Online bookings helping agents

Why are increased on-ine bookings a sign that the recent travel agent decline has reached its nadir? Brian Robb, chief of staff for Mark Travel Corporation, told TravelMole: “The volume of booking on-line is up for sales, but the number of people who book online is not going up as fast, which means travel agent market share may have plateaued.“ Added Tammy Lee, vice president of corporate affairs: “The trend is sort of back to the future, where savvy consumers are going back to travel agents for their higher end buys. As the economy comes around, people are looking not just at best price, but also at getting the best value.” The number of US retail agents has nearly been cut in half in the past five years, from 46,659 in 1998, to 24,000 this year, according to the Airlines Reporting Corp. The American Society of Travel Agents estimates that members have fallen from 12,000 to about 9,000 over the past decade. Ms Lee pointed out that there’s been a dramatic shift to electronic bookings, which in the US were up 52% last year, according to a study by travel analyst Phocuswright. But she added that agents have shifted to more on-line activities that help them remain competitive. She maintains that Mark Travel’s commitment to agents is evident in their setting up various systems to allow agents to set their own commissions. “They (agents) can compete not only on price, but also offer better service,” she said. Mark Travel’s business is up more than 4% over last year. And Mr Robb attributes that in large part to the US State Department’s ending its orange terrorist warnings several months ago. “When they issued the warnings, our business would go down. But when that stopped, we’ve seen a steady increase of business,” said Mr Robb. The Milwaukee-based Mark Travel handles 2.6 million customers a year through its various vacation companies that include Adventure Tours, ATA Vacations, Blue Sky Tours and others.