More Clients, More Tools, and More Respect: What Travel Agency Execs Want

The travel agency community is on track for a banner year. Agency consortia, host, and franchise leaders are fully confident that whatever the universe throws their way, the industry will be able to adapt to, surmount, and thrive. Does that mean they all sleep through the night without any worries at all?

What does keep the seven executives we talked to awake at night and what’s the one thing they would change for the agency industry if they could?

(This is part four in a series based on conversations with seven franchise, host, and consortia executives.)

More clients?

Despite the fact that many agencies and advisors are struggling to keep up with demand, we hard multiple times that not enough consumers are using travel advisors overall.

“The average customer doesn’t use a travel advisor,” said David Kolner, executive vice president of Virtuoso. “They book themselves, they book direct, so the market for who advisors still have to go after, we think is absolutely enormous…”

He added, “That’s the part that keeps me up at night. There’s so many people that have suboptimal experiences and it just makes me sad for the travel industry because we have so many great things to share… And I just want more people to have that.”

Part of reaching these consumers includes making sure they’re even aware that advisors exist and they understand the advisor advantage.

“Back when I started, there were more brick and mortar storefronts… now consumers don’t see it,” Drew Daly, senior vice president and general manager of Dream Vacations. “It’s up to the travel advisor to be shouting out at the rooftops, their value proposition and that they exist… And that’s what keeps me up because how can we do it differently? How can we do more? How can we do it that at some point they say, of course, you exist.”

Daly, along with several other executives, pointed out that the independent contractor and home-based models are actually perfect for reaching more people because they tend to be active in their communities.

The right tools

Several of the executives we spoke to told TMR they spend a lot of time thinking about what’s needed to ensure advisors are prepared, whether that’s training or back-end tools, including making the best use of artificial intelligence.

“Technology is evolving so quickly. I think that’s a real opportunity,” said Jackie Friedman, president of Nexion Travel (and Chair of ASTA). “How can we help them? Where can technology help them? We have to gear everything that we do towards helping them be as successful as they possibly can.”

Phil Cappelli, chief sales officer at Avoya Travel agrees that the right tools are critically important for advisors.

“While technology has advanced significantly, there are still areas where inefficiencies exist. By creating a more unified and seamless booking experience, advisors can spend more time focusing on delivering exceptional service and less time navigating complex systems,” he said.

“AI. That kind of keeps me up at night,” Virtuoso’s Kolner added. “Our strategy as a network has been to find the right tools and let people pick the right tools that work for them. Is there enough investment happening in the space that we would like?… We don’t think there are enough tools in the space yet, so that’s what keeps me up… how do we attract more interest in serving the agency community?”

Staying relevant

Taking on a larger share of the traveling public as customers is great for business, but that’s not the only reason some executives said they want to see more people using advisors.

“We talk at Virtuoso about the relevance curve, which is unless the whole category grows, at least as fast as the [travel] industry, we actually become less relevant to suppliers over time,” said Kolner.

As that happens, he added, suppliers will increasingly turn their attention to OTAs and direct sales strategies. And that’s not great for business.

Freidman said much the same. “We have to show them we, the travel industry trade, that we can be the most effective distribution channel for them… They [suppliers] have to fill their beds. If the trade does an amazing job filling the beds, then they have to have less focus on direct.”

She added, “We need to continue to bring the advisors into the industry so that we can keep up with the growth in capacity and keep the advisor channel the percentage of trade sales at most of our partners at a healthy level.”

More respect

Suppliers aren’t the only ones the industry craves respect from.

“I want the industry to be recognized for all the good stuff we do and not be handcuffed,” Alex Sharpe, president and CEO of Signature Travel told TMR, referring to some of the governmental challenges advisors need to navigate.

“The regulation stuff, it’s the unintended consequences,” he said. “I want to be able to navigate the unintended consequences that kind of handicaps our advisors because that’s the stuff that’s just so frustrating.”

Cappelli echoed Sharpe.

“The policy that concerns me the most is the potential for increased regulation on independent contractors. The independent agencies in the Avoya Network operate as independent contractors, and changes in labor laws could affect their ability to maintain their business structure… Ensuring that advisors can continue to operate independently is crucial for the continued success of the Avoya Network and the travel industry as a whole.”

“It feels to me like the travel advisor is one of those forgotten professions in both Canada and the US,” Ensemble president Michael Johnson said. “Policies are implemented that would not otherwise be considered in other industries because of their prominence.”

He praised ASTA and ACTA for “their tireless efforts to represent the industry… ACTA and ASTA have been remarkable in reminding the government how important travel and tourism is to the economy and to all of the hundreds of thousands of advisors and agency owners.”

American Airlines’ reversal on NDC was a perfect example of this, he added.

“I was so encouraged to see American Airlines, without having to be mandated by the authorities, finally wake up to say, actually the agency channel is an important channel.”

Cappelli also praised ASTA for its work advocating on behalf of the agency industry.

“I feel like ASTA did a great job with that [independent contractors]. It’s always something that’s in my mind though, that we stay on top of it and that’s why we’re so invested in ASTA. Those guys do such a great job for us.”

More self-respect

Respect works both ways, Johnson added.

“I would instill a sense of self-confidence and self-worth across the travel industry,” he told TMR. “That just isn’t about feeling better about ourselves, it’s about asserting ourselves as professionals and not being afraid to translate that worth, that expertise into revenue.”

He added, “Every other industry has the confidence and the wherewithal to charge their worth, to realize their value from a financial perspective. And I don’t see why travel is any different… I think it comes down to self-confidence where if I implement a fee, I’m going to lose my customer to Expedia or to an OTA. And as an advisor, you’ve got to ask yourself, what’s your time worth?”

Charging a fee, he emphasized, does more than help an individual advisor’s bottom line. It reinforces others’ perception of the advisor’s value – and attracts more people to becoming an advisor.

“It sends a message to the general population that this is a trade that should be respected… This is an industry that needs to create a sustainable arc… We’re not going to be able to create another life cycle if we’re not asserting our value with the general population.”

Less complicated

On a more practical level, both franchise executives TMR spoke with told us they’d make the industry “easier” if given a magic wand.

“I would just press an easy button,” Dream Vacations’ Daly said. “That easy button would have all the same terms and conditions across the board.”

“Travel is complicated. I would take a wand and uncomplicate more things,” said Michelle Fee, president and founder of Cruise Planners, adding that’s exactly what Cruise Planners tries to do for its franchisees. “It’s very complicated for the frontline agent… I do try to have a magic wand and uncomplicate as much as I can for them, and make it as simple as we can for them.”

They weren’t the only ones waving the wand for simplicity.

“If I had a magic wand, it would be really streamlined and simplified booking process. That would be huge,” Cappelli said, adding he’d also use it to get cruise lines to “support us at a healthy level, even though it’s going to be tough as they’re looking at their P&L.”

Supplier health

With support from suppliers in mind, Cappelli told TMR that their health is equally as important to the future of travel advisors, as anything advisor-specific.

“If I have big concerns as a travel agency leader, it’s the amount of debt that the cruise lines have and how that’s going to impact their spend to try and drive revenue and drive growth with travel agency groups.”

Thankfully, he said he hasn’t seen a big drop off, but he gets concerned when reading some of the earnings reports.

He added that as the cruise lines work to reduce their debt his job gets more difficult.

“It’s tighter to secure favorable goals,” he said.

Staffing challenges, training, and the professionalism of the industry were also major topics of discussion for the executives TMR spoke with. We’ll examine those issues in the next article in this series.