Not all agents 'fear the internet'...
May 12, 2009
TTA boss Simon Hargreaves said at the weekend that travel agents have an 'irrational' fear of the internet, which the recession has made worse.
Perhaps. Given that the internet has caused severe disruption to traditional business models, 'irrational' may be an unfair choice of word. 'Counterproductive' might be better.
Anyway: in the name of balance, here are a few examples of the trade not being afraid of the web.
- Here's a thread about XL refunds on Travel Rants. Two out of the first three comments are from travel agents (both Nick and Lee are regular TR commenters).
- Here's Murray Harrold, a self-confessed 'grumpy old travel agent', raving about Google Earth on a personal blog.
- Here's Matt Parsons' breakdown of travel companies on Twitter - many are agents.
...and here, by way of comparison, is some real irrational fear from Peter Preston in the Media Guardian, under the headline 'Web of destruction'.
Before there were computer disks to steal from the fees office, there was privacy, secrecy and supposed decency undisturbed. Before there was email, there was no Damian McBride hawking his poison from screen to screen.
...which is rather like blaming a brown envelope for the cash-for-questions scandals of the 90s. The internet is driven by people, and it won't do to blame it for their shortcomings.
The three examples above are a quick snapshot. Got more? Leave a comment...
Nathan Midgley
Comments (4)
I have certainly seen an increase in travel agents leaving comments on the blog in the last 12 months. From my perspective I think it’s brilliant that they want to get involved. As I wrote earlier, travel agents participating in the Freedom Direct post were replying to consumer’s questions in to the evening and at the weekend.
I know how much time I have put into learning about internet marketing, social media etc so those travel agents that haven’t created an online presence the thought of doing so must be daunting.
There’s a lot of content out there to help you learn, but what I found difficult is finding advice and tips written by sources that you can trust. That’s where I see Travel Weekly plays a massive role in educating travel agents.
There’s a lot of hype, especially where learning about topics such as search engine marketing.
I could write and write forever about my experiences.
Posted by Darren Cronian | May 12, 2009 2:28 PM
Posted on May 12, 2009 14:28
Of course many agents should fear the Internet. Not because of what the Internet is, but because of what they are.
Many agents service existing customer desire - rather than build desire. Customers will find that, over time, the web is a better place to have their booking needs dealt with in an efficient manner.
Any agent that builds desire to travel (from local marketing, whether web based or physically) has nothing to fear as long as they can continue to do so efficiently. [For example a local agent promoting then taking hotel bookings would be inefficient vs web players - but a local agent promoting then taking honeymoon bookings - could probably find a niche that larger companies can't afford to get into, on a local level]
Hence the long term prospects of travel agents are mainly around
* building desire rather than servicing existing desire
* efficient operation of bookings - but still taking complex bookings that are tricky to do online
Further thoughts on this topic here
http://www.tourcms.com/blog/2009/04/26/travel-website-conversion-desire-it-book-it/
Posted by Alex Bainbridge | May 12, 2009 5:17 PM
Posted on May 12, 2009 17:17
Just a note, the real reason agents have this problem with the internet is that the Tour Operators continually undermine the costs by offering a greater discount that the agents commisison for online bookings.
Whilst they do this then there is no chance fo agents wanting to help the operators who stuff them
Posted by David Wootton | May 14, 2009 3:33 PM
Posted on May 14, 2009 15:33
@David - quite, but isn't that a problem with tour operators? To damn a whole medium (and a whole new set of marketing tools) because of some operators' direct sell strategies is to throw the baby out with the bathwater - I think that's Simon Hargreaves's point.
Think your point and Alex's are both valid - they aren't contradictory.
Posted by Nathan Midgley
|
May 14, 2009 3:41 PM
Posted on May 14, 2009 15:41