You'd be hard pressed to find people who aren't worried about the future of their respective industry. Travel agents are no exception, especially since traveling has become even more stressful lately.
There are the agents who aren't legit (and give everyone else a bad name), the implementation of travel bans, as well as aggravated passengers who record on-plane altercations that go viral. Add in airport battles between travelers-who are annoyed at the overbooking situations-and security, and there's a lot to be worried about.
I had the chance to ask travel agents what about the future keeps them up at night.
Margie Lenau of Wonderland Family Vacations in Grand Rapids, Michigan is worried about too much government regulation in the travel industry: "Travel agents work with people all over the world, and safety is our first concern, but I don't want to see travel become limited or too regulated. I think everyone should see the world and experience other cultures."
Lori Wall, an independent travel agent with Destinations to Explore in Hyde Park, New York, shares Lenau's views: "My biggest concern is more restricted travel to some locations in the Caribbean. This concern is due to politics and political relations becoming strained. I am already seeing many clients hesitate to travel to Mexico."
The biggest worry for Greg Antonelle, the managing director of the New Jersey-based MickeyTravels, LLC, is actually agents themselves.
"My biggest concern is not with the actions of our individual agents, but rather with the mass of agents in the industry not being trained properly. With so many people becoming travel agents, it dilutes what many of the seasoned agents and travelers can do. Unfortunately, our industry is often painted with a broad brush, and a vacation gone horribly wrong because of an inexperienced agent can give the entire industry a black eye."
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Tom Karnes of LaMacchia Travel of Kenosha, Wisconsin knows that travelers benefit from a dependable relationship with their agents: "My biggest concern for the future is finding the right people who understand this is not a transactional business, but a relationship/service business. The future of our industry is all about creating a never-ending relationship with the clients."
The challenge of spreading the word that agents are available to help plan trips is what Samarah Meil of Amarillo Travel Network thinks about.
"We need to be proactive to keep our names and businesses out in our communities because many times I hear people shocked to know that travel agents and travel agencies still exist," Meil says. "There are various ways to do this, whether via civic events in your area, hosting events, doing bridal shows and other consumer shows, being active within the communities, sponsorship opportunities and the list goes on."
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John Krieger, president of CTC Travel in Dallas, Texas is also concerned about losing business with travelers who call cruise lines directly instead of booking through an agent.
"Some lines are getting 30 to 50 percent of their bookings from people calling in and booking direct with the lines instead of using a travel agent. My clients are continually being bombarded with email and direct mail from lines they have cruised with. Often, we don't know what the offers are since in many cases they are not communicated to us by the cruise lines."
As a specialist in one country (Peru) where tourism has grown tremendously, Nina Fogelman, Director at Ancient Summit in Wellington, Florida is also worried about business being pulled from her by tourism companies:
"It is worrisome how mass tourism companies are eating up the boutique, personalized, mom-and-pop authentic companies who still care more about quality than filling buses. They have bigger budgets for Google and online marketing in general."
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