Report tells agents how to avoid extinction

Travel agents of the future should become lifestyle managers, sell more ancillary products, or help give customers a more seamless travel experience.

These are some of the recommendations made to agents in the latest industry report by Amadeus, carried out in conjunction with Oxford Economics.

Call The Travel Goldrush 2020, the 42-page report explores the future for airlines and agents, based on in-depth interviews with key industry figures.

It concluded that agents potentially face even greater challenges than airlines in managing their future business.

But it said face to face agents should benefit from a series of trends, including:

– fragmentation of the travel market
– the growth of less familiar destinations
– time poverty
– an ageing population with specialised needs
– the growing recognition that support is needed when things go wrong.

The report suggests that agents may become ‘lifestyle managers’, providing higher-margin, tailored services to consumers, like health and fitness, in their home countries and abroad.

Alternatively, it said through technology such as smartphones, agents could provide customers with specific, real time, interactive information on plane and local train/bus timetables, hotels and key sites of interest near a traveller’s location.

“Location-specific software packages could be sold through, or developed by, agents, for a traveller’s upcoming trip,” said the report.

Agents could also develop their businesses so they act as experience centres, providing customers with essential details and specialised information on destinations and saving them the time of doing it themselves.

“Likewise, there is a feeling that agents will be there for
you in the event of difficulties – as exemplified by the
disruptions caused to European flights following the
volcanic eruption in April 2010,” says the report.

“For agents, the future is likely to be about focusing on market
niches and specialisation. The fragmentation of the market means
that a very large number of niches could emerge.”

It said agents should specialise in experiences or destinations.

“As one interviewee pointed out, face to face agents have transformed the physical look of their shopfronts, and have taken on an appearance closer to that of lifestyle goods, re-emphasising their role as specialists and suppliers of luxury goods.

“Specialised areas may prove to be high yield ones, particularly for those agents that are first movers, take the initiative and provide a what’s next offer.”

The report also suggested that agents might need to turn to online models to survive, earning their revenues through pay-per-click or advertising-based models.

“Some 60% of travel sales are already managed online in some
regions such as Scandinavia. From this point of view the future
would see people paying for a service that accesses other people’s
research about a destination, making face to face contact less relevant,” it said.

By Bev Fearis