OK, so I didn't watch it. I have no idea what happened other than a
bunch of people lived on an island and voted each other off until
one was left and he got the million.
He also got another half-mil from a publisher for a book I can't
wait to read. It's not the TV show, it's the title that makes me
think of us, you and me, trying to survive in this business.
Y'know, commission caps and the Internet didn't just cause you
problems; they didn't do much for me, either. It's a lot tougher to
convince people that travel agents matter as much as they used to,
even though I happen to believe that.
Call me stupid or sentimental, but I don't see how anything
that's happened in the past few years makes travel agents any less
important than before ... more challenged maybe, but not less
important.
Do people need less personal advice on airlines, cruises,
hotels, tours and other travel arrangements than they did before
caps or the Web? Has technology changed human nature so that people
no longer require a smile or the sound of a voice from someone
trying to help them have a successful business trip or vacation? I
don't think so.
If you're still out there plugging away at your travel business,
making the necessary adaptations to deal with the changing business
climate, you're already a survivor. You've made it through
five-and-a-half years of caps and however many dog years of the Web
and you're still here.
If there was any doubt about the resilience of travel agents,
take a look at our recent U.S. Travel Agency Survey, published in
the Aug. 24 issue. How does $143 billion in annual sales by U.S.
agencies sound? That was the 1999 volume figure.
How does $714,000 per employee in the average agency sound for
productivity? That was the 1999 volume figure.
How does 78% of agencies with the ability to access the Web from
their offices sound? That was the 1999 figure, and I'll bet you
it's a lot higher now.
I know, not everybody survived and there are more that won't,
but whatever happened to those geniuses who couldn't wait to toll
the death knell for travel agencies five minutes after the first
round of caps was imposed? There would be only a couple of thousand
left in a few years, they said.
Well, guess what? There were 32,238 ARC agency locations at the
end of last year, and that was only 4% fewer than two years
earlier.
And if you think all of the travel agents in those closed
agencies aren't in the business anymore, take another look. Many of
them are working full time in other agencies or are home-based
independent contractors.
You want survivors? I'll show you survivors.