Call Your Travel Agent
As you may have heard, a survey was conducted in the US and whoever responded to the
survey confirmed that they wished to be referred to as a Travel Consultant or Counsellor not
as Home-Based Travel Agents. This “what shall we call ourselves” has been going on for some
time and all sorts of reasoning has been put forth about why travel agents are no longer travel
agents. They don’t “agent” any more. They don’t represent the companies that supply the
cruise, the tour, the air seat and so on. Travel agents, sorry Travel Counselors work for the
consumer. Yup. That is apparently how it works. Yup! Better get this sorted, and especially if
you are new to selling travel from home as you might be falling into a trap and not know it.
I’ll write this as if you have never been in the
travel industry, just joined and now setting up to
sell travel as an independent travel agent from a
home office. This page should also interest you,
the person selling travel from a physical location.
It’s Travel Agent – Not Counsellor
Just like an Accountant is an Accountant not a
Ledger Counsellor, or Number Consultant, so
you are a Travel Agent and it doesn’t matter
where you sell travel from. High rise tower,
street front, your home or the beach – you are
still a Travel Agent as the Accountant is and
always will be an Accountant.
Then there’s this – how travel suppliers market
and promote you in their own advertising:
When you remove yourself from the term Travel
Agent you are moving yourself away from the
potential sales generated by supplier ads.
Travel Agent – Specializing In…
Why not be the travel agent you were meant to
be and promote your skills and niche talents with
a byline under your
Your Name,
name. That way
Travel Agent
you’ll have the
Specializing in
best of all worlds.
Jamaican Honeymoons
Remember this is
all about making
sales. Generating income. Not labelling yourself
to suit misguided commentary.
It’s Sales – Not Consulting
First things first. Yes of course you will be talking
with your clients, advising, questioning,
answering and counselling their decisions as
they consult your knowledge, extensive or
otherwise. But in all the chatter, never lose sight
of the fact that you are in a sales role. You sell
travel.
Opportunity
With all that money behind all those ads
promoting call your TRAVEL AGENT why would
you want to confuse the consumer with Travel
Counsellor? That’s not good business at all.
With so many suppliers promoting: Call Your
Travel Agent… why not create a website and
name it Your Travel Agent. Then, when you
promote yourself, local customers will see that
you are the one ALL those ad’s mention. You are
YOUR TRAVEL AGENT – and, you must be very
good, because almost every travel supplier is
promoting you.