They said the job was a dead end. Travel agents would go the way of the dinosaur. That was at the beginning of the internet revolution.

Computers and automation are taking over. People will be out of a job before we know it. All the doom and gloom people were prophesying the end of many careers. The reality is, they were wrong!

Technology is not replacing careers, it is simply changing them. What used to be a dedicated function is now shared between consumer and provider. The addition of all the “travel” sites is adding to the ever growing list of places to search and ultimately adding confusion.

There are 2 types of consumers

The budget conscious consumer

This person strictly buys on price. The cheapest price always wins. Unfortunately, many times the amount of time taken to realize the savings ends up costing more in the long run. This reminds me of people shopping around for gas prices. Quite often people will drive WAY out of their way to save a few pennies for gas. If you stop and think of how much fuel you are burning by going out of your way, the savings is often loss.

People just don’t see this. They are strictly focused on the bottom line, amount of coin out of their pocket.

The value conscious consumer

This person wants value for their money. They understand that “time is money” and know what their time is worth.

Evidence of the difficulty customers have meeting their travel needs with the current systems, products, and services can be found in the exorbitant amount of time customers dedicate to travel search. Our survey of more than 2,000 global travelers revealed that 20 percent required more than five hours to search and book travel online.

source: IBM Global Business Services – Traveler 2020: the Distribution Dilemma

If you make $50 per hour and your travel takes an extra 5 hours to book, that means you need to add another $250 to that “budget” deal you get on line.

Expertise – When you book your own travel, you are at the mercy of online reviews and other people’s perspectives. This works well when that person has the same ideas and likes as you. There have been quite a few occasions where people travel to a location, some people loved it, others didn’t. How do you determine which of the two opinions is correct?

Working with a travel professional

When you work with a travel agent, aka travel professional, you get much more than a cheap flight. Travel professionals are working for you, not the resorts or airlines. They will first get to know you and understand what it is that you want out of your vacation. They realize that you work hard for your money and want to maximize the value of your most precious possession – TIME!

Travel agents are passionate about their profession. They do this for a  living. A travel consultant will spend well over a 100 hours a year just taking classes and learning the various options for booking and coordinating travel. Cruise lines, airlines, hotels, rental cars, resorts, they all have various processes and procedures.  By learning the systems and getting to know the people in the industry, your travel agent has access to many perks, upgrades and VIP packages that you will never see on the discount sites.

When you develop a relationship with your travel agent they will truly know what works for you. The client experience and happiness is the focus of the true travel agent. When you ask about a specific location you will get the right information. Suggestions based on your preferences and previous travel history.

What difference is it to them if you go to the Bahamas or Hawaii? When they work with you they want you to go where YOU will be happy.

Are you a couple looking for a romantic get a way? They will know all the romantic spots and places that cater to adults only.

How about a family with kids? Why take the chance of getting to your budget location only to find out they don’t have anything for the children? You want to make sure that your kids are well taken care of and will have plenty of activities to keep them busy. How about kids only functions that give the adults a little quiet time for themselves? Ahhhh, perfect, a win-win situation and that ideal vacation is a phone call away.

Next steps

If you want to maximize the value of your time, possibly get perks and upgrades not offered to the general public, then working with a travel professional is for you!

I would love the opportunity to book your dream vacation. Contact me at (860) 214-0152 or send me an email.