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  • Sales & Marketing

  • Travel Agents: Don’t Ignore Them

  • By Robert King, General Manager, Travel & Hospitality, ClickSquared

  • Weren’t travel agents supposed to have disappeared by now, gone the way of the dinosaur and the VCR? At least that’s what travel experts have been prognosticating for the past decade. After all, how can a travel agent compete against the likes of Orbitz, Travelocity, Kayak, Trip Advisor, and other “do-it-yourself” sites? To be sure, the number of agencies has declined during this past decade – close to 50% based on ARC retail locations.

    But to a travel industry marketer it’s far more meaningful to determine what portion of the market this channel still represents. In Phocuswright’s 2008 Travel Agency Distribution Landscape, travel professionals still accounted for a substantial portion of the market, including:

    85% of cruises
    70% of all tours and packages
    50% of all airline tickets
    30% of all hotels
    25% of all car rentals

    Source: 2008 PhoCusWright Travel Agency Distribution Landscape Report

    While the percentage of indirect bookings can vary by organization depending on geography, target market, business/leisure mix, and brand strength, the travel agency segment still matters. Their impact is even more substantial when you include group and meeting planners. In fact, for many travel & hospitality providers, travel ...

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Hotel Human Resources: The Biggest Challenges
The economic challenges of the past four years have led many hotel companies to re-examine the ways in which they do business and how they deploy talent. In many cases, the work did not go away and fewer people were left to carry on the tasks that had previously been shared among many. As we work our way out of the recession and look forward to a healthier economic environment, there is an understanding that despite recovering business levels, we may never see the return of former staffing levels. This "new norm" of operating with leaner teams has led Human Resources professionals and people managers to look at career development and growth opportunities in a new light. The March Hotel Business Review will take a look at some of the strategies being used by successful hotel brands, and techniques human resource directors are currently exploring.
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