Is Canada’s Home-Based Sector Poised to Take Off?
by Judy Jacobs /Although the home-based sector of Canada’s travel agency community is “still somewhat in its infancy,” industry veteran Flemming Friisdahl anticipates dramatic growth.
Within four to six years as many as half of Canada’s travel agents could be home-based, said Friisdahl, who last month launched The Travel Agent Next Door, a network for Canada’s at-home agents.
Working with at-home agents is a new venture for Friisdahl, who spent 19 years in executive positions at Thomas Cook, most recently as senior vice president of national sales and marketing.
Travel Market Report checked in with Friisdahl, whose new agency network is a member of TRAVELSAVERS-Canada, to hear his views on Canada’s retail travel industry.
How healthy is Canada’s travel agency industry?
Friisdahl: From everything I’ve seen, it’s very healthy, and it will continue to grow. You often hear of agencies popping up. There are fewer bricks and mortars than there were four years ago, but the number of agents hasn’t been reduced.
Home-based is growing and is where you’re seeing a new level of professionalism.
What’s the future for home-based travel agencies in Canada?
Friisdahl: Based on numbers from ACTA, it’s estimated that 22% to 23% of the country’s agents are home-based – or about 5,000 of the total 22,000 to 23,000 agents. That number is expected to double over the next four to six years.
If you go with the models you have in the U.S. and the UK, there’s no reason why the number of home-based agents in Canada wouldn’t increase to 50% of the total in four to six years.
How does Canada’s home-based agency sector compare to its U.S. counterpart?
Friisdahl: The U.S. is further advanced in the home-based agency business. You see a tremendously greater number of home-based models. Some of them are commission houses or club places where you pay a fee but are not really a travel agent. In Canada we don’t have those models, because there are more regulations in place.
There are also many good programs in the U.S., like NEST, that do a great job and have taken it [home-based agency business] to a brand new level. In Canada it’s still somewhat in its infancy.
How about the future of Canadian brick-and-mortar travel agencies?
Friisdahl: Brick-and-mortar agencies will still make up a significant portion of the travel agencies in Canada. Customers will still want to deal with people in a store.
There’s a healthy future for both [home-based and brick-and-mortar]. It’s not to say that home-based is the best, because it’s not. It’s an option. One is not better than the other; they’re just different.
What do Canada’s agents have to do to be successful these days?
Friisdahl: Agents have to make sure they’re constantly discovering new destinations. People don’t want to just spend a week in Cancun anymore.
For a travel agent to continue to grow their business and build value and get consumers away from looking online, they need to be able to sell three or four different types of travel, whether it’s wedding groups or Asia or long stays.
They have to be much more proactive and not assume what their customer wants. Sometimes agents assume that their customers want sun, but that’s not necessarily true. You have to have the product knowledge to be able to sell what the customer wants. It’s very expensive to go out and get new customers.
What are the greatest challenges for Canada’s agents?
Friisdahl: The challenges facing agents are a bit regional. Every area has different requirements to serve the needs of that place.
In the prairies, they’re very driven by what the farmers needs and requirements are. In Atlantic Canada, it’s about lift; you don’t have enough flights. With Quebec, wherever you’re sending people you need to make sure there’s French [spoken] to service them.
How about for home-based agencies?
Friisdahl: The most pressing issue facing home-based agents is to find a host agency that is completely geared around their needs and willing to train them and create a community and a social network, so you have your own business, but you still have support of other people if you need it.
What are the big issues facing Canada’s agency industry as a whole?
Friisdahl: One challenge is getting enough new entrants to work in the travel industry. We’re not attracting as many travel agents as we did in the past.
We want to start a program to get new people into travel but with proper training. We’ll be doing a long-term – two to three months – training program. We’re launching that program around Christmas.