Following is the third of a 12-part consumer survey series, sponsored by Travel Weekly, designed to gauge consumer behaviors and preferences affecting the travel agency community. Results of subsequent studies will appear monthly.
NEW YORK -- Leisure travelers gave their travel agents an overwhelming vote of confidence when they said, in a new Travel Weekly consumer survey, that the trade is the best place to go for solving problems and for evaluating travel alternatives.
They also picked their agents as the place to go for the best prices.
According to the report, called Dimensions of Travel Agency Loyalty and Usership Among Leisure Travelers, respondents were asked to compare agent services in these three areas with services at supplier 800 numbers and on the Internet.
As the best problem solvers, agents got 89% of the client vote, with suppliers getting 5% and the Internet reaping 2%.
For evaluating travel alternatives, 86% of clients said their agents do the best job, with the Internet getting 7% of the vote and suppliers getting 2%.
Finally, 71% of leisure clients said their agents were the best source for prices, compared with 21% voting for the Internet and 5% for suppliers.
In each case, a small percent of respondents were undecided.
Clients shared these and other assessments of their travel agents in a survey that was designed to measure and describe client loyalty.
The results showed that leisure travelers who use one agent exclusively remain loyal in part because they value their personal relationship with their agent and believe he or she acts on their behalf.
More than one in four respondents (28%) nationwide said that having a personal relationship was a main reason for using their travel agent, and .24% pointed to such subjective notions as a good prior experience or good service.
In an open-ended question, respondents could list several reasons for relying on their current agent for travel arrangements.
Thirty-four percent went straight to the bottom line, citing their agent's ability to get the lowest fares and the best price. In addition, 31% of loyal customers noted that convenience of location was a key factor.
Destination expertise -- knowledge of a specific place and the evaluation of travel alternatives -- was cited by only 12% and 8% of respondents, respectively, as reasons for using their current agent.
Again, when asked in an open-ended question to identify those things that set their agents apart from others, the factor cited most often (by 17% of loyal customers) was a personal connection with a particular travel agent.
Other factors cited were convenient location (13%), ability to get best prices (12%) and good past experience/good service (11%), while knowledge of a specific destination again seemed less crucial (4%) as did an agent's ability to accomplish all arrangements in one phone call (4%).
Consistent with the often subjective nature of a loyal client's commitment were the results of a question asking respondents to rate how well their agents know them, with 10 equal to "complete understanding" and 1 "complete ignorance" of their travel needs.
More than half (57%) rated their agency eight or higher, and 25% gave their agents a perfect 10.
And those who rated a 10 probably already know not to bother sending birthday cards to clients. They also know that wine or flowers don't often solidify any bonds either.
Survey respondents were asked to rate the importance of various services, again on a scale of one to 10.
The birthday greeting culled an average rating of 1.9, barely beaten (at 2.8) by a nice bouquet.
At the other end of the scale, the most valued services were offering an 800 number (7.3); informing clients of travel promotions by mail (5.1); calling the client after the trip to discuss it (4.9) and informing clients of promotions by phone (4.2).
The survey also revealed that, on average, loyal leisure travelers remain with the same agent for seven and a half years, which translates into a significant business because such customers average 4.3 leisure trips a year (3.8 domestic and 0.5 international). Of these, 2.5 involve the travel agent.
This month's survey of loyal travel agency clients is one of a series of 12 monthly surveys to be conducted in 1999 by Plog Research on Travel Weekly's behalf.
Dimensions of Travel Agency Loyalty and Usership Among Leisure Travelers Click the link below to view the study in its entirety. (NOTE: This feature requires that you have the latest browser software and/or the latest version of Acrobat Reader installed. The free reader is downloadable from Adobe's Web site.)
- twpoll3.pdf
The monthly efforts complement a much larger, more in-depth consumer research project now under way and set for publication Aug. 16.
To be called the "1999 Consumer Travel Survey," it will be Travel Weekly's first Focus issue devoted to consumer research.