Travel Itinerary

Introduction

You represent the next generation of travel agents, with an unparalleled array of resources at your disposal and the ability to provide your customers with the highest quality of timely and personalized travel services. Use your creativity, communication skills and technological savvy skills to build value-added travel portfolios that meet the needs and surpass the expectations of your business and leisure clients.

The Task

Time to get your business off the ground. The phones are starting to ring. Your first client is waiting for you to make their travel arrangements. Read your client profile and assess their travel requirements. Use the travel resources provided below to make travel reservations/itinerary (e.g. transportation reservations, hotel reservations) and find travel information (e.g. city transportation, restaurants, weather, special events, sightseeing activities, and entertainment).

Collect all information in your Travel Itinerary (see attached). Remember to keep your client's special requests in mind too. Personal attention is what the client is expecting.

Once you have planned the whole trip, your task will be to write a travel portfolio including business letter, detailed travel itinerary and budget to send to your client. Explain how your travel recommendations meet the specific needs of your client.

The Process

1. The Client

You will be assigned a client. Read your client profile list their travel requirements in the client web. Use this map to focus the travel plans.

Collect all travel information on the Travel Itinerary (see attached)

2. Find a Flight

What are the departure and return dates? What "ticket class" will your client fly?

Using the travel resources (below), find an airline flight for your client. Use the three digit airport codes (e.g. DUL is Washington-Dulles) to aide in your search. Be patient, it may take a few minutes to locate the available flights.

3. Find a Hotel

In what area of the city does your client wish to stay? How many nights are required? Has your client made a special request for their accommodations (e.g. 4-star, nonsmoking floor, handicapped room)?

Using the travel resources (below), locate a hotel. Many choices will be available, so make an educated selection and be prepared to explain your selection.

4. General Travel Information

What transportation options are available? What travel attractions and entertainment do you recommend? What makes this destination unique?

Now your client will need general travel information. Use MapQuest or Google Maps to generate customized maps of the areas required and predicate the weather forecast with the The Weather Channel. Research the available transportation, areas of historical and recreational interest, and entertainment for the destination city. Select several restaurants for recommendation.

5. The Travel Portfolio

Itinerary:

Complete the Travel Itinerary (you will need to download this attachment below). Check for completeness and detailed information. Cite all research sources.

Business Letter:

Use Microsoft Word to write a formal business letter addressed to your client highlighting the itinery you planned and estimated budget. Explain how your travel recommendations meet the specific needs of your client. (Refer to the example

business letter that is attached for format). The letter should be:

  • on your company letterhead (include return address)

  • typed in single space

  • formatted correctly (recipient's address, date, no indents, one blank space between paragraphs)

  • signed by the author

Budget:

Use Microsoft Excel to prepare an estimated budget of travel expenses. You may design your own budget or use the template budget (attached) to get you started.

6. Check Your Work

Before submitting your Travel portfolio to the client (or your teacher), check your work carefully.

  • Do you have all the documents required?

  • Re-read the client profile to ensure you have met all their requirements.

  • Re-read the rubric (below) to ensure you have met the assignment requirements.

  • Is the spelling and grammar correct? Ask a friend to proof read your work.

Going Beyond

If you complete this project early, please take it a few steps further and create one of the following assignments:

1. Create a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation about the destination city.

2. Using Microsoft Publisher, create a one page brochure about the destination city.

3. Select another client and prepare their itinerary.

Resources

The following links will be extremely helpful to you when preparing your client's travel plans.

Google When all else fails don't be

afraid to do a search of your own using Google.

Evaluation

The rubric below explains the criteria that will be used to evaluate your work.

Travel Itinerary

Business Letter

Budget

Portfolio

Writing Mechanics

Beginning

1-4

Travel Itinerary missing or very incomplete, not enough data to complete project.

1-3

Little evidence of letter formatting and does not demonstate adequate written communication skills.

1-3

Little evidence of a prepared budget and use of formulas and formatting.

1-3

Travel portfolio does not meet client requirements.

1

Writing contains numerous errors that interfere with understanding.

Developing

5-8

Travel Itinerary partially complete, with some usable data.

4-6

A poorly formatted letter and weak demonstation of written communication skills.

4-6

Partially complete budget with incorrect use of formulas and formatting.

4-6

Travel portfolio meets few client requirements.

2

Writing contains many errors that do not interfere with understanding.

Accomplished

9-12

Travel Itinerary mostly filled in with necessary usable data.

7-8

An adequately formatted letter and demonstates acceptable written communication skills.

7-8

Satisfactorily completed budget with adequate use of formulas and formatting.

7-8

Travel portfolio meets most client requirements.

3

Writing has a few inconsistent errors.

Exemplary

13-15

Travel Itinerary completely filled in with all necessary data.

9-10

A correctly formatted business letter demonstrating exceptional communication skills.

9-10

Completed budget with correct use of formulas and formatting.

9-10

Travel portfolio meets all client requirements.

4

Writing is free of grammatical errors.

Score

Conclusion

The Internet is home to a huge volume of information, only some of which is valuable and timely. This WebQuest has challenged you to demonstrate reading to be informed. Using technological skills, you have conducted market research and and analysis. You have cooperated with your peers to gain knowledge about travel planning, Internet services, maps, and budgets. Finally, you delivered to your customer a valuable travel portfolio.

By completing this WebQuest you have tackled the authentic problem of deriving service-related content and data from the Internet and used word processing and spreadsheets to synthesize a concise and informative written product.

Reflection

  1. What did you learn by completing this project?

  2. What was difficult about searching for city specific information?

  3. What would you like to see at the travel resource sites that you could not find? Example video conferencing, real-time delivery of updated schedules ("push technology")?

  4. Consider your experience as a team member. What did you learn about your own team skills?

  5. What did you do well and what could you improve?

  6. What suggestions would you make to improve this project?