How Travel Agent Groups Are Promoting the Profession

In my first column for Travel Market Report last week I wrote about the incredible future looming for the travel agency profession in the coming years. Of course, one of the ways that will happen is through greater consumer awareness of the agent profession.  

For years, travel agents have gotten a bad rap, falling prey to pundits who push the myth that the internet has eclipsed them. But even before the internet, one of the biggest complaints among agents was that consumers simply didn’t recognize them for the service they provided. They often blamed their professional groups for not adequately promoting them.

In truth, even some of the largest agency groups, as well as the largest association, simply never had the funds to mount a comprehensive and long-term campaign to promote agents. Instead, they have engaged in sporadic, smaller efforts to get out the story of travel agents.

For its part, the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) has consistently promoted the trade over the years, despite a limited budget. Even though ASTA today is a much smaller organization than it was back in the 1990s, it has done its best to promote agents. ASTA chapter presidents have agreed to pay a certain percentage of chapter funds toward consumer awareness efforts, including the use of advertising to promote agents. 

Another way ASTA is working to promote agents is by relaunching its consumer website this February. Travelsense.org is getting a facelift as well as improved functionality. ASTA is seeking to drive consumers to two areas on the website—how to find a travel agent and how to submit a trip quote. Jennifer Michels, ASTA’s vice president of communications, tells me the website gets roughly 65,000 unique visitors a month. In addition to its agent search capability, the site also features articles on things like how to pack and how to tip, as well as destinations that get picked up in Google searches. 

Michels also tells me that ASTA intends to add a travelagent rating system in the second quarter this year. “We want consumers who are afraid of scam artists in travel to come to us, look up an agent or tour operator that they are questioning, and be able to see if they are reputable,” she says. “We already get several phone calls and emails a week from travelers who want to vet a travel agent or tour company. We want to drive home the point that without an ASTA professional travel agent, you’re on your own. We also are looking into a video chat format to allow consumers to ask an agent a question.” 

Because of ASTA’s smaller size and budget, however, it must rely on its volunteer leaders, its chapter presidents, and others to get out and tell the travel-agent story. “We try to equip them with talking points or new video we have planned for this year on hot topics so they can talk to local reporters or go on the air,” says Michels. “We need to get the word out that the three key values of using an agent are: they save you time, they do save you money, and they are there to take care of you before, during, and after.” 

Beyond greater consumer awareness, ASTA also is working on ways to entice more people to enter the profession, something I believe is absolutely key to the survival and future success of travel agents. ASTA is working on a new guide on how to become a travel agent. “We get asked that all the time and we currently have a 26-page booklet on the subject on ASTA.org, but this will be new, improved, updated, and online,” says Michels.  

ASTA also recently began working with a London-based company affiliated with ABC News that will be doing a series of news segments on important travel-related topics. ASTA President Zane Kerby will kick off these segments with the first interview sometime later in the spring, according to Michels. This will be followed by additional segments that will include interviews with other ASTA travel agent members. “We want to do a ‘day in the life of a travel agent’ segment to get the public to stop being afraid of the agent-buyer relationship,” Michels says. “We want people to understand how agents are there to help them.” 

Finally, Michels points to ASTA’s daily efforts to build more relationships with the press to help journalists write accurate stories about the agency business and the travel-agent community. “We have to be in the news cycle and find creative ways to insert ourselves into broader conversations,” she says. “I would say one of those is we are living in the age of terrorism. We need to talk about that, and travel agents are a big part of that conversation.” 

Of course, ASTA isn’t the only professional association helping to promote and improve the professionalism of the travel agent trade. The Travel Institute, which has long worked to educate and certify travel agents, has declared 2016 as “The Year of the Travel Professional.” The group says it will tie all its major print and digital communications to a full year of new and refreshed webinars, promotional events, and training opportunities designed for dedicated travel professionals. 

According to Diane Petras, chief operating officer of The Travel Institute, the new campaign represents the non-profit group’s belief in the viability and value of individual travel agents who advance their careers and expertise. The year-long effort is based on a two-pronged approach that will include skills-based training to expand the sales, marketing, and management/leadership expertise of travel agents, and a public relations primer designed to help agents effectively promote their expertise to a variety of audiences. 

Quarterly themes will focus on four distinct areas, with the initial offering kicking off in February with “Advice from the Experts,” a 10-week webinar training series for those new to the travel industry. The webinars are free to members of The Travel Institute and $19.99 per session for non-members. Other quarterly topics in 2016 include management/leadership and public relations.  

“Travel agents have proven their resiliency and today are experiencing a renewed respect for their profession,” says Petras. “But today’s consumer is also of a different mindset than in the past and is more discerning—and probably even more demanding—in who they deal with and what they want. Knowledge gained from the ‘Year of the Travel Professional,’ as well as credentials earned and other training from The Travel Institute, are essential steps in setting [travel agents] on a path to success and apart from the competition.” 

Next week I’ll take a look at the efforts to promote consumer awareness of travel agents by some the most powerful travel agency groups in the business—the major consortia and cooperatives that truly have the financial heft to make a major difference.