Spotlight: Agents
Travelers Turn Back to Travel Agents
June 9, 2011
A recent article in the Washington Post Lifestyle section discusses how the travel agent, once considered a moot job in the advent of online booking, has seen a comeback, due to the difficulty in planning trips with increased and hidden fees, unexpected disasters on the road, and an overload on Internet data. A study by Forrester Research found that the number of leisure travelers who enjoyed using the Web to plan and book their vacations dropped from 53 percent in 2007 to 47 percent in 2010. And in an American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) survey, 44 percent of agents said that they had more clients in 2010 than they’d had the previous year, with the strongest rebound in rail and hotel reservations. However, the travel agents who have managed to survive the battered industry have had to adjust. No longer making commissions directly from airlines, agents now pass those fees to clients, and most agents are expected to be available to their clients on weekends and at all hours, to... Read More →
Spotlight: AgentsTUI adventure travel boss calls for better training
January 9, 2010
A lack of knowledge of the adventure travel sector is holding agents back from taking advantage of a £180 million market (European). Read the full story by Edward Robertson featured in Travel Weekly. Read More →
Member Press Releases Spotlight: AgentsIntrepid launches agent-only web site
December 30, 2009
Adventure travel specialist Intrepid Travel has unveiled a dedicated web site for North American travel agents. Found at http://www.intrepidagent.com , the site is multi-functional and will not only track individual agent’s sales, but offer product quizzes — complete with prizes — free downloadable marketing resources, details on new promotions (such as the Aeroplan promotion where customers can earn 500 Aeroplan Miles on bookings over $1,000), and provide a link to each agent’s BDM. Plus, agents will earn fun awards for booking with Intrepid. Cumulative annual sales under $5,000 (Bronze level) will earn a handy little phone detangler. Reach the Silver level ($5,000 mark) and get an Intrepid water bottle; Gold status ($10,000) earns a nifty set of packing cubes; while sales hitting $15,000 will earn agents a solar charger. And at the top level of $25,000, agents receive a flip camcorder. “Though we’ve been present in the North American market for only 18 months, we’re... Read More →
ATTA Press Releases New & Different Spotlight: AgentsSpecialty Travel Agents Tighten Bonds with Adventure Travel Trade
March 2, 2009
(SEATTLE) – March 3, 2009 – Building and strengthening ties between specialized travel agents and the tour operators and ground suppliers who offer adventure travel product throughout the global adventure travel community is the key aim behind a newly forged alliance announced today by the Specialty Travel Agents Association (STAA) and the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA). Under the agreement, collaboration between both associations includes the creation of new channels of communications that help to bring qualified travel agents specializing in adventure travel product before the adventure travel network, and members of the adventure network before the certified and specially trained agents. Specifically, members of the STAA (www.specialtytravelagents.com) who join the ATTA (www.adventuretravel.biz) will now have access to communicate vis-à-vis business-to-business online networking in the ATTA’s new digital networking space, The Hub, which is set to launch March 4, 2009,... Read More →
