Travel Agents

Break through the travel recommendation bubble with a good old-fashioned human expert.

Travel agencies are using digital education tools to reach the new generation of agents. More valuable could be back-end innovations that make life for agents more fun than figuring out dated computer systems.

Venezuelan travel agencies have refocused their strategies to face the economic crisis. The shift has not been enough to boost the business, which shows no signs of recovery.

Skift recently released our Megtrends Defining Travel in 2017. One trend, Humanity Returns to Travel, notes that, “all of the data in the world is much more powerful when placed in the hands of a well-trained, empathic person who can anticipate, be flexible, and help steward a cohesive experience.” This observation is coming to life through 2016’s increase, and 2017’s predicted increase in travelers seeking the services of travel agents/consultants.

It's one thing for a private equity group to own many fragmented hotel and travel assets. It's another to own a distribution platform to sell those products. Apple Leisure Group's new owners have to feel good about leveraging the company's scale and using its resources to help increase the viability of its existing assets.

With dozens of online sources available to consumers, travel consultants need the ability to clearly articulate the benefits of consulting an expert.

When it comes to reaching consumers, travel agencies don't have the resources to fight against travel providers and online booking titans. They need to be more creative with the tools they do have, and many are experimenting on social media and other digital channels.

There are fewer generalist jobs right now, but there's a demand from consumers for specialized knowledge in the field.

Are travel agents being leveraged to serve as teachers for machine learning artificial intelligence? Time will tell.

Humans still have a future in travel, but we need to get increasingly specialized and savvy about how we connect with the smartphone-enabled consumer. We must look to the in-roads between high tech and high touch and how these two factors work together to create truly unique travel experiences.