Assessing the future for high street travel agents in the UK

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Considerations against the travel agent
Considerations for the travel agent
Discussion
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Most of travel agents in the United Kingdom (UK) are in the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA).The ABTA membership comprises of miniature, professional tour operators in addition to independent travel agencies that cut across to publicly enrolled companies- from call points and online booking systems to high street businesses.

The Association of British Travel Agents has an interior management system – Consumer Affairs Department. In accordance with ABTA, the year 2004 was a predominantly taxing year for its affiliates because of global matters like violence and the persistent progression of fresh expertise.

Agents of ABTA represent about 80 percent of package holidays traded in the UK (Gilbert, & Hewlett 2003, pp. 166-182). The trade travel market in the UK is greatly aggressive given that more than 6000 trade travel agents have the affiliation to ABTA while more than 1000 other retail travel agents have affiliation to competing associations having own connecting system.

The high street travel agent was throughout several years seen as a significant component that increased worth to the allotment practice. Independent travel agents achieved roughly 90 percent of all sales more than twenty years ago until the chief operators chose that plans would be greatest carried out by controlling and owning every factor of the allotment path like airlines, travel agents, and hotels.

The result was that the majority of the independent travel transactions were reallocated to these perpendicularly amalgamated companies, and they progressively took charge over delivery and allotment (Buhalis, & Licata 2002, pp. 207-220). Effectively, this was the beginning of the disintermediation practice, which hastened with the rise of Internet as an economical distribution path.

Considerations against the travel agent

If customers maintain to network with holiday traders through the internet, then the prospect of travel agent seems tentative particularly when the operators have adequate market supremacy to decrease commission of the agent. Commission continues to be the livelihood of travel agents, as well as the sole principal cost for the dealer.

Several tour operators are anticipating slashing commission disbursed to travel agents as airlines did in the past few years. These tour operators are employing other inexpensive allotment channels like Internet to move straight to clients. Thomson Holidays, the leading tour operator in the United Kingdom has declared schemes to slice commission with the aim of competing on value with budget airlines.

British Airways (BA) became the earliest airline in the United Kingdom to slice commission to the trade operations (Gilbert, & Gao 2005, pp. 306-321). As stated, BA does not have the duty to render agents a livelihood. While identifying the worth of agents, there is consideration that their payment ought to be realized via service bills.

Numerous descriptions have recognized Internet to be the favourite path for creating travel exploration in addition to online holiday bookings. Nowadays, there exists a tight institution of the internet like a booking device for holidays. Of late, 19 percent of customers reserve package holidays through the internet.

This is about six times of the figure as at 2000. Though travel agents includes an advanced understanding and offers personal service, once clients have attempted employing online booking they will maintain to do it afterwards. There is consideration that package holidays via travel agents shall persist to decrease.

Package holiday trades are currently at the least degrees (Chen 2001, pp. 288-302). There is an expectation that the worth of separately booked holidays will augment by nearly 80 percent in a period of 5 years.

The augmented recognition of independent holidays attributes almost its every success to the internet, demonstrating that the larger use of the internet has made the whole practice easier for independent travellers. A different latent warning to travel agent is augmented figure of clients heading straight to tour operators.

This is because the customers consider either that they will obtain a well-considered charge or they will obtain better or additional knowledge. There is a threat in travel agents being booklet obtaining points more and more, particularly since the majority of tour operators currently publicize their telephone numbers and web address on the booklet.

This part has demonstrated that travel agents face the risk of the escalating propensity of clients booking holidays straight through tour operators (Forsyth 1995, pp. 210-231). There is yet another threat of customers organizing independent holidays instead of traditional package holidays.

Save for the subsequent decrease in the figures of holidays that the travel agents book, there is still the possibility of getting a smaller commission on every deal as the chief airlines along with tour operators fasten their girdles.

Considerations for the travel agent

Regardless of the encircling promotions of booking travels through the internet and the subsequent termination of travel agents, there is still a decrease in the figure of travel agency malfunctions for more than ten years.

In the year 2004, twenty-nine travel agencies closed their business weighed against thirty-one in the year 2003 in addition to thirty-seven in the year 2002. Substantial proof from the key players subsists to propose that high street travel agents have a future.

In spite of the shift towards online booking for holiday pacts, more than 70 percent of clients depend on high street travel agents over technology and could be ready to come back to them if there is provision of enhanced deals (Williams, Rattray, & Grimes 2006, pp. 59-73). When requested to state which means they employed in booking holidays, the results from the clients were as shown below (Smallman 2004, pp. 24):

77 percent via high street travel agents
39 percent online
25 percent direct with tour operators
14 percent teletext
Nine percent via call centres

Even if Preston Travel, a travel agency, can currently perform straight with clients through the internet, the company is nevertheless dedicated to travel agents for major supply of revenue. Travel agents are able to sway the operator they book therefore this ought to be a caution for tour operators considering reviewing commission policy of the agents.

High street travel agents offer convenience to clients and an influential product can give guarantee, particularly against bookings through the internet where commonly safety is a major area of alarm for clients. High street travel businesses in addition offer geographic understanding brand identification.

It is noteworthy how an important percentage of bookings through the internet are for simple travel, for instance with inexpensive airlines; and customers yet choose services of high street travel agents for intricate bookings (Reinders, & Baker 1998, pp. 1-15).

A research done established that an agent takes on average fifteen minutes to find a package holiday against a standard one hundred and eleven minutes taken by clients hunting for online booking of the same package holiday (Klemm, & Parkinson 2001, pp. 367-375).

This confirms that high street travel agents nevertheless have a great opportunity to offer a lasting benefit to clients in matters regarding security, convenience, expertise, and variability via active packaging. In the course of client contact in person, they are in a sturdy situation to persuade preference of holiday of clients to their own pre-eminent benefit, in any case as much as the lesser tour operators are involved.

Discussion

The proof offered recommends that the success of travel agents can be found in an amalgamation of internet specialization and knowledge to give clients much benefit. Through the unloading of traditional package holiday brand by means of the latest expertise, high street travel agents could combine and equate a selection of dealers from lodgings to transportation.

They could then unite the mentioned elements into a single cost (Huxley 2004, p. 1). For instance, fresh expertise is currently available which permits high street travel agents to book inexpensive airlines and integrate them into manageable packages (Tapper 2001, pp. 351-366).

This scheme has the possibility of saving the customer funds and time used up on online searches, enhances the litheness of this offer in addition to providing better returns for the high street agent since it slices out the margin of the tour operator on the merchandise sold.

The utmost terror high street travel agent is disintermediation. This is the situation where the tour operators transact straight to clients and finally eliminates the travel agent. Online booking is equipping the chief tour operators and clients with chances of direct dealings.

High street travel agents can either stick by and observe this take place, or get actual vital accomplishment by investing in active packaging expertise and offering benefit services to chief client factions (Evans 2001, pp. 477-491).

The corporations, which have attained the excellent outcomes, are the companies that concentrate on the independent travel segment or those that have preferred a definite slot in which to concentrate, for instance, STA Travel, and Flight Centres.

Nevertheless, independent travel agents will require an advanced intensity of linking to adopt the chances of dynamic packaging. They will also require making considerable investment in expertise and advertising. Dynamic packaging offers an exciting opportunity for the travel agents; however, it is not the way out, as numerous people suppose.

Dynamic packaging should act as correspondence to trading package holidays since miniature independent travel agents will by no means have the buying supremacy of the perpendicularly incorporated operators who direct the convey and at other times lodgings and operations like overseas representation and transfers (Miller 2003, pp. 17-39).

Finally, independent agents must also deem working more jointly with the tour operators in order that both parties gain monetarily from the deal.

Conclusion

In universal with numerous other segments of the market, the internet emerges to be rather than substituting active business main concerns in the travel business. This study points out that dynamic packaging brands will develop at the cost of package holidays, even if the latter will also signify an important feature of the entire travel industry.

It is still apparent that the online booking will keep on growing as a travel knowledge foundation and that booking through the internet will augment as people continuers having ease access to swift internet connectivity (Morgan, Pritchard, & Abott 2001, pp. 110-124).

Closer teamwork between the niche tour operators and high street travel agents to give inventive and beneficial services via successful use of information expertise and staff proficiency is worth to avoid the clients going it by themselves.

References

Buhalis, D & Licata, M 2002, ‘The future e-Tourism intermediaries’, Tourism Management, vol. 23 no. 3, pp. 207-220.

Chen, S 2001, ‘Assessing the impact of the Internet on brands’, The Journal of Brand Management, vol. 8 no. 4, pp. 288-302.

Evans, N 2001, ‘The UK air inclusive-tour industry: a reassessment of the competitive positioning of the ‘independent’ sector’, International Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 3 no. 6, pp. 477-491.

Forsyth, T 1995, ‘Business attitudes to sustainable tourism: Self‐regulation in the UK outgoing tourism industry’, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 3 no. 4, pp. 210-231.

Gilbert, D & Gao, Y 2005, ‘A failure of UK travel agencies to strengthen zones of Tolerance’, Tourism and hospitality research, vol. 5 no. 4, pp. 306-321.

Gilbert, D & Hewlett J 2003, ‘A method for the assessment of relative brand strength: a UK tour operator example’, The Service Industries Journal, vol. 23 no. 2, pp. 166-182.

Huxley, L 2004, ‘DIY boom is key to future growth’, Travel Trade Gazette, vol. 1 no. 1, p. 1.

Klemm, M & Parkinson, L 2001, ‘UK tour operator strategies: causes and consequences’, International Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 3 no. 5, pp. 367–375.

Miller, G 2003, ‘Consumerism in Sustainable Tourism: A Survey of UK Consumers’, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 11 no. 1, pp. 17-39.

Morgan, N, Pritchard, A & Abott, S 2001, ‘Consumers, travel and technology: A bright future for the web or television shopping?’, Journal of vacation marketing, vol. 7 no. 2, pp. 110-124.

Reinders, J & Baker, M 1998, ‘The future for direct retailing of travel and tourism products: the influence of information technology’, Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research, vol. 4 no. 1, pp. 1–15.

Smallman, C 2004, ‘Independent agents fear the pain of DIY’, Travel Trade Gazette, vol. 1 no. 1, p. 24.

Tapper, R 2001, ‘Tourism and socio-economic development: UK tour operators’ business approaches in the context of the new international agenda’, International Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 3 no. 5, pp. 351-366.

Williams, R, Rattray, R, & Grimes, A 2006, ‘Meeting the on-line needs of disabled tourists: an assessment of UK-based hotel websites’, International Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 8 no. 1, pp. 59-73.

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