Carried Away News
This page will be used to post news and events for Carried Away Vacations as
well as website announcements.
Going National!
Update: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 By David Francis
Our attention has been focused on
the new magazine and
it has become a great success in our market. While we have been able to keep up
the links and information here on this website, we have not spent enough time
expanding and updating it. We hope to change that as we are about to start a
national advertising campaign with
MyWeatherLive.com.
This is a great site and one of the founders (Chris Sowers) is a friend of ours.
People have come to know and trust Carrie Away Vacations through the website and we hope this new exposure will allow us to expand and grow offering travel news, destination profiles and great deals for our regular travelers and our new customers as well. Who knows? We may be able to grow our staff and abilities and bring you bigger better offers as a result! No matter how this turns out, we enjoy the travel business and remain dedicated to our customers. Thank you for a great year so far!
Happy New Year 2008!
Update: Thursday, January 17, 2008 By David Francis
Carrie and I would like to wish everyone a happy new year and to thank you for
shopping for, and booking your trips from our website. This has been a labor of
love and though we have been a little preoccupied with the new magazine company,
our intent is to remain active travelers in the long run. We are considering a
few options but one that will result in good news for you is that we are
planning to start traveling again!
Huh? How is that good news for you?
For two reasons. 1) We will be taking our camera and note pad and returning with stories, photos and information from our trips. While we travel, we will be looking for the best places to visit, the best excursions and the best accommodations. What are we looking for? We are looking for the places we can recommend for the new travel club, which leads into good news number... 2) We will be putting together some complete vacations and making them available on this website. You will be able to read about the package and if you want tot join the group, simply book your vacation here. Each traveler of each trip will have access to a special area of the website for information, planning and discussions.
This all depends on a number of things, but if you are interested in receiving updates on this program, please check back here over the next few weeks for a way to sign up for announcements.
Once again HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Thank you for visiting, thank you for reading and thank you for your continued encouragement and support.
Look for us in Soky Happenings!
www.SokyHappenings.com
Update: Wednesday 25 July, 2007 by Carrie Francis
We were inspired to include a small advertisement in the August issue of Soky Happenings magazine because the Soky Money article "Making your dream vacation more than a dream." By Kevin Briggs. Kevin touches on the importance of saving up for your vacation.
We have seen many times that at the time of purchase, people use some form of credit to purchase their travel. Some, albeit rare, write a check and fewer still, write checks from dedicate travel savings accounts. This travel savings account is created for the specific purpose of saving up for a vacation and it's a brilliant idea.
Travel savings accounts can save a fortune in finance charges alone. It can also serve as a budgetary guide when planning a vacation. We try to help our clients understand the importance of having enough money set aside for the vacation itself as well as a little "mad money" on hand for the what ifs.
We are proud of Soky Happenings. We look forward to meeting lots of new people and helping them "go somewhere."
More changes coming soon happening!
Update: Monday 18 Jun, 2007 By David Francis
I am happy to announce that we will be changing this website again! All in the
name of progress of course. With more than 16,000 impressions and 400+ ad
clicks, as well as an "undisclosed amount" of money earned from the affiliate
links on this site, the time has come to take the next logical step.
More than increasing our commissions, we will have access to all of the major suppliers and services that we enjoyed back when we had the brick and mortar travel agency.
We have finalized an agreement that will not only allow us access to the best products, but also enable us to earn enough to continue our expansion of Carried Away Vacations. I believe that we have found a wonderful location for our retail location as well.
If you are a travel professional with 5 or more years experience successfully marketing, selling and coordinating first class leisure travel, we would like to hear from you. We are currently exploring options that would allow us to offer a base salary plus benefits and performance bonuses, all of which would commensurate with experience and qualifications. Other positions include receptionist, concierge, and corporate travel clerk.
Please use the contact form and send us a brief biography/resume as well as contact information if you would like to be considered for the team.
Gatlinburg affiliate links
Update: Thursday 03 May, 2007 2:04 pm By David Francis
Apparently, Bluegreen is no longer part of the affiliate program we were using
so I removed the link. Since we are considering opening a full service office at
the end of this year, I will not be replacing the link at this time. If you
would like our opinion on reliable rentals, just use the contact form and we'll
help as much as we can.
A slight diversion
By David Francis Sunday 22 Apr, 2007 11:52 am
As many of our local friends and clients know, we have been working night and day on a new business venture that is very exciting and community oriented. Since our attention has been focused completely on "the other project", we have not been making as many updates to the website as had been since February 1st. If you are interested in traveling, have a question about a trip you've booked with us or would like to be added to our automated mailing list, please see our new contact form.
While it's true that our attention has been elsewhere, don't be fooled! Our desire to create the best travel agency is still on the table. What we are working on now is a major step toward our goal to create, staff and operate a first class travel agency with style.