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Edocs & Ebrochures
I’d like to follow up to Bob Silverman’s letter to Travel Weekly regarding edocs. I agree full heartily with all that he states, not to mention that the cruise lines wanted us or our clients to print luggage tags on copier paper and then try to staple or tape them on their handle…what a joke and how embarrassing! I also run a full service travel agency and now have been told by a major cruise line that they will no longer be printing brochures. It will all be e-brochures from now on.
I contested and explained that perhaps clients age 50 and younger may all own a home computer, but there is still another genre that does not, nor do some of them even have email. The thought by all cruise and tour companies that everyone owns a computer is pretentious and ridiculous. “Oh but their studies show that this is what the majority of the public wants!” So if this is the wave of the future, and it is saving the suppliers millions of dollars, then how about adding at least a 1% commission increase across the board to every agency to help compensate us for our time, paper, ink, wear & tear on our printers, etc? I believe this is quite fare!
Have all of you forgotten how you felt when you did walk into an agency to book your vacation, how the visual aid help you “see” yourself on that cruise or beach, and how when you left the office you had something tangible to help keep your excitement going until your documents came in, or you could show your friends & family where you were going? Clients do want something tangible & visible, they like to look at pictures and read things at their leisure..not be restricted to a computer.
There are solutions to the expensive cost of printing brochures, here could be a few options to consider: print one brochure with all destinations, cut back on some of the color & content, limit each agency to an amount based on their sales volume and by doing that you won’t over produce and have thousands of brochures at the end of the year that you’re just throwing away.
I think our whole industry is missing the “big picture” and are cutting out an entire genre of clients. I find it quite sad that you are nickel & diming us just like the airlines and have forgotten what all is involved in the motivation & sale of a wonderful vacation.
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