Why Travel Agents Are Still Very Much Needed

If you are in your mid 20s or early 30s you have probably never called a person to book a trip and you may be even thinking why would I ever need to. With sites like Expedia and many mobile apps out there that make travel planning so easy and convenient, you must be thinking, why would anyone ever need to wait on or talk to a live person? To the younger generation, the industry for travel experts is pretty much dead. However, while that may be true for traditional brick and mortar storefront agencies, a new wave of home based travel experts are on the rise and they are very much thriving with the service they provide.

You may be thinking what can a travel agent do that I cannot do online Well, the answer is nothing. The same way you do not need a real estate agent to buy a house, or an insurance broker to get insurance. You can go online and pick up the phone and do all the things you need to do yourself to plan your dream holiday. If you are thinking like this, you probably have never had to plan anything more complex than a round-trip airline ticket or a 5-day all inclusive vacation package. However, if you are someone that has had to plan a destination wedding for you and more than 20 people, or put together a complex itinerary for a 12 day tour to 4 European cities, if you have ever had to change an airline ticket while on vacationing on some exotic island, then you will most likely understand the value of a travel expert.

There are just some things that online travel websites and mobile apps will not be able to do. As a matter of fact, in most cases, even when it is something as simple as an all inclusive vacation package, where booking seems as straight forward as reading some reviews on Trip Advisor and typing in your credit card number, in many cases, what you see and read is not actually what you get. Each Travel Agent has their own specialty products that they have advanced knowledge in, and they normally can provide you with the type of information and perks that you won't find through any website or mobile app. The best part about using a Travel Agent to plan your trip is that the service is absolutely free to you.

Over 130,000 people in North America today, most of them home based travel agents are making a decent living today, providing travel advice and booking service to those in the working class community who are too busy to sit online and spend 3 hours comparing prices on 10 different sites and reading through non-relevant reviews on Trip Advisor. To those who still prefer high quality service over convenience, when planning a vacation, they look to their local travel expert.

So while it is true that there is absolutely no longer a need to pay $3,000 per month in rent to run a brick-and-mortar storefront agency in the mall, the need of a travel expert is still very much a live and the travel agent of today have found their niche in a massive industry that still very much requires their service and expertise.