Celebrating Travel Agents

Congratulations travel agents, you’ve reached equal status with birds, Star Wars and candied orange peel. All of which are celebrated and hailed with national “days” on May 4.  Bring on the Instagram hashtags.

So as we celebrate Travel Agent Day, we should start to see a whole series of new “why use a travel agent” articles. Here’s a nice “Why Should I Use a Travel Agent” article from WestJet, which they posted during last year’s National Travel Agent Day. According to WestJet, you are experts, you think of everything, and you are time savers.

A nice sentiment, but hardly the stuff that will move the needle for a consumer who already believes that he can do his own bookings better, faster and cheaper by using Mr. Internet.

Before the internet became a glorious source of perceived bargains and half-truths in travel marketing, travel agents were the original social network. They had the inside track on what was glamorous and what was not.

But sadly, back in the “good old days,” many travel agents would try to lure new business with some form of marketing promise that equated to “we can build your travel cheaper than if you go directly to the suppliers.” While that may once have been true, even then it was a lazy man’s way of trying to build demand for a profession that is about so much more than booking the cheapest flights.

Then the internet came and the industry evolved. Airlines dropped commissions, OTAs began eating away at hotel bookings and suppliers found ways to use the internet to circumvent travel agents.

Still, though, newspapers and magazines were writing articles about how it is cheaper to use a travel agent to book travel than it is to do it yourself.

And suddenly the promise of being the cheapest game in town—which was never entirely true to begin with—became patently impossible to live up to.

But, dear travel agent, forget about cheap. Forget about discounts, bargains and low, low prices.

You are the tastemakers, the trend watchers, the navigators. You are the personal shoppers of the travel industry. When someone asks you, “does this trip look good on me,” you are the person that travellers rely upon to be honest enough to say, “not so much, but let me show you an item in another destination.” If there were a Mr. Blackwell for the travel industry, you would be him.

While our social networks may make us feel connected to everyone in the world, it is you the travel agent that have the real connections. Know a client with a special need? It is you that can pick up the phone, call your BDM, and ask “can we make this happen?”

And while, yes, you do provide incredible value, what you really provide is a roadmap to joy, relaxation, adventure, wellness, escape and quality family time. You are the conduit to a better world for your clients. And while sometimes people want cheaper, what they really want is better, which is what you are uniquely able to make happen.

So today, on Travel Agent Day, all the folks at TravelPulse salute all that you do. Now go out and conquer those mountains for your clients.

May the fourth be with you.

Follow @MonicaPoling