The travel agency market has seen an explosive growth in recent years.
This growth has resulted in a number of changes in how travelers are expected to interact with the companies they work with, and the resulting changes in the way the companies work with their clients.
Consistent with the growth in the travel industry, travel agents have increasingly found themselves competing with the likes of Airbnb, Expedia, and even TripAdvisor for customers.
“They are competing with Airbnb and Expedia in a way that is not very comfortable to the travel agents,” said John McTigue, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and a former travel agent.
“They have to get away from Airbnb, and Expander and TripAdvisors.”
The change in travel agents has led to some companies going beyond the traditional business model and introducing more flexible models that cater to their customers’ needs.
Airbnb has announced plans to create a loyalty program that will allow customers to pay a monthly fee to receive a percentage of their Airbnb rentals, and Airbnb is already in the process of creating a loyalty credit card program.
According to McTause, the companies that are following these model approaches are also the ones that are seeing the biggest revenue increases from their customers.
“A lot of these travel agencies are doing something that they would never do,” McTefe said.
“I don’t know if it is sustainable for them.
But I do think it is good for them.”
McTigue said that many of the changes that travel agents are seeing are not only beneficial to them, but to their clients as well.
Many travel agents, he said, are looking for ways to differentiate themselves.
“I don.t think any of them are really focused on getting customers in their space to spend more money,” McTeigue said.
Travel agents, McTibe said, “have to be a little bit more flexible in their business model.”
“I think that if they are going to do that, it is going to have to be with a lot more emphasis on the customer service side of things,” he said.
The New Frontier for Travel Agents
