travel tech insights

Has the Future of Travel Agents Already Arrived?

The digital revolution in today’s travel industry has been a truly disruptive force in the way travel agencies source bookings, packages, and products and position these travel options for customers. Whether through the development of mobile apps, online marketing campaigns or platforms, or intelligent, integrated travel ERP or booking engines, travel agents have embraced technology and ideas many industry experts speculated would not arrive in earnest for years to come.

This poses the question: Has the future of travel agents already arrived? Have travel agents adopted and incorporated technologies and strategies in such a way that the future of the traditional travel agent is now? It’s an interesting question when you take into account where many analysts believe where the travel industry will be by 2020. The development of new markets, continued push for faster, more powerful technology, and an ever-crowding field of industry players are key indicators as to what the future of travel might resemble. Yet, even so, many of today’s travel agents are already much ahead of the curve in terms of realizing this future and leveraging current technology and strategy to bring 2020 closer to 2017.

Topics: travel technology travel agent travel agents global travel industry

The Link Between Menus and Vouchers: The Importance of Offer Templates

Imagine a restaurant without a menu where the chef and kitchen staff simply presented diners with a list of available ingredients with the intent of making customers whatever dishes they desired. This means the kitchen staff could, at any given moment, be making a wide variety of dishes from meatloaf and roasted chicken to salads and stews. This might sound great from a diner’s perspective, but from the point of the view chef, it would be chaos. A menu not only help diners dial-in on what meal they’d like prepared, but it also allows a restaurant to limit its number of offerings, which helps drive down cost, increase efficiency, and enhance the overall quality of product it provides to its customers.

Just like menus in the restaurant world, the same is true of voucher and offer templates in today’s travel industry. Because travel agencies and travel management companies work with so many suppliers on the back-end and customers on the front-end, the importance of a streamlined offer and voucher system cannot be overstated in leveraging optimal productivity and efficiency. Utilizing a flexible, agile voucher and offer template platform is increasingly an important value proposition as travel agencies must complete more and more transactions each day to remain competitive and relevant in today’s global travel landscape.

Topics: travel travel agent Templates travel agencies offers vouchers

The Importance of Content Mapping for Travel Agencies

It’s something we’ve all experienced before: You input the wrong address on your GPS and you suddenly find yourself completely lost in an unfamiliar section of town. It’s easy to get frustrated and blame the GPS for this error, however, the GPS didn’t know you entered the wrong address - rather, it simply directed you to the right location based on the information you provided. This equates to lost time, more money spent on gas, and more wear and tear on your car.

Sounds familiar, right? This same concept holds true when it comes to content mapping for travel agencies. The process of content mapping - which helps travel agencies and suppliers coordinate the availability, inventory, and pricing of various accommodations and services - is much like using your GPS to help you get to where you’re going. Enter the right information and the GPS is likely to guide to your destination quickly and efficiently. On the other hand, enter the wrong information, not enough information, or poorly sourced information and you’re likely to lose your way entirely. A content database that is not consistently mapped can result in travel agencies using wrong or outdated information in their supplier and customer relations.

Topics: travel agent Databases Static databases travel agencies Content mapping content matching

One-Stop Shop: 4 Ways Booking Engines Can Optimize the Booking Process

Take a look at your weekend to-do list. It probably involves multiple stops at a variety of different stores for a number of varied products. While this use to be the norm, megastores like Wal-Mart and others have made it easy for customers to purchase all the products they need in one convenient place. Everything from groceries to clothing to automotive supplies and beyond. Megamarts like this have become a one-stop shop for customers on a global scale.

The same can be said of online booking engines. For travel agents, there once was a time when multiple interfaces or systems would have to be used in order to search for available bookings, view inventory, coordinate with the client or customer, and finally distribute confirmations or other necessary documents. As online booking sites and other methods of travel bookings rose to prominence, travel agents were significantly hampered by the lack of maneuverability and agility associated with using multiple systems or platforms to complete relatively simple operational tasks.

Topics: travel agent travelers Booking engines Travel booking engines travel agencies

Finding Your Way: The Importance of Content Matching for Travel Agents

Imagine you’re driving through a new city trying to find a specific destination - a restaurant, a bookstore,  etc. You’re using your GPS but the street names on the GPS don’t quite match the names on the street signs: Sate Street instead of State Street, Min Avenue rather than Main Avenue, and so on. You make your best guess to align the names on the GPS with the names on the street, but this ultimately results in confusion, frustration, and wasted time, and it’s not long before you’re completely lost in an unfamiliar place without the resources to get to your destination.

Topics: travel agent Travel suppliers Contact matching Content Databases