Introduction 

You represent the next generation of travel agent, 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 to build value-added travel portfolios that meet the needs and surpass the expectations of your business and leisure clients.

Can you solve the problem of deriving service-related content and data from the Internet and use appropriate software to synthesize a concise and informative report?
 
 
 

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 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. 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. 
 
 
 
 
 

1.  The Client 

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

Collect all travel information on the Travel Itinerary.
 
 

2. Find a Flight 

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

Using the travel resources, 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, 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 to generate customized maps of the areas required and predicate the weather forecast with the The Weather History Database. 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. 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 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 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 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.
 

Expedia Use for locating airline and hotel reservations.	CNN Travel Find city guides, driving directions and reservation centers.
Travel Channel  Find out what's on and read interesting travel facts, with photographs, holiday tips and recommended sites	TravelFacts  Use to locate dining and tourist attractions.
City Guide Use for tourist attractions, dining and special events.	Travelocity Use for tourist attractions, dining and special events.
MapQuest Use for finding maps and driving directions.	The Historical Weather Database Allows you to search for monthly average temperature and precipitation figures for your area. Make your weather predictions based on the information.
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary Use this dictionary when preparing your portfolio.	The Write Source Refer to it when writing the business letter.

 
 
 

Evaluation
 

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

	Beginning	Developing	Accomplished	Exemplary	Score
Travel Itinerary	1-4 Travel Itinerary missing or very incomplete, not enough data to complete project.	5-8 Travel Itinerary partially complete, with some usable data.	9-12 Travel Itinerary mostly filled in with necessary usable data.	13-15 Travel Itinerary completely filled in with all necessary data.
Business Letter	1-3 Little evidence of letter formatting and does not demonstate adequate written communication skills.	4-6 A poorly formatted letter and weak demonstation of written communication skills.	7-8 An adequately formatted letter and demonstates acceptable written communication skills.	9-10 A correctly formatted business letter demonstrating exceptional communication skills.
Budget	1-3 Little evidence of a prepared budget and use of formulas and formatting.	4-6 Partially complete budget with incorrect use of formulas and formatting.	7-8 Satisfactorily completed budget with adequate use of formulas and formatting.	9-10 Completed budget with correct use of formulas and formatting.
Portfolio	1-3 Travel portfolio does not meet client requirements.	4-6 Travel portfolio meets few client requirements.	7-8 Travel portfolio meets most client requirements.	9-10 Travel portfolio meets all client requirements.
Writing Mechanics	1 Writing contains numerous errors that interfere with understanding.	2 Writing contains many errors that do not interfere with understanding.	3 Writing has a few inconsistent errors.	4 Writing is free of grammatical errors.

 

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?

Mainained by Brenda Green
 Last updated on April 30, 2002. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page