My first travels, as an innocent abroad, were not taken in solitude. I always had company in the form of a thick, dog-eared, page-folded, sweet tea-stained copy of Arthur Frommer's "Europe on 5 Dollars a Day."
Even as a youngster, I gave Mr. Frommer some slack, expanding my projected budget to $10 a day. I remember sitting in the Reykjavik airport lounge between Icelandic flights, working on my travel budget and re-reading Arthur's hints to get by on less.
The Frommer guides were filled with valuable gems and money-saving tips that enabled me to spend holidays in Europe while my colleagues at work were spending more per diem on travels in the U.S.
The Frommer imprint has always meant something to me. His successful guidebook empire started with a self-published book he wrote to help his fellow G.I.s travel within Europe. That was in 1955. He built a hotel in Amsterdam, expanded his book empire, launched Budget Travel Magazine, and last year, he sold his publishing empire to Google.
Why Google would want to acquire so much hardcore travel content is open to speculation but, as I suggested in a column last year, Google should be watched carefully.
Arthur Frommer has had the ultimate father's joy, sharing his accomplishments and vocation with his daughter Pauline, with whom he has co-hosted a weekly syndicated travel talk show.
All of which brings me to Arthur's fascinating book "Ask Arthur Frommer" (Wiley Publishing, 2009). The cover describes it as "The ultimate travel guide that answers every major question." Given that, I thought you might be interested in some of what this legendary travel icon passes on to his readers. Here are his observations to the consumer on the current state of travel:
• "Although this new world of cruising is obviously popular among many, its very popularity is a sad commentary on the restless, rootless condition of so many of our fellow citizens. Of all the many onboard lectures I heard on subjects ranging from makeup to stomach flatness and cooking, there was not a single subject appealing to an intellectually curious person."
Actually, Arthur, that's not really true. I've heard lectures on local marine ecosystems, on global warming, panels discussing geopolitical issues, lectures by university sleep experts and highly regarded financial analysts.
On the other hand, I do suppose it makes sense for the intellectually curious cruiser to consider booking a British cruise product on the assumption that there will always be Oxford and Cambridge professors who need a free vacation and a bit of extra cash.
• "The cheap bus movement -- formerly the 'Chinatown Bus' movement -- is spreading rapidly across the United States." This refers to the original Chinese-American entrepreneurs who operated budget bus transportation in cities along the Northeast corridor. This was a new approach, since these buses did not require a local "terminal." They just left from each city's Chinatown. Now, Megabus and dozens of other low-cost operators have sprouted up, including a number that serve cities in Florida. Frommer was right.
• "If the travel agent shows the same aptitude you look for in a dentist, accountant or other professional, then by all means make use of his or her services."
Check, Arthur. But then there's this:
• "I am not an enthusiast of the newly coined, totally inexperienced, home-based 'travel agents' who pay $500 or so for a mass-produced identification card which falsely states they are travel professionals."
Here, Arthur, I think you and I need to get with the times. We don't want to link "inexperienced" with "home-based." And we certainly don't want to link home-based with card mills.
In fact, I believe that we have now reached a watershed moment in the evolution of the travel professional as we see the best and most experienced among us opting to work out of our homes and in association with supportive hosts that understand that selling travel is best done in an environment where, as Travel Leaders' Barry Liben so beautifully puts it, "You sell, we support."
Technology no longer requires face-to-face encounters with clients. In fact, such meetings may well be a detriment to time management and financial success. Suppliers will soon understand that if they want to deal with some of the smartest, most creative travel sellers on the planet, they better be prepared to make sales calls in residential neighborhoods. I am still waiting for some major travel supplier to announce an initiative to visit every "producing" home-based agent in America.
I called that one wrong two decades ago, Arthur. Don't make the same mistake.
• "Always be aware that your travel agent, in most instances today, will need to bill you a fee over and above the amount billed by the airline, hotel or tour. And that's because more and more suppliers are now charging your agent the same price that they would charge you. For the travel agent to earn income ... he or she must add an amount of money to the price billed by the travel supplier."
Could it be that one of the most famous travel gurus in the nation, a man whose advice is trusted by three generations of travelers, does not understand that the commission for most travel products, virtually all products that appear in a brochure, already include the travel agent commission and no mark-up is required to make a profit?
Would Arthur be shocked to discover that most of what we do, with the exception of airline ticketing, does not involve fees or add-ons, since commissions are included in the pricing model?
But let's not act surprised. I have had conversations with travel journalists for some of the nation's best known newspapers who do not understand how agents are compensated. They think we just tack on fees to everything we do.
Arthur held back little in this 468-page book. One of the sentiments I find most appealing is his observation that "It is only by accident that ... we wander by mistake into parts of the city where locals live in conditions having no resemblance to the gussied-up downtown areas. ... From now on, as a tourist, I will attempt to see the less favored areas of the cities I visit."
If we all did that, our world view might be more accurate and, hopefully, more urgent.
Contributing editor Richard Turen owns Churchill and Turen, a vacation-planning firm that has been named to Conde Nast Traveler's list of the World's Top Travel Specialists since the list began. Contact him at rturen@travelweekly.com.