Don't undermine the value of agents: Speakman
Travel Counsellors chairman David Speakman has hit back at Qantas boss Alan Joyce’s suggestion it is cheaper and better to bypass the trade by highlighting the value created by travel agents.
Asked by a member of the audience to comment on observations that travel agents are recommending competitors ahead of Qantas because their fares are cheaper, Joyce said: “I would say to you ring us directly instead of going through an agent. It’s a lot better. We save money on it as well. I will get the travel agents annoyed with me on that. But we do.”
Although Qantas insisted the comments were delivered in jest, they have nonetheless riled members of the travel agent community.
But Joyce is not alone in his thinking, according to Speakman. Even some of the largest retail chains in the UK and Australia are guilty of trying to cut agents out of the distribution mix, he argued.
“Yesterday Thomas Cook announced a new service that delivers a tweeted holiday offer just by the customer sending a tweet,” he said.
“In Australia, Helloworld – the new controversial Jetset Travel Group agent rebrand – pushes a multi-channel approach to selling which in effect competes against its own bricks and mortar agent offering.
“Just as both major operators, TUI and Thomas Cook cut out the agent whenever they can, even their own.”
But the value an agent can bring to a travel transaction far outweighs any fees incurred, Speakman insisted.
Although the role of the agent was once to search for suitable holiday options, customers can now do that themselves at home using the internet. As a result, the agent’s role has evolved.
“A travel agent’s job has moved from searching to be the trusted adviser – someone who a customer can trust for impartiality, someone who cares to deliver exactly what suits the customers’ needs,” Speakman said.
“Technology cannot by itself deliver the emotion and caring that is needed.”
He warned that agents that sell on price will fail as they are offering something that customers can find themselves through a number of different channels.
“The age of the caring, trusted travel agent and adviser is more relevant now than ever, be they at home, bricks and mortar or high street. But they must realise it is not the “what” they sell but the “how”,” he said.
“Value trumps price any day of the week and will become more important as customers find fewer and fewer trusted friends. Those that create value have every right to charge for it.”
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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