Travel Advisors Meet the Big Three Airlines at ASTA Global Conference

The travel industry’s foremost association for travel professionals rolled out a new name, a new consumer marketing campaign, a new training program — and most surprising, a renewed friendship with the airline industry — at its annual conference, which kicked off in Washington this week.

Formerly the American Society of Travel Agents, ASTA is newly renamed the American Society of Travel Advisors, reflecting the growing importance of travel professionals in promoting travel, and in advising and protecting the public when they take to the road.

And indeed, looking around the room at the general sessions, the growing strength of the channel is clear. There were 1,200 travel advisors and their supporters in attendance, including, for the first time in 20 years, all three major U.S. airlines. One was on the podium, for a full 45 minutes, promising to never again desert the travel agent channel.

“We will never cut you out,” vowed American Airlines’ Senior Vice President Allison Taylor, one of more than a dozen of the carrier’s staffers at the conference. Also on hand were United Airlines, voted Best Airline Partner by ASTA members this year; and Delta, which sent a tableful of representatives.

Twenty years after the airlines decimated travel agencies by doing away with standard commissions on airline tickets, ASTA’s President and CEO Zane Kerby noted that “commissions are going up” again, and many travel agents are again receiving hefty checks for selling air.

“To me, the commission cuts from all those years ago made it really clear that travel advisors work for the traveling public,” Kerby said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Some of their compensation comes from suppliers, but they have to know whom they work for.”

The new name fits
It seems a fitting turn of events in a year that clearly shows the growing power of the human travel agent … I mean, travel advisor, whose demise seemed imminent those many years ago. Travelers still may be surfing the internet and looking at Instagram pictures, but more and more, they are turning to human experts to help them decide where and how to go on vacation.

“We polled thousands of members and the feedback was clear that ‘travel advisor’ was the most positive and descriptive” term for the profession, Kerby said. “It isn’t really clear who an ‘agent’ works for, but when I think of an ‘advisor,’ it’s clear they work for me.”

On the ASTA trade show floor, meanwhile, travel advisors cheered the name change, and reported 2018 has been a very good year for the travel industry.

“I always refer to myself as an advisor or a consultant,” said Robert Walters Jr., President & CEO of Worldwide Travel Associates, Inc., in Avondale, Pennsylvania. “It better represents me and what I do to help my clients get the trip they are looking for. It’s a very positive move.”

“I’ve had travel advisor on my business card for about two years,” said Helen Prochilo, owner of Promal Vacations, in Long Beach, New York, adding that, “this is my best year ever; I just sold 15 cabins on a Celestyal Cruise to Greece in no time. Everyone is looking for something new, and we are becoming more of an advisor, finding new suppliers and little niches by going to trade shows and networking.”

“We’ve become more specialized and consumers are coming back; I think we need to move away from the word ‘agent,’” agreed Kathryn Mazza Burney, Executive Vice President of Travelsavers, in Oyster Bay, New York. “It’s evident here that the travel advisor is alive and well, and I think it’s time we redefined who we are.”

So now, it seems, there’s just one issue. What’s up with the Big Three hotel chains cutting commissions on group business from 10 percent to 7 percent?