Chapter Fifteen and Sixteen:

Chapter Sixteen:

Finding a Job and Building a Career in the Travel Industry

“Consumer Sentiment Begins To Swing Agents' Way Once Again”

April 19, 2004

By: Jennifer Michels

Travel Agent

Needed: A Few Good Travel Agents. That could be the title of many a newspaper column, Letter to the Editor or news story these days, as the need for a competent agent seems to be creeping back into the mainstream press.

"There's still a huge audience out there . . . who have gotten burned [booking online]. -- John Hawks

Now that many consumers and business travelers have mastered the art of searching online for the lowest fare, some are finding that should an unusual circumstance occur, the trip could end up costing them much more than the low fare they paid. And agent associations want their members to seize on this opportunity to ride that wave of positive publicity.

When agents see positive pieces, such as one in The New York Times March 9 on the personal service offered by agents, or the March 12 Atlanta Journal-Constitution or the March 14 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, they should link their sites to them, suggests John Hawks, president of the Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA). "We encourage people to make sure they mention it in their own promotional materials, or link to it, if it isn't copyrighted," he says. Hawks says that now is the time for this sort of aggressive self-promotion.

To help agents, ARTA has put more content on [www.mytravelrights.com] that agents can direct toward their clients. The consumer information such as Rule 240, which explains what rights travelers have when a flight is cancelled, for example, can be taken from the site by agents and put on their own Web site. ARTA will send a CD with the content that can be loaded onto an agency's site. Agents also can buy a book on travelers' rights from ARTA to sell to clients. ARTA members receive 40 percent off the $21.95 cover price.

Agents also are receiving free promotion from many published stories of travelers who called their agent, for example, from an airport, and were rebooked within an hour after a canceled flight-while others on the flight were stranded, or standing in lines for at least that long. Hawks says agents these days are feeling much more positive about the future of their business. "I think consumers who wanted to go online have pretty much done that," he says. "There's still a huge audience out there who don't want to spend the time, or who have gotten burned."

A case in point is a traveler who called the help line on travelersrights.com because he mistakenly purchased a ticket to San Juan, Texas, when he wanted to fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico. He bought the nonrefundable ticket off of the Internet, and was told "too bad" when he tried to fix the mistake. "I told him sorry, there's nothing you can do," Hawks says. "Next time use a travel agent." Hawks says the industry is probably seeing the first crest in the online adoption, and those who have been having fun with it are now seeing the dangers involved.

This issue was brought up recently at the ASTA Forum by Aimee Ricca, owner of Bonne Amie Travel in Rockport, Maine. She asked ASTA President and CEO Richard Copland what ASTA is doing to market agents, adding that agents constantly encounter people who, whether it is true or not, say they buy their travel from the Web because it is a better deal. Even when she explains that her packages are as good or better than those found on the Web, Ricca says many travelers are conditioned to believe in the Web myth.

Ricca asked Copland when the association is going to promote the value of travel agents. "What we need is for ASTA to put in place a serious marketing campaign" that would include radio and TV, Ricca said.

Copland responded that while ASTA does not have a vast budget to spend on advertising, in the past five years it has invested millions of dollars on consumer awareness. It runs ads principally in USA Today, has enlisted the help of consumer advocate Ed Perkins, conducted public relations campaigns and worked with chapters to urge them to push consumer awareness programs. ASTA also makes public relations and marketing resources available for free on ASTAnet to its members.

But ASTA also works with reporters to direct them toward agents who can help them with stories on using an agent, and Copland said in the last month there have been several calls to do stories on the value of using an agent. And Copland says that this year, the association is working on unpaid media (publicity versus advertising). And it's using other tools, such as the new TravelSense e-newsletter, which promotes travel and agents to 120 million consumers.

The benefits of all of these efforts, perhaps aided by the growing number of dissatisfied Web bookers, are starting to be noticed. Reports from just a couple years ago of the demise of all agents have been greatly exaggerated, and have now been replaced by news of a re-energized business, says Tom Polski, vice president of public relations at Carlson Hospitality Worldwide. "It's alive and growing," he says.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reading Assignment:

Read Chapter 16

Discussion Questions:

First, make sure you read ALL of chapter fifteen and sixteen in your text and online before you answer these questions! Then, review both the web information and your text and answer the following questions by typing the questions and the answers on a separate word document to be e-mailed to the instructor.

Do you need a license to become a travel agent or a home based travel agent?
What kind of investment is necessary to begin a reputable home-based business?
What is a “host agency”?
What are the benefits of using a local host agency?
What are the benefits of using a national host agency?
Go to the ASTA site. (www.astanet.com ) Where and when is the very next convention?
What is the IATAN card and why should you have one?
What is the benefit of using a resume service?
Why is a business plan so important?
List several ways to find a travel position locally.
Does it REALLY matter how you look?
What does it mean to be well-groomed?
Based on the article (above), what seems to be trend in making travel arrangements? Aren’t more and more people booking travel online? Are agents still necessary?
Do you think travel agent fees add a level of respectability to the career? Explain your answer.
What is the MOST IMPORTANT thing you learned from this course?

A final note from your instructor!

Thank you for taking this course! I hope that you have learned a lot about how the travel industry works. The travel and tourism field is exciting, confusing, complicated, frustrating….and fantastic! Life is an adventure. I wish you the best of luck on your journey.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
--Augustine (354-430)