Can agents see Life after the Web?
This essay is to discuss what the future is for travel agents in today’s world, when internet services are so popular and easily accessible. It will give a brief view on the travel retail industry and developments within the traditional channels of distribution. This essay will also include the present issues that have had an influence on the industry.
Travel retail industry plays very important role in tourism. Travel agents are like a “communication bridge” between the suppliers and the customers. They work on a behalf of the tour operators providing travel services such as airline tickets, hotel rooms and train tickets. The financial risk of the travel agent is very low due to lack of stock. They do
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People want to have more freedom of choice while travelling. They often prefer to organize their time during the holiday exactly the way they want. Spending hours at the travel agent’s desk used to be the only way to arrange vacation for many travellers. Not anymore! Now customers can comfortably do the same job sitting in their own homes. All of that makes the future of the high street agents unsure. A lot of people confessed that they have not visited the travel agency for years. Online booking has been popular among the young tourists for quite a long time but now even the older generation started following them. According to report from 2005 presented by Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) about 44% of adult people did their research about the holiday online and 53% were predicted to use internet to book their trips online till 2007. What does it mean for the retail agents? Is the personal service from behind the desk close to extinct? According to the statement of First Choice spokesman the ways of booking holiday will remain balanced due to variety of customers’ demands. Some people will seek easy and quick access, the others security of purchasing products through travel agents. Similar point of view had Rob Freedman- head of marketing for Flight Centre UK. He reckoned that even though people often choose internet rather than high street agent customers who are planning to spend more money on their trips are
Before the days of the Internet, if a family wanted to travel to a far-off, exotic locale, they would have to either find a local travel agent or call a travel agency and plan their getaway. In the 1990’s, the Internet became a staple of everyday life and began entering many homes. As the availability of the Internet increased, so did the services available to clients. With the increasing availability of the World Wide Web the travel industry found itself faced with revolutionizing changes. All of the tools that were once solely available to travel agents now became readily available to anyone with access to the Internet and a search engine. Websites quickly formed around the idea of providing consumers with quick vacation planning ideas at low costs. Getting
Question 10. TCO 12. Some argue the Internet has diminished the need for travel agents. Others boast the travel agent offers a unique level of personalized service the Internet lacks. Profile the customer that would utilize a travel agent versus the typical internet
Travelodge should must make some party place and function rooms. More permanent workers should be collected and hire more marketing experts. With various offers the promotion and advertising is needed. And as being responsible of their workers, Travelodge must fight against the changing rules and regulation. And being in Growth stage, the right place must be filled with Travelodge with proper plan.
Today’s on-line travel market is succeeding because the companies are using a more software-centric, online business model termed “E-commerce.” This has become the popular avenue for businesses as it mirrors the ideas of mobility. The sheer amount of data available, coupled with the advanced operating systems and social media platforms, have created new possibilities for E-commerce organizations. The infrastructure of E-commerce has expanded into platforms such as peer-to-peer networking, crowd-sourcing, social websites, and mobile devices and media. E-commerce trends are findings ways to incorporate every aspect of our daily lives into an online package associated with our everyday needs (Fishbein, 2013).
In this section I will explain the different development in the tourism industry since the 1960’s and what the effect it has on the travel industry.
E-commerce has played a major role in few continents that the Internet has penetrated. Years before the emergence of e-commerce, traditional business remained the mode for transactions, which made consumers experience difficulties finding time to check various stores in search for different brands and products. However, in today’s generation, the utilization of e-commerce has conveniently provided consumers with the possibilities of doing so without the need to step out of their homes at any time of the day. E-commerce, in a matter of few years, has successfully spread throughout different industries, one of which is tourism. In this developing age of e-commerce, traditional travel agencies are forced to adapt to this change by exploiting the benefits of e-commerce to satisfy the market’s online search for holiday tours.
The bargaining power of buyers in the leisure & recreation industry has increased with the use of online travel booking and online customer reviews. Buyers are now able to become better informed with the services that they are purchasing and can
When Internet was introduced in the 1990s, STA Travel experienced an increase in competitors as the Internet was predicted to account for more bookings than offline alternatives. In an effort to respond to the technological
This marketing plan will aim to increase market share by five percent over the next year by targeting first-time visitors to Australia/Queensland in advertisement and promotional materials through a business-to-business campaign, focusing on travel agents and other third-party international booking agents. Targeting these international sellers through the use of more recently established information and communications technologies will produce a cost savings for the company and has been demonstrated as
As the economy develops, the individualized and diversified demand of tourists is growing. Tourism consumers in different regions, their needs and desires are vastly different, and also change with the change of environmental factors. Travel agencies highlight the characteristics of market positioning, emphasizing the differences, and establish
Another important aspect in the threat of substitutes is the buyer propensity to substitutes. The travel agencies play a big part in the purchasing decisions of consumers in the leisure industry. As the intermediate between the company and the customer, travel agencies can supplier different vacation packages. Carnival must offer competitive price to secure sales during economic downturns when customer’s propensity to switch to lower-cost substitutes are higher.
The success in the travel industry depends on the knowledge of the changing trend and maintaining pace with it. The company needs to respond to all technological changes with equivalent measures in order to be in line or even surpass its competitors. Focusing on the users’ and customers’ preferences, wishes, and fears, TripAdvisor will be able to enlarge its brand awareness and hence gain brand loyalty. This will be contributing to the company’s
* TUI Fly has an online website as well as Facebook and Twitter pages to update and inform customers on information, the company uses it website for online booking of trips by customers in their own time and comfort. In 2009 only 8% of holidays were booked in travel agent while the rest were booked online (Telegraph, 2010). These booking are recorded with Airline Reservation System which updates the flight details empty seats as well as the database of the customers (Videcom, 2006)
The buyers of the services of travel agencies are consumers, that is, individuals and businesses. For this industry we are dealing with a small degree of concentration, due to the wide range of services.
Tour operators: as defined by EU Package Travel Directive; different types of tour operators including outbound operators, domestic operators, incoming operators, specialist operators, direct sell operators Industry: identification of major tour operators including their origins, ownership, market segments, competition, identification of specific operators within each category; scale eg number of passengers carried, market share, turnover; products and services to meet different markets; vertical and horizontal integration in leading operators; impact of