Peter Greenberg delivers warning to travel professionals

High-profile travel writer and broadcaster Peter Greenberg challenged travel professionals to ‘find a way to reinvent the conversation’ when he appeared as a guest speaker at the Collette Future of Travel global forum in Rhode Island.

He warned there was a danger that some were relying too heavily on the internet to provide quality customer service.

The CBS News travel editor warned that only 52% of all travel inventory is available online, meaning travel professionals who rely on the internet don’t have access to 48% of product.

"Agents need to be able to provide their customers with information that isn’t online," he said, "the internet won’t tell you whether your kids can eat for free or if there is parking available at a hotel."

Greenberg claimed he could find a flight in the paper version of OAG faster than an agent could find one online, and he also claimed that using the guide enabled him to find cheaper fares by taking less obvious routes, or by searching for repositioning flights.

He also insisted that customers don’t want to depend on the sharing economy or ‘information flow that is not subject to verification’. He said there was no vetting of review sites like TripAdvisor, which he described as ‘a great idea that has morphed into a booking engine’.

"We have to figure out a way to reinvent the conversation, and that’s where you come in," he told the 400 delegates who attended the travel forum, which was held to celebrate Collette’s 100th anniversary.

Other guest speakers included Peg Kuman, executive vice president and chief privacy officer of V12 Data, who warned delegates that a data breach could cost $255 for each customer affected.

She claimed 47% of all data breaches were criminal, the rest were caused by human error or system glitches.

Silos create risk, said Kuman, adding that companies that had just merged might have different systems so they must find out how each collected and stored data.

"Be friends with law enforcement and get to know them, let them in," she said. "If something does go wrong, these are people you want around the table, not on the other side."

The two-day conference, attended by travel professionals from overseas as well as the US, also included a session on how to grow a business using travel influencers, such as bloggers, vloggers and Youtubers. When asked how many of the audience had used influencers, around 40% said they had but many admitted they didn’t know how to measure the return on investment.

Influencer Suzanne Stavert, creator of Adventures of Empty Nesters, said that unlike legacy travel publications such as the New York Times, she could promote a brand ‘from the inside’.

Describing her travel blog as ‘like talking to a friend," she said influencers could help companies reach new audiences. However, Anthony Dennis, travel editor of the Sydney Morning Herald warned the audience: "Don’t be too fooled by al the hype around influencers and bloggers.

"There is a place for them, but there is no better influencer than a travel writer from a newspaper or magazine. Newspapers remain the primary influencers."

The Future of Travel forum included a gala dinner to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary, at which CEO Dan Sullivan Jnr, whose father bought the company in 1965, announced his daugher Jacyln Liebl-Cote would become president.

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