Jamie Biesiada
A friend in the industry forwarded me an email earlier this year with the subject line, "No travel agent tears." It was a marketing email teasing an upcoming conference for Realtors, specifically related to technology.
The email begins, "There's a touch of gray in my beard, so I don't mind telling you that I'm old enough to remember travel agencies. How about you?"
It goes on to state that being a travel agent was a good way to earn a living "once upon a time," with great perks. Agents were everywhere, the email said.
"Today, those people are doing something else," the email states, before going into a pitch for Realtors to attend the conference and learn how to leverage technology to stay relevant.
The email clearly comes largely from a place of ignorance.
The travel advisor community has experienced a resurgence in recent years, evidenced by a proliferation of true advisors, not agents; ASTA changed its name to reflect that shift.
Phocuswright even subtitled its most recent agency landscape report "From 'Survivor' to 'The Bachelorette,'" noting, "Our research shows that travel agents aren't only surviving, they're being courted: Suppliers, consortia and host agencies are trying to attract travel agents to their products."
"We can't change everyone's hearts and minds at once," said Erika Richter, ASTA's director of communications.
In this specific case, that means a real estate marketing team. But Richter argued that the travel agency community is no longer on the defensive with questions like "Do travel agents exist?"
"We're not doing defense anymore," Richter said. "We were five years ago -- we were doing a ton of defense. Now we're doing more offense. Let's focus on the offense."
Richter said that the mainstream media's focus on travel advisors has been almost entirely positive in recent years. Take, for example, an October headline in the Boston Globe: "Agents of change: The Internet didn't replace travel advisers. Not by a long shot," followed by a subhead proclaiming, "In fact, the travel agent is alive and well."
Staying on an offensive path will have the most impact in the long run, Richter said, as minds are further swayed to see the value of advisors. She hopes that in a few years, media outlets will be asking, "Who doesn't use a travel advisor?"
But that will take further collective effort from the industry as a whole, including from individual advisors.
While I believe that real estate conference email came from a place of ignorance, I also believe it falls to the industry to eliminate any uncertainty about advisors' existence and relevance today. That call extends to individual travel advisors.
Become as visible as you can in your local community. Network. Get to know people. And go for what Richter calls the "low-hanging fruit": local media.
Form relationships with local news outlets, and when they need a travel expert for a story, they'll call you.
Some advisors are reluctant to align themselves with negative stories, like recent ones about tainted alcohol in Mexico or tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic. But Richter encouraged advisors to pursue those opportunities, because "that's branding and exposure that you don't have to pay for."
It's also exposure for an entire industry of your peers who do exist and, today, thrive. Persuade the Realtors -- and the rest of the remaining nonbelievers -- with offensive action. As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats.