After four years of allowing both agents and consumers to book its vacation product online, Classic Vacations last week restricted its online booking capability to agents only, requiring consumers to contact their travel advisers in order to book.
"Why do tour operators look to have a dual channel? asked Classic Vacations President David Hu. "All in all, we're making a big bet that we're going to get a bigger share by being more relevant to the travel agent sector."
In the four years of having online booking capabilities for both agents and consumers, agents have been making more online bookings at Classic than consumers, according to Hu, though he didn't provide an exact breakdown.
"We have all these learnings from [parent company] Expedia, and we definitely could have amped up our ability to drive more consumer bookings," Hu said. But, he added, "why would [agents] want to use it if our brand is up there competing against them? There's a fork in the road here, and if we're staying true to our commitment to the travel agent, we have to do right by them."
Starting Nov. 21, consumers were no longer able to book directly on Classic Vacations' website. The ability to check rates, view hotel availability or receive a quote is now reserved exclusively for travel professionals. Potential travelers are only allowed to browse content that is meant to inspire travel. To make a purchase, visitors are directed to a list of travel advisers available near them.
In addition to discontinuing the consumer booking site, Classic has dropped its consumer call-in number, as well.
Asked whether he plans on making the move a key marketing component in reaching out to agents for more business, Hu said, "I'm not going to tout the agent-only branding. … I'm going to be touting the fact that I'm able to provide you with the right tools, the right service."
Earlier this year, Classic launched a business program called Classic Assist to give agents a host of new online marketing and business-management tools, including customized electronic and print marketing pieces, account management and private-label options.
The company plans to continue to invest in improving the tools and functionality of its online booking site in order to provide greater inventory accuracy, speed and services to travel sellers. More announcements about online agent tools, services and inventory access are scheduled to roll out in the next few weeks.
"All data shows that five years from now there is going to be a demographic shift in terms of who's going to be more prevalent in booking vacations," Hu said. "We need to be more proactive in reaching younger consumers and travel sellers. We need to start thinking about five years out."
It's not uncommon for tour operators to have an agent-only distribution model; for instance, Travel Impressions is agent-only. But many tour operators accept bookings both from consumers and agents.