Tooting Your Own Horn!

Politicians do it all the time.  Often we hear of some individual in some sport who says that they are the best.  Advertisers are always saying that their product will beat another competitors.  Travel vendors like the hotels, airlines, cruise lines, and tour operators are not unlike them.. . . . everyone likes to think they are vital and important.  

Travel agents are also right in there with everyone else when it comes to thinking how important we are to the traveling public who employ our services.  The American Society of Travel Agents wanted to find out just how important the travel agent was to the consumer, so they commissioned a study to try and discover the answer.

The study was done by MMGY Global and their task was to define and measure the value of using a travel agent, as well as the traveler satisfaction level gained by use of travel agents, the relationship between travel and happiness, and the relationship between travel/happiness and travel agent usage.  What a task!!  So they set out and surveyed responses from 8,333 travelers who had been on at least one trip requiring overnight accommodations during the past 12 months.  Of those, 1,114 had used a travel agent for a leisure trip and 512 had used an agent during a business trip.

Some of the findings were revealing.  When asked why they used a travel agent, leisure travelers said the two major factors were convenience and knowledge.  The ones polled who said they do not use a travel agent said one of the main reasons was they never thought to do so.  Also they said they like to do their own research and liked organizing their own trips.

An interesting finding was that those travelers who use travel agents are happier and more satisfied in general with their lives. Another statistic was that those same travelers that use an agent actually travel more than the consumers who do not use one.

Here is another real good, positive finding for the practicing travel agent.  Travelers who book through a travel agent are getting younger.  That was a surprise to me because of the proliferation of the on-line booking with tablets and phones.  Using an agent helped travelers enjoy a better trip experience for both leisure and business travel, and as mentioned above, actually lead happier lives overall.

Talk about “tooting your own horn”!!!  The experienced travel agents at The Travel Factory don’t know a whole lot about all those surveys and the like, we just know that our purpose is to help our good clients plan for and have a good travel experience, whether it is on a vacation or a business trip.  Our payment is enjoying them coming back and allowing us the pleasure of helping them plan another trip.  Joy Bishop, Donna Brady, Doug McCraw and Russell Berry have over 100 years of combined experience helping Big Country travelers with their travel needs and dreams, so call us today at 698-1421 or 800-760-4040.  We’d love to be of service.