assuming obviously for this, you had an agent that you knew through a family connection. But what if you didn't? What would be the first thing you would do?

John: Oh my God. Well, the first thing would be to go online and start looking for stuff and I would get lost. I would just be overwhelmed. I don't think I could do it.

Mark: Yeah, because there's just too many options out there.

John: Yeah, the anxiety and everything and just booking the airline tickets and the hotels and have everything planned out the way you did. When we were talking about it, me and Kelly, we were talking about it last summer because it was going to be our major birthday. We were 60 years old when we left. We thought, "We've got to go talk to Tommy Ward." That's what everybody says. Let's go talk to Tommy Ward and sit down with him. And he just started out and he just moved along and got everything together and it was like, "Here you go. Let's do it."

And another thing is, like we talk about the price and all that. We're at the Jersey Shore right now, but if you look how much it is to stay at a house at the Jersey Shore for a week, it's almost as much as you're going to spend going to Ireland. Except for the airfare, because we bumped the airfare up to first class.

Mark: Of course. Well, it's interesting because you could easily spend 10 grand to rent a house for a week down here. Easy 10 grand. And I mean, you might put three families in there and split it up. But then you got to go out to dinner, you got to—I mean, to me, I was always like, the week at the shore, because I got to do my own laundry, I got to make my own food, or then I got to wait in the line for a restaurant for two hours. That's annoying. And it's interesting because I find that a lot of people—I do love the family get-togethers because it's what we do. Like our house, as you know, there's always cars because there's always family and friends coming to visit it. I call it free Airbnb.com. All I ask is for a good review on your stay when you come to my house. But that's what we love about it, but I've also been to 80 countries. So it's not like, "Oh, I got to get on a plane and go somewhere." However, you bring up a great point. If you think about what you'd spend to do a local vacation, you can get on a plane. I mean, Ireland, you could spend 10, 12 grand easy, maybe even more with the airlines. But at the same time, you could spend a lot less going to a place like Portugal, or you could go to Africa for that kind of money. Five grand apiece, you can go to Africa to an African safari plus airfare. I've got a really good operator that I'm sure Tom knows if he sells African safari. So before you decide, I'll make sure you know who the owner is and he personally takes you as part of that trip. But you got to book it through Tom.

John: Yeah, we're going to definitely look into that. And that's wherever Kelly wants to go because it's her retirement. That'll be our next one in like a year and a half when she says, "That's enough, I'm getting out." And she's close.

Mark: So as far as guys in your industry, your union guy—I grew up with grandpa was a pipe fitter, my brother was a laborer, you know what I mean? I've been around the union folks, right? And most people don't think of like, "Oh, he's a blue-collar guy, he's going to go travel to some exotic destination." Is that incorrect or is that a correct assessment?

John: Some retired members do some travel and it's all up to the individual on how they did their career and to have the resources, right? And if they worked hard and were employable and stayed steady, you're going to get a decent pension, you're going to get a decent annuity. And then your social security, you're going to have a really good life. You're going to have a great retirement. These guys could travel.

Mark: And are you finding that they're wanting to travel?

John: Yes. There's, like—we have a luncheon every year at Christmas time and we all get together and everybody goes all over and maybe one trip a year, once every two years.

Mark: Got it.

John: And we all said we don't want to be the richest people in the graveyard. We're going to spend this time.

Mark: There's a book called Die Broke, if you haven't read it. It was written, gosh, 20 years ago at least. And I told my mom to read it because, you know, old school, like, "I want to leave you some money." And I was like, "Nah, spend everything, die broke." And there's a way to die broke without being broke before you die, you know. Annuities are one of the ways. It's kind of funny. Well, this has been great, John. Appreciate your insight. Thank you so much. And what's interesting is the first thing I think of as an entrepreneur when you say that these guys get together, they do these luncheons and all that. If I'm a travel agent and I have a connection to any of those guys, I'm basically saying, "Hey man, here are my cards. If you guys are doing this luncheon, maybe I can come in and maybe I could buy dessert for everybody that's going to be there. How many people show up for this?"

John: I'd say there's probably about 200.

Mark: Oh my god, well maybe I'm not going to buy it for everybody. But maybe there's something you can do and maybe you go in with a larger travel agency group and you say to yourself, "Hey, are you guys paying this out of your own pocket?"

John: Well, it'll come out of general. We're retired, we're retirees and we paid our dues.

Mark: Oh, so you get to go do that. So would they allow someone to come in and talk about something, if they sponsored something?

John: Yeah, you would have to talk to the leadership about that.

Mark: But again, that's the first thing I would think of. It's like, here's 200 prospects. How many of those are retired?

John: No, they're all 200.

Mark: All 200 are retired?

John: Yeah, well, it's all the retirees get together. Between 150 and 200 members retired every year, they get together for this luncheon.

Mark: And everybody who's retired out of the local who's collecting a pension can go to this?

John: Yes. And when you get older, if it's free, it's for me.

Mark: So, again, I'm just uncovering this. Up to 200 guys get together. They have a luncheon, and you could speak to leadership at the union and say, "Hey, we'd like to do something nice for your members, but also it's a business opportunity for us. If you'd be okay, we'd like to sponsor X and come in and talk about whatever it happens to be that you want to talk about. Is it overall trips to Ireland? Is it cruises? Whatever it happens to be." And that would be a great marketing idea. I don't know if they'll let you in. I don't know if they'll let you—why does it hurt to ask? That's—you just ask and all they can say is no. And then you go, next. That's what I love about running a business because that's how you got to think. It's like, and how many—you're one union.

John: Yes.

Mark: One local.

John: Yes.

Mark: Once I got in with one, I could probably get access to a few others, right?

John: Yes, because as pipe fitters and plumbers, we all roll under one roof, Local One International Union.

Mark: So the 200—in North America, Canada and the United States?

John: Yes.

Mark: So that group of 200, how many other groups like that are meeting in the tri-state area?

John: There's probably, in the tri-state area, there's a lot of United Association of Pipe Fitters and Plumbers. There's probably five or six. There's four in this state. There's one in Philly, there's steamfitters, and then the plumbers are there, Delaware. There's a lot.

Mark: So you could have five or six opportunities throughout the year to speak to a group. And forget about that, no offense to the pipe fitters, but think about any other group that gets together. Any other group that brings their members together, especially if they're retired because remember the number one thing they want to do—travel.

John: Yes.

Mark: I love it. You got a business idea out of it. What do you guys think? I think that's great. Have you signed up yet at TravelTube.com? If you haven't, you're missing out on content like this. Follow us on all your social media. Remember, we get that cool logo. If we don't have the background here, we got the American flag back here. But remember, it's TravelTube.com. There's a lot of imitators that, yeah, they don't feature Travel Advisors. So anyway, that's John Walters. He's my neighbor and great to get some insights from a guy who hasn't traveled in decades and just went like Mac Daddy to Ireland. He's seen more Ireland than I did. My name's Murphy. All right.