Consumers Will Pay Agents To Save Time, NBCNews.com Says
by Richard D’AmbrosioConsumers remain overwhelmed with information found online, and more travelers are turning their trust and travel plans over to live agents, NBCNews.com reported this week.
The online sister site to NBC’s television network news quoted the June 2016 American Society of Travel Agents annual consumer report, as well as MMGY’s 2016 Portrait of American Travelers survey (referencing Travel Market Report’s MMGY analysis in a TMR June story).
The piece featured traveler Alyne Ellis, a Washington, D.C. writer and radio producer, and talked about how happy she was to hand over a complex European itinerary to a live agent whom she built trust with over the course of booking the trip.
It also quoted Sheri Doyle, the Seattle-based owner of Pacific Northwest Journeys, which specializes in travelers heading to Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. “It’s time versus money. People find value in paying a fee for travel knowledge,” NBCNews quoted Doyle saying.
