Make ASTA Membership Mandatory!

Is ASTA on a roll? Last week the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) and Signature Travel Network unveiled an agreement whereby Signature is making ASTA membership mandatory for its travel agency members effective Jan. 1, 2015.

ASTA even sweetened the pot a bit by offering a 20 percent discount on membership as well as free membership for the remainder of the year for those Signature agencies that signed up at the group’s annual owners’ meeting, held last week in Carlsbad, Calif.

The move comes just three months after consortium MAST announced plans to subsidize membership dues for its agency members. It also comes a few months after American Marketing Group, parent of consortiums TravelSavers and NEST, rejoined ASTA and presumably began encouraging their agency members to do the same.

Will this surge in support for ASTA membership lead other travel agency groups to implement similar policies and programs with their members? That’s still unclear, although Zane Kerby, ASTA’s president and CEO, indicated there will be more announcements in the weeks and months to come.

Some travel agency groups, especially franchise operations, are structured very differently from the cooperatives that have unveiled mandatory membership policies or subsidized membership programs. Eventually, however, even these groups could either mandate or strongly encourage their members to join ASTA.

The fact is, ASTA is a necessary professional organization that is vital to the survival of the travel agency distribution system. Other groups—such as large consortia, cooperatives, franchise networks and host travel agencies—have evolved into substantial and important players in the travel network. But none of them do what ASTA does.

So just exactly what is that? First off, other travel agency groups simply are not equipped to do the lobbying and regulatory work necessary to ensure the survival of the trade and keep costs down. Nor should they have those capabilities, because they need to be focused on developing programs that support the sales of their members.

In just the last year alone, ASTA has been at the forefront of lobbying against onerous regulations involving mandatory hazardous waste warnings for clients by agents, new distribution capability, full fare and price disclosure, travel insurance regulation, ancillary fees, “transparent” airfares, and state sales and hotel taxes.

Indeed, ASTA claims to have saved the travel agency business $180 million in taxes in just the last year due to its lobbying efforts to counter new tax proposals. And I am just scratching the surface of the government and state regulations that ASTA must deal with on an annual basis.

ASTA also has made strides (finally!) in promoting the value of travel agents to consumers. This has long been a major task of the association, but it has rarely had the budget necessary to fund a major campaign.

Nevertheless, as Kerby told delegates to the ASTA Global Conference, being held onboard Norwegian Getaway this week, ASTA has begun a Google marketing campaign promoting the value of travel agents that has produced more than 3.5 million impressions in the market.

ASTA also has developed a series of PBS infomercials about travel agents that have run in 150 markets in the U.S. In addition, the association has succeeded in increasing the traffic to its consumer website, TravelSense.org, which has profiles of its member agents. Kerby says the website has doubled the number of referrals to travel agents this year to 1.3 million.

PHOTO: The keynote panel presentation at the ASTA Global Conference this week on Norwegian Breakway. ASTA conferences continue to be a vital part of the association. (Photo by James Shillinglaw)

Yes, there is still a long way to go with growing consumer awareness, but that takes more money, something that ASTA hasn’t had for a long time, if ever.

Fortunately, ASTA’s existing members have begun meeting the challenge. Kerby said ASTA’s Chapter Presidents Council and Corporate Advisory Council have made additional investments in the association. Such mega-companies as American Express, Priceline and Expedia have made new commitments as premium members of ASTA, showcasing a new and promising relationship between off-line and online players.

Indeed, Kerby maintains that ASTA is in better shape financially than it has been in years. In part, that is because the association has been downsized significantly and has cut costs throughout. There are now only about 19 people on staff in contrast to the 100-plus just 10 years ago. ASTA also is selling its headquarters in Alexandria, Va., and moving to smaller and less expensive quarters.

Also on the benefits side, ASTA has begun releasing a series of research reports about the value of travel agents and the business practices of its members. Earlier this year, a survey of 8,000 consumers by MMGY confirmed what Kerby called a hunch that travelers have a higher level of satisfaction with their trip when they book through a travel agent.

Of course, I can’t be at an ASTA Global Conference without mentioning the value of ASTA meetings and events. Yes, the 500 attendees (more or less) this year represents a new low for ASTA conferences (though if I remember correctly ASTA only budgeted for 800 attendees). But so far those agents who are attending have been very present at the general sessions and seminars. They seem fully engaged in their association and supportive of it.

Next year ASTA will hold its ASTA Destination Expo in Marrakech, Morocco, Feb. 26-March 1. It will follow that up with a Premium members meeting at the new Virgin hotel in Chicago. And on Aug. 29-Sept. 1, ASTA will hold its next Global Conference in Washington, D.C.

I, for one, hope the ASTA Global Conference can eventually draw between 1,500 and 2,000 attendees to its Global Conference in the future. The association needs such a conference to better unify its agent community and give it a centralized point on the calendar where travel agents can truly discuss the state of the industry and network with each other and their supplier partners.

No, ASTA will most likely never get back to the days of 5,000 to 8,000 attendees, though I’d love to see that happen, but I believe it can get to 2,000, despite the growth of  consortia, coop and franchise network events.

On the other hand, it does get back to the question of membership. ASTA currently has 8,200 members, including 2,050 travel agency members, 6,300 individual agent members, 540 allied members, plus international travel companies, travel schools and other categories. That’s very far from the high membership numbers of the early 1990s.

That’s why the Signature announcement last week is so important. It could be a harbinger of what’s to come from other associations. And even if these other groups don’t go so far as to mandate ASTA membership, the Signature move will put a spotlight on the importance travel agents should put on being an active part of their professional association. Maybe, just maybe, they will join ASTA not because they are required to, but because they truly want to!