Tag: work in travel agency

Travel Industry Study Reveals Latest Travel Agency, Advisor Trends

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Travel Industry Study Reveals Latest Travel Agency, Advisor Trends
Travel Industry Study Reveals Latest Travel Agency, Advisor Trends

Travel Weekly and sister brand Phocuswright have teamed up to release the 2022 Travel Industry Survey, revealing the latest trends among travel agencies and travel advisors across the US

The research project was conducted through an online questionnaire sent out to Travel Weekly and TravelAge West subscribers in addition to members of various consortia and host agencies. The 1,356 participating travel advisors are either currently employed by a travel agency, are independent contractors for a travel agency or are travel agency owners or managers and responded between July 22 and August 15, 2022.

The travel advisor age breakdown was similar to last year, with four out of five being over the age of 45 and zero percent being under the age of 25. What’s more, the study found that 23 percent of agencies were five years old or less, which is more than double the 10 percent in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

“The reassuring bottom line is that, although young people still may not see becoming an advisor as an attractive first career, the profession does attract those with a bit of maturity and experience elsewhere,” wrote Arnie Weissmann, Executive Vice President and Editor in Chief , Travel Weekly. “Which, upon reflection, is not such a bad thing for the profession, or for clients.”

Research also shows that almost half of respondents have worked in travel for 10 years or less, up significantly from 21 percent in 2019. Meanwhile, 23 of traditional agencies were founded in the past five years, up from 10 percent in 2019. And experience matters when it comes to income, with 69 percent of respondents working two years or less reporting making less than $25,000 annually. Compare that to only 26 percent of advisors who’ve been in business more than 30 years.

Time dedicated is another key factor with fewer than half of those working full time and relying on their business as a primary source of income indicating that they make fewer than 50,000 annually.

The study also uncovers a fascinating trend in travel advisors viewing themselves as independent even when working with a host agency or consortia. One-third of respondents identified themselves as hosted independent contractors (ICs), which is down 20 percentage points from 2021. On the other hand, 28 percent identified as fully independent advisors, compared with 17 percent just last year. Of the 28 percent, two-thirds reported being affiliated with a host agency and four in five reported being members of a consortium.

Most continue to work with a host agency to access preferred suppliers (79 percent) and the leading benefits cited are overrides and incentives (68 percent), advisor-dedicated supplier websites (53 percent) and education programs (49 percent).

The home-based segment of travel advisors is currently enjoying record sales, the study found, with gross bookings reaching $920 million in 2021, up from $346 million in pandemic-plagued 2020 and up from the previous high of $899 million in 2018.

When it comes to the question of why clients are booking, customer service (33 percent), personal relationships (31 percent) and expertise (30 percent) are the leading reasons. Only 3 percent indicated that their clients book because they offer the best price.

Facebook continues to be the most important social platform for today’s travel advisors but TikTok is coming on strong with usage more than doubling from 2021 to 2022. In general social media is still a go-to for sales and marketing, with 68 percent of respondents ranking it their number one platform over email, website marketing events and e-newsletters.

In terms of specialization, most travel advisors are mastering ocean cruises (60 percent), destinations (56 percent) and tours and packages (56 percent). However, river cruises (47 percent) and luxury travel (45 percent) aren’t far behind.

Additional study findings include travel advisor (38 percent) being the preferred describer to travel agent (19 percent) or travel consultant (18 percent), more than seven in 10 advisors being optimistic about the future of the trade with a positive outlook on the industry and another 71 percent ranked family travel as their top category.

Click here to view the complete 2022 Travel Industry Survey.

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Topics From This Article to Explore

American Airlines Releases Travel Agents With Insistence on Changes to Airfare Sales

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American Airlines has ruled out delaying the removal of 40 percent of its airfares from traditional retail channels next month.

That’s despite lobbying by the American Society of Travel Advisors, which asked the carrier to push back its move date from April 3 to the end of the year.

The society, which represents 160,000 travel agency workers, wrote to the carrier on March 8, arguing that holding such a substantial portion of its fares from “critical independent distribution channels” would have a negative impact on corporate travelers.

With just two weeks to go, a spokesperson at American Airlines told Skift on Thursday that it was still a categorical “no.”

Bullying Accusation

In its letter, Zane Kerby, president and CEO of the American Society of Travel Advisors, said the “sudden bullying of valuable distribution partners into breakneck-speed implementation won’t serve our shared customers.”

The society claims many corporate travel agencies, global distribution systems (namely Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport) and third-party booking technology partners, including Concur, have stated they will not be prepared to facilitate New Distribution Capability implementation by April.

New Distribution Capability is a controversial technology standard developed by the International Air Transport Association. The idea is to give airlines more control over their airfares, rather than relying on global distribution systems.

“Without significant and key front, mid and back-office travel fulfillment systems ready and able to fully process New Distribution Capability transactions, significant disruptions to shopping and booking, including ticketing, refunds and re-ticketing are inevitable,” the letter said.

American Airlines told Skift that it disagreed. “This is incorrect. “There are front, mid, and back office technology updates that need to be completed as everyone needs to invest in improving the customer experience,” said a spokesperson.

“American has spent the last 10+ years investing in its modern retailing technology and several travel sellers, technology aggregators and third-party corporate booking tools have also done the same. Currently, one out of every three travel agencies issued tickets for American comes through our New Distribution Capability technology,” they added.

During those 10 years there has also been a convoluted history of surcharges and fees. Some airlines feel they pay too much commission to the global distribution systems, so encourage direct bookings by penalizing bookings made through the likes of Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport. For example, Germany’s Lufthansa in 2020 boosted the surcharge on tickets bought outside of its own channels to $21 fee in the US

Global distribution systems also share part of what they receive from airlines with the travel agency that made the booking.

As a result, New Distribution Capability to some extent disrupts business models. While in American Airlines’ case the three global distribution systems state they’re ready to adapt the new airfares, travel buyers and corporate travel agencies may prefer to work more directly with airlines in the future, as Lufthansa has done with Siemens.

An Unhappy Marriage

Flight Center Travel Group, which runs corporate divisions FCM Travel and Corporate Traveler, is one such agency that stands to be impacted by the April 3 switch.

“We’re not opposed to New Distribution Capability. We’ve made some investment in TP Connects to ensure we have access to all the new content. The concern is with respect to the timelines being enforced,” said Marc Casto, president of leisure, Americas, Flight Center Travel Group — and executive vice president, communications and government affairs, of the American Society of Travel Advisors.

“They’ve been signaling for a decade, but only released the plan of attack in the past six months,” he added. “Saying you’re going to get married, and actually setting the date, are two different things.”

The society insists there will be wide-ranging umbrella effects on the corporate travel buyer’s needs, which could also affect duty of care, policy compliance, insurance, pre-trip approvals and even the organization’s own insurance.

“All of us saw what occurred in December with the weather delays,” said Jay Ellenby, president of Safe Harbors Business Travel Group. “By making it more convoluted and more complex to service customers is going to result in a significant reduction in service capacity and quality. And particularly for ourselves, we have to contact call centers, which are already oversubscribed.”

Bookings are continuing to pick up. In the US, travel agency air ticket sales reached $8.4 billion in February, which is a 54 percent year-over-year increase in February 2022, according to Airlines Reporting Corporation.

In the UK, travel buyers at the Institute of Travel Management are worried they will soon face a deluge of complaints from travelers about fares being visible but not bookable in their online booking tool.

They also predicted a potential increase in leakage (where bookings are made outside recommended booking tools) and expressed frustration at the lack of readiness by agencies, booking tools and global distribution systems given the length of time that New Distribution Capability has been underway, based on feedback from a “Buyer Knowledge Exchange session” that took place earlier this week.

“Buyer members are feeling battered by the challenges of air content and lack of readiness for New Distribution Capability,” said Scott Davies, CEO of the institute. “Many have described it as a ‘mess.’”

A Reasonable Request

There are hopes American Airlines will meet the American Society of Travel Advisors half way by rolling out the new airfares in stages.

“It’s probably not going to happen by April 1, at least not all 40 percent moved at once,” said Steve Reynolds, CEO of audit and booking platform TripBam, in its March snapshot report.

Flight Centre’s Casto said the society’s request was “reasonable” and its arguments a “fair assessment” on all sides of the industry.

In the meantime, expect more back-and-forth arguments over the next two weeks, arguments that will be near-impossible to tell if factually correct due to the many commercial interests at stake.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this news article described Marc Casto as chair of the American Society of Travel Advisors.