Amazon is in the business of selling things, so it shouldn't be any surprise that they are entering the travel space. The same people that utilize Amazon to buy everything from books to grills for their yard are the same people that buy travel products and services. Amazon is simply leveraging its massive brand and audience to develop a new revenue stream.
Amazon brand stands for two things in my opinion: ease of access and an unequaled amount of inventory for anything you could possibly want to buy. That has made it the preferred retailer for many of us who value our time more than anything.
Whether or not they will succeed in travel is another question altogether, as travel has been accessible via the web for as long as many travelers have been traveling. What can Amazon do, that others haven't, to engage consumers in travel? Do they have to do anything different at all?
Another place to buy travel doesn't solve the overwhelming amount of information that travelers are being drowned by when searching online. Indeed, in a recent conversation with millenials at the 2014 USTOA Conference, I was told by several that they thought the online shopping experience for travel left a lot to be desired.
One young man named Brandon explained that he paid for advice in a variety of areas and that he would much rather pay for travel advice than go it alone. It left me with this thought: so much for this generation "growing up on the internet" and leaving the travel agency market behind.
Before you get too excited, he didn't mention anything about calling a travel agent, only about being happy to pay for advice. It's up to you to make sure he knows you exist, can find you easily, and can do business with you.
In other words, it will come down to whether or not you have a robust website solution that allows him to make fast and easy bookings when he wants to, but to also be available for your insights and planning advice. The only way to do that successfully is via an AgentStudio powered site, something almost 2,000 travel agencies do today to power their businesses online.
Will Brandon the millennial, or others like him, turn to Amazon to sort through the same listings that are currently on every other online travel site? Some will, and some won't, just as they do today. What they will find, in virtually every case, are the same hotels and products, at the same price, as everyone else. Indeed, they will find themselves once again doing all the work to determine what is, and what isn't, right for them. Amazon will have the same issue that current online travel agencies suffer from; a lack of information, beyond a price, to aide in the discovery, research and planning phases of travel… both online and human… meaning you!
This is your wake-up call to get with it and build an AgentStudio-powered site. I'll even give you a code to take it for a permanent test drive, for free. Just enter ASFREE when prompted and you can select our top end site and start your journey today.
(A new version of AgentStudio is launching in the first quarter so your website offering under the ASFREE promotion may see some modifications, but it will still remain free for all who choose it.)
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