This is part one of a series about travel agents. This topic is very important to me because I work with very good travel advisors on a regular basis and occasionally with a few very bad ones. I really want the bad agents to leave our industry, I want the mediocre agents to become good and I want the really good agents to be very successful. Hopefully this series will contribute to the rise of the Travel Advisor.
When I watch certain programs on TV, such as Paula Abdul’s Live to Dance or Redskins football, I inadvertently grab my iPad and browse the internet for something exciting to read. From time to time I end up participating in travel forums!
I recently read in a Travel Agent forum that most travel agents working from home do it on a part-time basis because they don’t earn enough money from selling travel alone. I am not sure if this is true because I have not seen a formal study in this regard, but it made me think about the future of travel agents. This has been a hot topic since 1995 when the internet entered our lives and made it possible to order pizza online.
As I watch another bad dancer tumbles to the floor it occurs to me that, much like Paula, travel agents are still with us despite the naysayers and conspiracy theorists. But to understand the past and to predict the future of the travel agent one first has to learn more about the needs of American families.
- There are service-oriented people we need in our lives. People like electricians, doctors, teachers, baristas, pizza delivery drivers and Oprah.
- Then there are people we do not really need but our lives will be poorer without them like plastic surgeons, accountants, drive-thru cashiers, politicians and Regis Philbin.
- Finally there are those we only need in a crisis like lawyers, midwives, car mechanics, psychiatrists and Rudi Giuliani.
We all love to have travel agents in emergencies. When you sit in JFK Airport during a snow emergency and your connecting flight in Amsterdam to Addis Ababa is departing in 3 hours, it is nice to call a travel agent and let him or her take care of the problem. Or when your private, ocean-view cabin on your luxury cruise has a life-boat in front and two small kids are staring at you through the window from the busy deck outside.
We also like travel agents when our travel planning runs into snags after weeks of internet research. Such as when the hotel we want gets mixed reviews on Tripadvisor. “Home away from home”, “Bates Motel”, “Perfect. Loved it!”, “Saw bigger rats than in the New York subway”. Or when Expedia, Orbitz, Vayama & Kayak all return the same message (in red no less), “No flights were found between Roanoke, VA (ROA-Roanoke Regional) and Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (JRO-Kilimanjaro Intl.) that matched your request.” These are the times when we like the opinions and assistance of travel agents.
Finally, a few of us believe it is essential to outsource everything in our lives because our time is much more important. We have pool boys, money managers, personal chefs, chauffeurs, nannies, life-coaches, private fitness trainers and personal assistants. Why not have travel managers?
So for now, let’s agree that:
- We love travel agents in emergencies,
- We like travel travels in times of uncertainty,
- We need travel agents to simplify our lives.
Based on the needs of American families it seems to me travel agents are here to stay! But travel agents have to evolve to meet the changing travel needs of their clients and this is a topic for another post!
The bigger question still demands an answer. What will happen to Paula after Live to Dance?
