Travel agents want more technology

Travel agencies in the future will continue to merge and consolidate, Bobby Hesier, executive vice president for Vacation.com., told TravelMole. “Agencies are also moving towards technology. To be competitive, they are looking for people like us to help them sell both on-line and off-line travel,” he added. Vacation.com, which has 7,000 travel agency locations in the US and Canada, recently launched some new initiatives, including: • An enhanced web site. • A new series of advertisements. Vacation.com enhanced its existing web site, www.joinvaction.com, with the addition of an on-line demo for Power AgentNet, its newest agency desktop platform featuring a booking engine for member agency web sites. He said Vacation.com is a good way for travel agents who are considering membership to sample some of the available technology that sets Vacation.com apart from other organizations. In addition, Vacation.com started a series of ads designed to showcase the advantage of membership. Seven ads demonstrate why Vacation.com is the top choice among travel agent consortia, Mr Heiser said. He said Vacation.com, which claims to be the largest vacation selling network in North America, has also been successful because it offers only leisure travel. Vacation.com’s size helps it negotiate good preferred supplier arrangements and guarantee the best prices, he said. While he admits more travelers are booking on line, he does not see the demise of agents in the future. He uses the example of cruise bookings, which he says now represent about 5% of sales. That number could perhaps go up to 10 or even 15% in the next few years, he said. “I don’t know what the peak is, or if there is a peak. Who knows the magic number? But what I do know is that travel agents need to be there so consumers can enjoy the benefits of both the off-line and the on-line travel world,” he said.