ince the first commission caps in
1995, if not before, various experts and pundits have been advising
travel agents to reinvent themselves, to adapt to a changing
marketplace, to do things differently, to do new things.
Over the last decade, thousands of agents have profited from
that advice. Even ASTA, which is sometimes accused of deploying
more anchor than sail, has restructured itself, and restructured
again, becoming more inclusive, broadening its membership to
various new categories of travel sellers.
How appropriate, then, that the latest entity to embrace a new
beginning is the Institute of Certified Travel Agents.
Outside of academia, it's no stretch to say ICTA is the most
respected name in travel education and training. Given the
realities of travel distribution in the 21st century, we think it's
logical and laudable for ICTA to transform itself into The Travel
Institute, offering education, training and certification programs
to all segments of the travel industry.
It will be an enormous challenge for The Travel Institute to
take this step while bringing to its new programs the same cachet
of integrity that has been the hallmark of the CTC program. That
should be a concern for all of its stakeholders.
But it should be welcome news to all that The Travel Institute
recognizes this challenge and intends to maintain and strengthen
the CTC and related certification programs, becoming, in the words
of CEO David Preece, the entire industry's "standard bearer for
what determines expertise, proficiency and competency."
Preece said, "We have an obligation to be as inclusive as
possible, to help anybody who wants to be as good as they can be at
whatever they're trying to do."
Who can quarrel with that?
• • •
In harm's way
t is said that mariners shudder
and pray for their fellow seafarers when they hear weather reports
from land that a storm has "headed safely out to sea."
It is well to remind ourselves that safety from the storm cannot
happen for everyone. The storm has to go somewhere.
While the travel industry may have breathed a sigh of relief
that Hurricane Isabel spared the resorts, beaches, ports and
attractions of Florida and the fragile islands of the Caribbean, it
was not so kind to the Carolina coast.
In the path of the storm through the mid-Atlantic region were
many travel agencies, hotels, airports, attractions, historic parks
and buildings, local and national landmarks, homes, businesses and
communities that are just as fragile as any other.
Everyone in Hurricane Alley, from the Leeward Islands to Canada,
knows that these storms come with the territory, like earthquakes
in California. But the East Coast has a dreary bargain with Mother
Nature: You get fair warning, you see them coming -- but they come
at you every year.