ASTA Seeks More Consumer Awareness, More Members

Kerby speaking in Reno this week.

ASTA president and CEO Zane Kerby, at a press conference on the last day of the ASTA Global Convention (AGC) in Reno, looked back at the event’s highlights, including appearances by Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson and Dave Hilfman, senior vice president of United Airlines, both of whom were interviewed by CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg.

Sorenson appeared despite disputes between Marriott and the travel agency community in the past year, while Hilfman spoke as ASTA continues to work on repairing travel agents’ relationship with the airline community. He followed a panel of top sales executives from American, Delta and United at last year’s ASTA convention in Washington, D.C.––it was the first time airline executives had been at ASTA since the commission cuts in the 1990s. 

Kerby said nearly 800 travel professionals, including agents, suppliers, media and others, attended the Reno conference, compared to 950 at last year’s event. He attributed the lower attendance to the fact that 65% of ASTA’s membership is on the East Coast. He also said suppliers had commented about the quality of this year’s agent attendees and pointed to the success of the annual ASTA Advocacy Dinner. 

Kerby said ASTA has attracted new members by working with consortia and host agencies to build programs that drive membership and that the association has experienced a net gain in members. As of July 31, ASTA had 8,965 members in all categories, including agencies, individual agents and supplier members, he said. 

“Supplier membership is growing,” Kerby said. “There has been some consolidation with premium members,” while the number of international members has come down slightly.  

Consumer engagement efforts
Kerby said ASTA is now making a major push to help ASTA travel agent members get out in front of consumers. 

A new video commercial to promote ASTA agents and the travel experiences they book was introduced at this year’s AGC; Kerby said it will run on the Travel Channel’s website in October and November with a predicted 2.5 million views. 

“We have taken [ASTA] chapter resources that they willingly gave earlier this year to address the lack of [consumer] awareness,” he said. “We needed a clear message…with clever and well-researched advertising.”

Kerby added that travel agency consortia leaders also are looking to support more ASTA consumer engagement efforts into 2017. 

In addition, ASTA is upgrading its TravelSense.org website, which houses profiles of ASTA agent members, to improve its functionality. By October, Kerby said, consumers will be able to rate agents on the site and make comments about them. 

Roger Block cites ASTA progress
Outgoing ASTA chair Roger Block, president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group, noted the progress made at ASTA over the past four years. “When I joined [the board], ASTA was financially not in a good position,” he said. “ASTA now is in the black…the number of members are growing…and we have a better relationship with airlines partners. I’m excited about the direction of ASTA.”

Block also pointed to a successful effort to reorganize ASTA’s governance, including a restructuring of its chapter system. 

ASTA currently has 26 chapters, with plans to add at least 10 more this year in an effort to get closer to its members. Indeed, chapters will now be largely city-based instead of regional. Potential chapter presidents also are now identified and approved by ASTA’s staff and board, instead of being elected. 

“Our biggest accomplishment was changing the whole governance of ASTA and changing the bylaws, where the paid position is the president and CEO, as it should be,” said Block. “We now have a consistent strategy and management going forward.” 

New ASTA chair will ‘continue the legacy’
Jay Ellenby, ASTA’s new chair and president of Safe Harbors Business Travel in Bel Air, MD, praised what Block and Kerby have accomplished. “This is clearly a new ASTA…and our vision that much stronger…but we have a lot more to do. My job is to continue the legacy and foundation built over the last few years.”

Beyond adding another 10 ASTA chapters, Ellenby said his goal is to increase ASTA’s premium membership from the current 134 to 140. These members are usually large agencies or consortia that gain access to additional ASTA services and research. 

Ellenby said he wanted to increase attendance at next year’s ASTA Global Convention in San Diego to 1,100, though the ASTA board’s goal was 1,000. He put this year’s attendance in Reno at 750.

Ellenby also said he will focus on growing consumer awareness of ASTA agent members and their services. He pointed to the videos on the Travel Channel, noting they cost $12,000 to produce and another $42,000 to run. He suggested that ASTA agent members might help fund such consumer-awareness promotions by adding a small surcharge to every travel transaction, though he didn’t have details on how that would work. 

ASTA Video: ‘Travel Agents Taking Off’
Separately, ASTA said it had teamed with Britain’s ITN Productions to produce a video series about the role travel agents play in the market. “Travel Agents Taking Off” focuses on how travel professionals are impacting and shaping the future of the industry.

Interviews with travel agents and other travel professionals explore topics like the changing role of the traditional host agency; the supplier and agent relationship through immersive experiences; the developing trend of people finding fulfilling, lucrative career paths in the travel industry, and franchise networks supporting and partnering with travel consultants.

The videos feature ASTA, Princess Cruises, Travel Experts, Travel Planners International and Expedia CruiseShipCenters, among others. 

“Travel Agents Taking Off” premiered at the ASTA convention on Wednesday. The video will be available for the next year on the ASTA website, where agents can view it or share snippets with their own customers. The program is part of an extensive online communications campaign that includes ASTA members, journalists, writers, bloggers and politicians. 

“We are proud to partner with ITN on this initiative, which reminds the traveling public that there is only one source out there for cutting through the Internet clutter and tailoring a trip toward the individual needs of a traveler—and that is a professional ASTA travel agent,” Kerby said.