What’s Offline: The 6 People You Meet On The Road

TRAVELERS tend to fall into one of six categories, and knowing your type can keep you from being disappointed.

So argues Christian L. Wright in Condé Nast Traveler, reporting on studies about personality and travel that have been conducted by companies like airlines, whose entire business is based on getting you out of the house.

The classifications created by the social scientist Stanley C. Plog range from the 3.5 percent of the population who are described as “venturers,” people “constantly seeking remote places, usually without a plan,” to the “authentics,” the 2.5 percent of the population who enjoy “structure, stability and routine” and fully escorted tours.

The largest four groups are:

¶Midauthentics (17 percent of all travelers), who “prefer watching TV to reading and would rather drive than fly.” Popular travel destinations for them are Las Vegas and Branson, Mo.

¶Centric-authentics (30 percent), who are dependable, thrifty and discerning. “A tough but loyal customer who favors major brands and demands values.” A popular choice for them is a package vacation to Hawaii.

¶Centric-venturers (30 percent), who avoid highly developed tourist areas but “require some infrastructure and comfortable accommodations.” They seek trips like a self-driving tour of Sicily.

¶Midventurers (17 percent), who are “avid travelers in search of new experiences and destinations,” people who are physically active and enjoy adventure “only if a fine meal and a cozy room wait at day’s end.” The article adds, “History holds a special interest for this type; luxury is an obsession.”

GETTING THERE It may be hard to remember, but travel, even business travel, used to be glamorous. To make it tolerable today, Best Life offers “21 Rules of Stress-Free Travel.” Among the suggestions offered by Peter Greenberg are:

¶Mail your luggage when flying domestically. “I save an average of two hours of my life every time I fly by not checking bags,” he writes. “How much does it cost? As little as $40 a bag. But the real question is how much is it worth?”

¶If you have an early morning flight, have your car drop you at the arrivals gate instead of the departures area, which will be mobbed. When you land, be picked up on the departures level.

¶Negotiate your Internet, telephone and other miscellaneous charges at the front desk when you check into your hotel. “More often than not, the hotel will agree.”

In Budget Travel, Anne Szeker, a former front-desk hotel clerk, says she was always shocked when guests who called the hotel for a reservation accept the first price that is quoted.

She says: “The hotel is usually willing to give the discounted AAA or AARP membership price, even for guests who aren’t members.”

DIALING FOR DOLLARS After years of being outsourced, “call centers are coming home — and into the homes of free-agent workers” in the United States,” HR Magazine reports.

There are already an estimated 112,000 home-based agents working for companies like Office Depot, J. Crew and Victoria’s Secret, Martha Frase-Blunt writes, based on research from the IDC Corporation. She says the number is expected to triple by 2010 because of the cost savings involved.

“The practice can reduce or even eliminate capital expenditures for offices, parking lots, PCs and other employee amenities” because most agents work as contractors, often providing their own computers, phones and Internet access.

From its inception, JetBlue has used only at-home agents, but they are full employees of the company.

FINAL TAKE The next time someone comments about the piles of papers, memos, books and other stuff that obscures the top of your desk, you can respond with this: “A fairly messy desk is 36 percent more time-efficient than a much neater one,” say Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman, authors of “A Perfect Mess,” who were interviewed by Glamour.

Mr. Abrahamson adds: “Mess is the motor of creativity.”

We would have suggested you clip their comments if you tend toward untidiness, but we did not want to add to the clutter. PAUL B. BROWN

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