The need to use a travel agent in the UK and other extended travel markets is now a fact of life. Due to the countless information and misinformation on the internet, travellers are choosing to be helped by the advice of travel agents.
Late last year the Daily Telegraph, one of the UK’s largest newspapers, reported that the high street travel agent is making a come-back. Although the paper questioned whether the trend will last, it comes following the opening of new branches by several major high-street travel agencies in the UK, including Hays Travel and Flight Centre.
Eugene Ko, marketing director at Phocuswright, says: “Booking travel has become increasingly complex. This is not even so much to do with the ‘pandemic effect’ anymore – there’s a colossal amount of information and inspiration available online, through countless different sources. Although most people do enjoy an element of research and choice when booking travel, using a travel agent can eliminate the need for extensive online trawling, as the agent can handle all the details and bookings on behalf of the customer. This convenience saves time and effort, especially for complex itineraries or group travel.”
Sami Doyle from TMU Management, a data-driven insurance intermediary specializing in travel, says that it’s also about trust. “The near two years of chaos that COVID unleashed on travel plans for people was a bit of a wake-up call for anyone who’d booked direct or even through an online travel agency – suddenly discovering that customer service was non-existent, cancellations and refunds were hard if not impossible, and in some cases bankruptcies were leading to people not getting what they’d paid for.
Looking beyond the UK shores, Juan Socas from PriceTravel, one of Latin America’s biggest B2B and B2C sellers of travel, points out that in Latin America certainly the travel agent never went out of fashion, with estimates of up to 75% of travel sold face-to-face or by telephone still. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking that Latin America doesn’t have a sizeable middle class and that all the travel sold is cheap, local trips – that’s far from true. There’s huge demand for international travel to the US and even Europe and such travellers often want the reassurance of a personal travel agent handling everything.” says PriceTravel’s Juan. “Based on our experience there’s lots of other examples of such demand around the world, certainly outside of your typical top 10 biggest economies – so if you’re a hotel or other type of travel supplier don’t overlook the potential here.”
As a final thought Janis Dzenis from price comparison travel website WayAway points out that whilst there’s always a market for retail travel agencies, lots of people still want their online version and sometimes the best value can be found for the more adventurous types searching for cheap trips, discounts or to purchase with loyalty points. “It doesn’t have to be all about the big three OTAs or the high-street retailer, there is something in-between and there are lots of online sellers set up specifically for certain niches and focusing on a particular demographic or geography.