Are you looking for some inside information on cruise travel agents? Here’s an up-to-date report from cruise travel experts who should know.
The UK travel industry is regulated by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and they offer qualifications which will demonstrate a travel agent’s industry knowledge and professional competence. The International Air Transport Association (IAEA) offers further qualifications in itinerary planning, fare construction and ticketing for multiple journeys as well as other key areas of the industry.
Frequently, travel agents have special agreements with places such as hotels, taxi services, or car rental services. A travel agent can be very helpful when planning conferences. Unfortunately, while any author can use his book for promotional purposes, a more thorough tome would include local travel agents and a variety of ticket sources. It is, though, easy to overlook that short-coming, and the list more than makes up for it. In fact, 90 percent of cruises are booked through travel agents, and there is good reason to do so. Agents do all the legwork with the cruise lines including dealing with problems like a missed embarkation.
I trust that what you’ve read so far on cruise travel agents has been informative. The following section should go a long way toward clearing up any uncertainty that may remain.
It is estimated that 80% of travel agents are older than 46 years of age. Rejuvenation of the industry, and with it a change in the technology in use, are long overdue. If they sell thru travel agents, they pay a commission (sometimes a share of the vacation price) to the agent. Most folk are acquainted with the giant tour operators like Thomas Cook, Airtours, Thomson and JMC. However, never forget that there are thousands of other tour operators out there.
Start paying travel agents again? Instead, they now will charge you an extra fee to sell you a ticket through their reservations number. Use an independent travel agent who is able to search through holidays from all of the other travel agents, tour operators, airlines and accommodation providers to bring you the best deal you can find. The purpose of an online supermarket-style travel agent is to reflect the convenience and value-for-money of the high street equivalent. In most cases they have invested big dollars in developing and maintaining detailed websites, yet they direct people to travel agents for bookings.
Aside from greater cash flow, United will also benefit in a reduction of credit card service fees by requiring travel agents to process their own credit card transactions. While some travel agents might avoid this by simply making sales on United’s website, the carrier would win in the end by not having to pay commissions to ARC (tickets issued by United are not processed through ARC), as well as avoiding the cost of issuing tickets through the GDS.
I hope that reading the above information was both enjoyable and educational for you. Your learning process on cruise travel agents should be ongoing–the more you understand about any subject, the more you will be able to share with others.