Richard Turen
This week, I thought we might review several industry issues raised in an article I read recently. See if you feel that they are relevant to you in terms of your current business profile.
The writer remembered the time when expertise and personal experience were worth something in our industry. What are you hearing -- what are the upsides and the downsides of the products you are experiencing and studying? Are you prepared to answer specific questions from your client?
Of course you are, said the writer. You have your little black book, written the hard way. You are not a travel blogger taking a comp trip in the hopes that your postings on Instagram and TikTok will be sufficient repayment to secure a future comp trip.
Your black book, perhaps 30 years in the making, helped establish your expertise when it came to travel. You had to trudge up and down stairs, comparing room categories, furiously taking notes. Your stock in trade was your collection of personal experiences. You are a travel agent.
But now, our clients all carry their own little black books filled with travel reviews from TripAdvisor and a cornucopia of feedback gleaned from reviews from who knows who.
The writer pointed out that hotel information the client has discovered online has made them self-confident. Nowadays, the writer said, the client is introduced to the agent secure in the knowledge that the agent knows less than they do.
The writer tried to place this in some sort of perspective by pointing out that "the internet is the most efficient method ever devised to simply transmit misinformation in a cost-efficient manner to the largest possible audience."
The result of all of this, according to the article, is that marketing and PR departments at any large supplier are closely aligned with what they view as "important internet personalities." These influencers and bloggers with lots of followers earn free trips, travel products or payment "in kind" for kind words.
Smart Money magazine is quoted in the article, pointing out that "free trips and fancy gadgets are enticing bloggers into "planting fake reviews."
The writer goes on to identify this practice. Turns out it falls under the category of buzz marketing. Some of the largest PR firms in our industry, according to the article, have set up buzz marketing groups designed to influence word of mouth with positive online consumer reviews.
The writer wondered why we, as an industry, have been so silent on the topic of online deception and fraud. If opinions can be bought, if honest hotel reviews are available but kept from the general public, what hope does the consumer have other than a caring, empathetic advisor?
A survey of 1,000 shoppers in the nearest shopping center would, I think, reveal that fewer than one or two of them can name the world's top-ranked luxury cruise line. Why does our industry accept this? Why, the writer wondered, are we so silent when it comes to informing consumers about how much dangerously inaccurate information emanates from the travel sector? He wondered when we will start telling our clients the truth about the ways our industry really works.
I did not think the writing was particularly good, but the message -- a call to action -- was clear.
In fact, I wrote the article. I found it in my "archives." It was published in 2007.
When it comes to our responsibilities as travel truth-tellers, what has really changed?