The Time has Come to Brand Together By Adrian Caruso Guest Comment | TRAVEL WEEKLY | Friday 2 March 2007

There's recently been a lot of discussion about travel brands and personal branding in the travel agent profession, including articles in most of publications. I completely agree with these articles since it's important for travel agents and travel agencies to build their unique brand and value proposition with clients and potential customers.

On the way to personal branding, however, there is a much bigger impediment that doesn't seem to get much play -- the lack of an overall ‘travel agent’ brand. What do I mean by that? Just go out on the street and ask 10 random people what a travel agent does,  how they get paid, and what it costs to use one and you'll get the idea. Far too many people still don't understand the actual value proposition of using a travel agent.

Some tell you that it costs money to use an agent, while others believe they can save money by "doing it themselves." How can this be? Well, to put it bluntly the industry has done a lousy job of promoting the value of travel agents while we've allowed other businesses to incorrectly position agents to their potential customers. What do I mean by that?

Take a look at what Kayak.com has to say about their business (and keep in mind this is how the company describes its business): ‘Kayak is not a travel agency. With a travel agency, you pay a fee to get an airline reservation, a hotel room or a rental car. There are no fees with Kayak. We do not sell airline tickets or hotel rooms or rental car reservations. Instead, we direct you to other travel sites where you can make these purchases directly. Our way of helping you plan your travel gives you a more comprehensive list of your travel options -- really fast and with no biases or hidden agenda. In short, you are in control of your travel choices. Since we search hundreds of travel websites (including travel agency sites), you now have to search only one: Kayak.’

Are you kidding me? It's obvious from this description that Kayak doesn't understand how travel agents work. For the most part, you get paid by the supplier to book travel and you primarily focus on booking vacations for your clients. Sure, some agents charge fees for booking things like airline tickets, but I haven't seen too many charging for booking hotels, cruises, tours or car rentals.

Most of the airline ticket fees are tied to corporate travel where the traveler appreciates your ability to plan and book complex multi-city itineraries. Since airlines stopped paying commissions to agents, the airlines have effectively passed this cost onto the traveler.
With virtually every other travel product, however, the supplier appreciates the efficiency of delivering business through travel agents.

So here we have a website that allows for comparison shopping of multiple travel sites, incorrectly explaining what agents do, or don't do, for their customers. What are we going to do about it? Let's start off by sending a note to the folks at Kayak to get their facts straight.

This would be a good thing for AFTA to lead with, but all agents should follow that lead. Then, we need to make sure that the consumer is hearing about the correct role of agents, not some misguided interpretation designed to serve a particular company's agenda.

Indeed, the primary focus of all travel agent organizations should be to promote the value
of their members to the consumer. We always see comparisons of the CPA (Certified Practicing Accountants) designation for accountants to the CTC (Certified Travel Consultant) or CTM (Certified Travel Manager) designation for agents, but this misses the mark. Nobody knows what the heck a CTC or CTM is, but they sure know about a CPA.

Most travel training colleges have great training programs and specialist designations, but most are only relevant to those of us who are in the industry. Agents get a wonderful education, but they don't necessarily obtain the ability to leverage that education with a wider audience of potential customers through their CTC or CTM designation. And isn't that one of the key reasons agents work to obtain such a designation?

The last time I checked people went to business school to get the letters MBA after their name on their resumes. Widely understood and valued by potential employers, an MBA almost guaranteed that a potential candidate would rise above a similarly experienced candidate. It translates into money and prestige. The university system gets away with charging in excess of $100,000 to bestow this degree on business students. The fact is that these schools have successfully built the MBA as a brand.

There are more than a dozen other relevant examples from a wide array of industries and institutions. The travel agency community needs to come together and pool its resources to build the brand known as "travel agents."  It’s about time the heads of the major travel agency groups, independent travel agents and travel training institutions bond as one to build this brand. It is guaranteed to benefit everyone.

AFTA was a catalyst for trying to create a united front to build the ‘travel agent brand’ last year but seems to have forgotten about it or has placed it in the ‘too hard’ basket.  Which brings me to the recent media attention that AFTA has been receiving and what its role is in the industry.  What is AFTA doing to build the ‘travel agent’ brand among consumers?

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