Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Travel Agents: Do We Still Need Them?

With so many options for booking travel these days, we're all overrun with choice, convenience and an efficient way to get it.  Travel agents, once the only way to create a trip, has been hit the hardest in the DIY digital age.  In fact, with so many ways to create the trip of your dreams, they hardly seem necessary at all...

But they are...and here's why

The Airline Transport Association (ATA) is a group formed by and consisting of the major domestic airlines to look after it's own interests & concerns.  Although it was originally formed by the domestic carriers, memberships and benefits have been extended to the foreign carriers.  The participants found the (mostly unknown) benefits of such great value that very few opt-out of the system.  In fact, the foreign carriers created a partnership of it's own, the International Airline Transport Association (IATA) that works very closely with it's domestic counterpart.

One of the beneficial services was the creation of the Area Settlement Plan (ASP), created by the ATA's regulatory agency, the Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC).  The plan is a banking like structure created to facilitate and ensure the timely payments for airline tickets.  To do this, the ARC knew that it would require the assistance of an entity that could serve as both middleman and embassador.

Enter the travel agent...

While there are many different travel products (cruises, tours, etc), and all have the option to apply for ATA membership under the ASP, the travel agent is still the best general solution because air travel is the most convenient (and sometimes only) way to travel.

To ensure that the airlines are dealing with legitimate travel service providers, a stringent set of standards must be met before membership to the ARC is granted, the most important:
-That the entity has a commerically zoned, designated outpost (a storefront) and
-That a bond of $10,000-$60,000 be posted to protect the airlines for any liability resulting from a travel agency default.

Once the conditions have been met and membership granted, the entity is given a unique 8 digit number (the ARC number) which identifies it as an "airline friendly" business and allow for the collection of commission on sales of airline tickets.

How does that translate?
Individuals may purchase tickets for themselves, their families and a limited amount of others, but larger groups will run into difficulity, especially because of the heightened security due to the events of 9/11.

But what if I'm not in a group?
Travel agents can still be of assistance in the following ways:
-The Package Tour:  Because many service providers, venues, tour companies and the like still know the value of a travel agent, they are willing to work with them to create packages of activities not readily available to the public at large (such as "nightclub tours").  However, specialized special intrest clubs (like Things To Do) also negotiate such deals to grow it's memberships.

-Corporate/Small Business: If you have a business that requires travel, nothing beats a qualified travel agent.  Their experience and knowledge is more than enough to handle the demands of a growing business and relieve the stress of the business owner...

Soulcial Therapy Travel is a travel concierge/travel services provider.  Our focus is to supple the necessary information to help individuals create the travel experiences they desire.  Although we provide booking services as a natural extension of our business, we are not a travel agency and further, we use their services to assist our booking efforts in certain instances.  This post was created out of our sincere respect for the work that they do and for the contribution they provide to our industry.

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