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ABTA president: Agents must sharpen up
ABTA president Martin Wellings has warned agents it is no longer good enough to simply be order takers in an age where increasing numbers of people are turning to the Internet.
The director and founder of Personal Service Travel said retailers need to sharpen up their act and start providing added value.
“Some travel agents are still not performing any other function than taking a booking and that is not good enough anymore,” he told delegates at TravelMole’s travel industry question time on the future of the tourism. “People can do their own thing on the Internet.”
Part of the problem, Wellings continued, is that agents still sell on price alone which detracts from the overall image of the high street retailer.
“We need improvement on that front. We need to become better marketeers,” he said.
Cendant chief operating officer Chris Vukelich said agents can survive in the future by specialising in particular market sectors.
“Retailers need to know their customers better,” he said. “If you project yourself as a specialist in a destination or product types there are a lot of tools out there that will enable agents to out-research the customer.”
Vukelich added that agents are missing out on valuable commission by failing to sell add-ons.
“We live in an experience-driven economy and the technology is here today for agents to sell add-ons. The smart retailer will do that,” he said. “I firmly believe intermediaries will survive but they will evolve.”
Report by Steve Jones
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