Richard Turen's frequent comments about the continued existence of the travel agency business have been interesting. I'm not entirely certain that the general public understands what it is agents actually do. Even President Obama is apparently under the impression that travel agents are ticket sellers. How demeaning!
Professional travel agents have two fundamental responsibilities:
1) Investing in travel products and services that, in the agent's view, best serve the customer's needs, understanding the posture of the customer when experiencing the product. If the customer has been in an airplane for 15 hours and traveling for 20 hours or more, for example, it's just a waste of money to put him or her into a luxury property to "bed-down." A standard property is more appropriate in this instance.
2) Efficiently managing the block of time with which the agent has been entrusted. Unlike the dollar value, time once spent is gone forever, so how we manage that time is crucial.
Which of these elements is more important? The irreplaceable one, of course. Does this require professional assistance and/or management? Well, if the customer cares about his or her self-esteem, about valuable time we've been entrusted to manage, of course it requires professional oversight and guidance.
Recognizing the three elements in risk management, to assign the risk to an agent makes perfect sense. To insure it may offer some comfort, but by "doing it myself" the customer is absorbing the risk.
The very nature of the business is ripe with risk. Absolutely nothing in this industry remains the same for long. It's a full-time job to keep abreast of changes in the industry, and even the best among us have a failure rate.
Ticket sellers? Hardly.
Robert P. Malmberg, president
Malmberg Travel
Boston
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