travel tech insights

132,00. That’s how many travel agents were in operation in the United States in 1990, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). By 2014, that number had dwindled by half to about 71,000 and the projections for the next ten years indicate a continued decline by about 12 percent. On the surface, these statistics would seem to spell doom for traditional travel agents who are facing increasingly intense competition from online travel agencies, development of new technologies like mobile apps, and other user-driven sites like AirBnB.

Yet, these stats don’t fully represent the value and potential for growth travel agents pose within today’s global travel industry. With today’s modern traveler placing a greater emphasis on unique travel experiences, individually curated tours and activities, and a person-to-person connection in researching and completing travel bookings, traditional travel agents are actually uniquely positioned to expand their footprint and reach more customers than ever before.

As with so many industries in today’s interconnected, global economy, data and analytics are core drivers in leveraging growth, productivity, efficiency, and profitability. A company’s ability to gather, interpret, analyze, and act on data sets is more than a value-added proposition in a complex marketplace network of suppliers, retailers, and customers; rather, using reporting as a way to create actionable business plans is a necessity for long-term, sustainable success. This is perhaps no more true than with travel agents who are consistently required to work with more visibility, transparency, and agility in order to reach as wide as consumer base as possible.

Through advanced metric and reporting platforms like Big Data, advanced analytics, and automation software, travel agents can now more than ever before gain a fundamental understanding as to how every interaction in the buying process impacts each touch point in the value chain. Reporting and data analysis also offer a window into the needs, desires, and requirements of travelers, which travel agents can then use to best position products and services in a competitive field of travel companies.

The old is now new again. It’s a cliche, yes, but it’s also a profound truth in the context of the resurgence of travel agents in today’s global travel industry. In a time when so much of travel engagement takes place online or in the digital sphere, many travelers are returning to more traditional travel agencies to help plan and curate their travel and tourism experiences.

The digital revolution in today’s travel industry has been a truly disruptive force in the way travel agencies source bookings, packages, and products and position these travel options for customers. Whether through the development of mobile apps, online marketing campaigns or platforms, or intelligent, integrated travel ERP or booking engines, travel agents have embraced technology and ideas many industry experts speculated would not arrive in earnest for years to come.

This poses the question: Has the future of travel agents already arrived? Have travel agents adopted and incorporated technologies and strategies in such a way that the future of the traditional travel agent is now? It’s an interesting question when you take into account where many analysts believe where the travel industry will be by 2020. The development of new markets, continued push for faster, more powerful technology, and an ever-crowding field of industry players are key indicators as to what the future of travel might resemble. Yet, even so, many of today’s travel agents are already much ahead of the curve in terms of realizing this future and leveraging current technology and strategy to bring 2020 closer to 2017.

Take a moment and look at your smartphone. With just a few taps on the screen, you can in mere  minutes perform all the functions of a traditional travel agency on your own time according to your own personal wishes and desires. You can search available bookings, researching destinations, comparison shop suppliers, and even interact with others on social media and read reviews of specific destinations, activities, airlines, and hotels.

Yet even with this advancement in mobile travel technology, more and more travelers are returning to traditional agencies to help curate their travel experiences - in fact, several recent surveys indicate travel agencies are poised to experience some of their robust growth in recent memory, despite the popularity of websites like Expedia and Travelocity, not to mention the rise of sharing sites like Airbnb. This recent trend begs the question: Why do travel agents still matter? What value do they offer customers in 2017? Is the resurgence of the travel agent more of step backward rather than step forward?