7. Travel AgentsThe same thing ran through my mind as I passed by the empty office last week because honestly, with the world at our fingertips now, who still uses travel agents? I do feel bad about it cause I have the most lovely travel agent but usually when she sees me now, it is because I just wanted to say hello, and not so much to give her business. I mean, I have not used a travel agent in a long time and I travel at least twice a year (work responsibilities and money limitations have kept me in bondage).
The internet now makes it possible for the public to schedule their own trips. While there are still many travel agents, incentives once offered by airlines, hotels and car rental companies make the occupation less profitable. Today's travel agents often book long or complicated trips, while the weekend getaway or quick business travel is scheduled individually online.
But how easy it is to log in to British Airways or Caribbean Airlines and book your ticket to freedom, scour through TripAdvisor and Frommer's looking for hotels, tours, experiences? Once you have a pc, an internet connection and maybe a printer, if your experience does not include mobile ticketing, you're set. Quite frankly I don't have the time to run down to a travel agent's office and getting to my beloved agent on a weekday is near impossible cause it then means having to leave work early, speed down the highway, negotiate a parking spot and beat it to her office before she closes. WHY? When I can simply look for a cheap flight online, book it, get my eticket, without leaving my desk!
And there are so many online promotions that lie outside the travel agency, who once upon a time, would rule the specials. I guess maybe the older folks, would be loyal to travel agents. Despite everything I tell her, my mother still uses our travel agent. The relationships that we have built with the people linger and still, they see the travel agent as that link in the event anything goes wrong or they need a quick change.
Now if they start using the social media tools available to give their businesses a much needed boost, then that's another story. For example, some travel agents operate solely out of their offices with no web presence whatsoever, like my girl mentioned before. FAIL. Others have websites but they aren't updated regularly enough to keep the savvy traveller interested. FAIL. Some don't understand that many people are on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and that these are great ways to offer specials and drive traffic to your website. FAIL. With airlines and hotels increasingly using social media to get closer to customers, without the middle man (that's you Mr Travel Agent), travel agents need to start getting creative about how they keep this business and keep you interested in using them, as opposed to going to the source. The travel agents still, in my estimation, have a strong customer service element on their side, which they need to use to their advantage while going 2.0.
Like anyone else, travel agents need to get with it because gone are the days when I would come sit in your office and open a travel magazine, close my eyes and randomly choose a destination. With so much information and resources out there, travel agents can no longer be content to sit in an empty office, hoping and praying that someone walks in. They have to make me want to walk in - be it through their physical office door or through the sexy virtual landscape that I encourage them all to develop if they intend to survive.
