Travellers Choice Managing Director, Christian Hunter, has done some crystal-balling and predicted what the travel agent industry might look like in 40 years time.

But despite popular (OTA) belief, his predictions don’t spell the end for agencies.

In fact, he’s proposed quite a different strategy for the future of agents?

“Before driving forward towards 2057, it always pays to take a quick look in the rear view mirror at the past 40 years,” Hunter said, speaking at Travel DAZE recently.

“As we all know, the world around us has changed enormously during that time. Technology has advanced significantly and shaken up travel and the distribution chain.

“Yes, travel agents have had to offer an enhanced customer experience, and embrace technology to offer more convenience, specialist knowledge and if possible, exclusive product and it’s a given that we will need to continue to do the same.

“There are other reasons the ‘end is nigh’ brigade has been wide off the mark.”

According to Hunter, there’s three areas where agents trump OTAs.

Fear: “When it comes to online retailing, there’s fear of customers losing their money or being without support.”

Complexity: “More product choice making it harder for customers to find what they need, and more efficient to use an agent.”

Constraints: “Transactional constraints, where consumer facing technology lacks the sophistication to meet the highly tailored needs of the modern traveller.”

“But given the relentless march of technology, we cannot continue to rely on customers’ fears and transactional complexity to continue to provide travel agents with their competitive advantage,” Hunter confessed.

So what does he propose?

“Over the last 40 years, one thing that has changed significantly are retail travel networks.

“Retail groups have evolved from small, localised and loose buying groups to become highly-sophisticated, national marketing groups. And that evolution will continue over the next 40 years.”

Hunter said the best way to achieve a strong and united future for travel agency networks is to create a “mega-mind” style network.

Put the competition aside, and think about how as agents you can help preserve the future for the industry on a whole, he urged.

“We need to build networks that will act like ‘mega-minds’ – networks that will develop a new level of collective intelligence. In other words, networks will need to grow a brain, instead of simply flexing a few muscles.”

Hunter said much like a Woolworths reward card, agencies need to better capture and use the information that’s out there, but then share it amongst themselves.

“This means that instead of simply negotiating preferred deals and offering marketing support, networks will need to operate like genuinely integrated systems, where information flows freely from one node to another, and that information is gathered at every touch point and fed back into the central nervous system, that then achieves coordinated actions.”

As an example, Hunter looked to Finland, where their internationally-renowned education system has got the right idea already.

Check out the following and how it applies to agents:

Expertise and exclusive entry

Finns make it exceptionally tough to become a teacher.

“It used to be that just about anyone could join a travel network, because who cares when you’re only after volume,” Hunter said. “Now groups are more selective, but probably not selective enough.”

Independence

“Once accepted and trained, teachers are given extraordinary autonomy to teach in a way that meets the needs of their customers (the kids).

“The same way that independent travel agents have the capacity to tailor their own customer experience to meet the needs of their customers.

Professional development

“Finnish teachers spend two hours every week on professional development.

“How many travel agents could put their hand on their heart and admit to this?

Sharing knowledge and insights

“The reciprocal sharing of experiences and knowledge is viewed as being just as important for experienced teachers as it is for new teachers.

“They recognise that no one person knows it all – and professional development relies on gathering knowledge from various sources.

“They understand that by helping others become better, they all win.

Everyone contributes to the system’s outcome

“Students and teachers are continually engaged in gathering research that is fed back into the system to benefit all.”

Hunter said in 2057, he hopes to see an industry that works cohesively to are share knowledge on products, marketing successes and failures, and services that resonate with clients.

He also hopes to see the sharing of consumer trends, more industry mentoring, and the use of data to help the entire industry to predict and ultimately shape the market.