It's not easy being a travel agent these days: airlines are cutting
commissions, it's becoming simpler to book travel online and now
there are people actually impersonating them. No joke. Ads have been
running in national newspapers for quite some time now saying that
for 500 bucks or so, and no professional training, you can become a
travel agent and enjoy all the wonderful benefits and perks like
discounts on hotel rooms, rental cars and airline tickets. To find
out if this was true I dialed up Robin Crandall. She's the Marketing
Manager with the Institute of Certified Travel Agents, or ICTA, in
Wellesley, Massachusetts. She told me it is indeed possible to pay
your money and get a card saying your a travel agent, but that
doesn't make up for the training and experience a good agent needs.
We also spoke with Ellen Castleman of Pleasure Travel in Los Angeles.
While she says there is no substitute for experience, that hasn't
stopped throngs of folks from forsaking travel agents altogether. A
study on the travel industry conducted by the New York research
company PhoCusWright says that online booking was up almost double
last year to 11 million people. It's just one more problem for travel
agents to face.
And adding the the travel agent woes, late last year, many of the
major airlines announced they're joining forces, to create an airfare
supersite called "Orbitz." Orbitz promises lower fares than any
travel agent and any current website can now give you. Only problem
is, the U.S. Justice Department suspects the whole deal may be
illegal. Since the airlines themselves are involved, Orbitz may
violate anti-trust laws. Still, there's no official launch date for
the site, and you can bet the legal wrangling is far from over.
Listen in to what these travel experts have to say about travel
agents in the modern world.
{ Travelers' Aid Index }
