That question all depends on whom you ask. Many travel professionals have expressed their growing concerns with consumers becoming increasingly tech-savvy in today’s 21st-century marketplace. With the array of aggregated, discount and book-it-yourself travel sites out there, can you blame them? In the year 2013 alone, more than $136 billion in travel was booked online. It’s estimated that in 2014 that number will increase by $11 billion. Is this trend putting your agency in or out of business?

For just a moment, consider this: Instead of viewing the Internet as a threat to your livelihood, try seeing it as an opportunity to help you grow your business. With the advent of social media, cutting-edge website solutions and search-engine-optimization (SEO) tools, travel professionals have more ways than ever before to market and grow their business. According to a study done by Google, seven out of 10 leisure travelers utilize social media and currently over half a billion people alone use Facebook.

Yet, it’s safe to say that there are many travel agents not using these tools to grow their business.

Becoming a successful travel professional in today’s marketplace is all about connecting and engaging with clients to help meet their needs. The fact that approximately 136 billion dollars in travel are booked online annually clearly shows that having a quick and easy way to book simple transactions is a necessary option for many agents to offer their clients. Why not give them the option of how they want to book travel straight from your website?

Agent Studio — today’s fastest-growing website solution — makes it possible to integrate any booking engine right into the pages of your website. Thus, next time your clients want to take a quick weekend trip, instead of letting them go to a big online travel site where they are just another number, you can direct them to your own website to make the same transaction. Do the math. The average hotel booking is $440; at 10 percent commission, that puts $44 in your pocket without you having to do a thing! That may not seem like much, but over the course of a year with just a few clients utilizing your website to book their simple transactions, that will add up to thousands of dollars in extra commission to you.

Not to mention, now that your clients have utilized your website to book those transactions, you can follow up with them and offer to book other options for them while they are on their trip. Perhaps, you could suggest a tour or excursion for them. This is what, travAlliancemedia CEO Mark Murphy refers to as the “future of travel distribution.” He calls this the merger between “high-touch, the personal attention you as a travel professional are able to give your clients, with the high-tech, giving your clients the option of how they want to book travel.”

Having a professional website that your clients actually use is important not only to your customers but also to the suppliers whose products you represent. Many suppliers share the sentiments of Sean Simmons from G Adventures: “Having a website shows your customers that you know what you’re doing. When I visit various travel agencies, one of the first questions I ask as a supplier that wants to sell our product is what does your website look like? I know that having a website instills confidence in the consumer with your product, and with more and more tech-savvy consumers, I want to make sure the agencies that represent our brand feature our product professionally on their websites.”

Agent Studio works closely with preferred suppliers to ensure that their offers and content are professionally displayed. This way the Internet can be leveraged to put you in and not out of business.

Find out what an Agent Studio-powered website can do for your agency. Visit AgentStudio.com to receive a free trial. Questions/comments/concerns? Email me: azito@agentstudio.com.