501 Places

This was the title of last night’s debate organised by CIMTIG and held in central London. I was keen to hear this discussion and went in to the event dubious as to the value of the high street travel agent in the wired world. I wrote in an earlier 501 Places post how I had not used an agent for 10 years and was interested to hear from travel agents whether they could offer something that might cause me to re-evaluate my view.

The debate inevitably focussed on the battle between high street travel agencies and the internet. John McEwan, chairing the debate, quoted statistics that compared the number of high street agencies in the UK in 1999 (9,000) with 2009 (6,000). Although at first glance this represents a sharp decline in the number of UK agents, the picture becomes clearer when you consider that there are over 2,000 home workers across the country. Another figure quoted was the 2,435 UK travel agency websites. The figures suggest the demand is still strong, and indeed both the online and high street agencies represented on the panel reported strong sales in recent months. What is clear is that the model of selling holidays is changing, and the internet is playing a major part in that change.

Nothing surprising there perhaps. What I found most interesting was the moves described by Jackie Steadman of Traveltime World, who spoke about the way their offering has evolved to meet the needs of their customers. She spoke of the need to understand quickly what their customers were looking for by profiling them on arrival in the shop, and the ability to deliver this. One extra that her group offers to travellers is a chauffeur service to and from the airport, and for the return trip the driver will have the customer’s favourite newspaper waiting in the car and even stop off for some milk on the way home. But best of all he will engage in conversation with the customer, illiciting feedback on the customer’s holiday experience which is fed back to the company. He even asks where they might be thinking of going next, and this enables very specific marketing to that customer in the following weeks and months.

That sort of innovation is critical to give agents the edge against the online world. As Lawrence Hunt of Lowcost Travel suggested, his mass market model allows for a margin of £50 per booking, while the model that Traveltime World operate requires margins of nearer £200. As was generally agreed by both the panel and the audience, high street agents can no longer expect to survive by selling ‘bucket and spade’ holidays at the cheapest prices. They need to offer something more.

Product knowledge, as I alluded to in my previous post, is critical. Many agencies have to balance the need to invest heavily in training their staff against the reality of regular staff turnover and subsequent lost investment in their people. Do you send your new staff on a fam trip to the Caribbean only to see them leave within a year? But if you don’t, how will they will able to offer valuable advice to prospective customers about that destination? Even without the trip, how much time and money do you invest in training? How do you create a working environment that encourages the best people to stay?

These are the real issues being faced by agents, and I have a bit more understanding for their business and the challenges they face having heard the debate. I also have a lot more respect for the efforts that some of them are making to evolve in the face of a very different travel world. One thing is certain: the wishes and needs of the travelling public will continue to shift, and the successful business will be those that are innovative enough to change their business to meet these needs. The internet has created a low-cost business model that is hard to match on the high street. But there is still a real opportunity for those business that excel in making the travel experience a delight, and they need to start that experience from their first contact with the customer.

Another RTA in Laos

We have probably all met at least one person who has cheated death in some way. Someone who, if they had been in a certain place a moment sooner or a moment later, or if they had made that connecting flight that they just missed, would not be with us to tell their story. And of course for every person who is able to tell us about their fortunate turn of events there is another who had a similar but opposite experience and ended up on that flight or in that accident.

I remember meeting a restaurant manager in New York who had previous worked in the Window on the World restaurant at the top of the North Tower of the WTC. He had worked his normal shift on September 10, 2001 and had been asked to do some overtime to cover a sick colleague. As he had worked late that night, his boss told him to have a late start the following morning and not to come in until 10am. The rest of the story; well you know it.

Recently we met a couple who had been caught up in the tsunami in 2004, when they had been on holiday in Sri Lanka. They were stranded on the ocean side of their hotel when the water came in had climbed to the highest point they could reach. The water quickly came up to their waists and was still rising. They feared the worst and were helpless to save themselves. Thankfully for them it receded and they were able to walk away, although they lost everything they had brought with them.

We too had a close shave some years back. We were hiking in the Samaria Gorge in Crete, and had been chatting with a couple who we met along the way. We must have talked with them for 20 minutes or so, and then they took a break while we continued our descent. It was a couple of hours later that we knew something was wrong as we saw paramedics crews rushing up the gorge. We soon learned that a woman had been hit by a falling rock and killed instantly, and a little while later we were shocked to discover it was the lady we had been walking with only a few moments before.

Should these close encounters teach us that the world is a dangerous place and is best avoided? Of course not. Bad things happen everywhere; in our own back yards as well as in faraway places. On the contrary these occurences are constant reminders of the fragility of our own lives and of our own impermanence. However careful we might be, none of us can ever dictate with certainty the timing of our final hour.

Rather than taking this as a negative, it can and should be a reason to grasp the opportunities that arise and not put them off for another time. If we dream of visiting a certain place and plan to do it in 20 years when we retire, how can we be sure of our existence (let alone our ability or willingness to visit our dream destinations) when that time finally comes around? Yes life is fragile; so why put of to an uncertain tomorrow the things that we are passionate about doing today. Or put more eloquently, ‘Life is uncertain, eat dessert first’.

I’m going to what promises to be an interesting discussion tomorrow evening. It is organised by CIMTIG (Chartered Institute of Marketing Travel Industry Group) and is a panel debate on the subject “Travel Agents – Are They Past Their Sell-By Date?” I’ll write about the debate in the next few days, but wanted to share some personal thoughts on the subject in advance.

In a recent post on his Travelblather blog travel writer Jeremy Head made some intelligent suggestions on where he sees the opportunities for travel agents to meet the changing consumer demands. I wanted to share some of my own reasons for not having visited a travel agent for over 10 years, and give a few suggestions for how I might be enticed to cross the threshold of a travel agent again.

On paper I should be a travel agent’s dream customer. Between my wife and myself I estimate we have spent in excess of £100,000 on travel in the last 10 years. If I had a regular travel agent who had booked all of these trips for me, I reckon we’d be best friends and he would be remembering me every year at Christmas. So why haven’t I been tempted to book? Here are just a few of my reasons, and I stress these are all perceptions that I hold from early experiences in less than great travel agents and I accept that these will not be true for many good agents out there:

1. Lack of confidence in product knowledge. When travelling to a non-mainstream destination, I assume that the agent has not been there. How many travel agents in St Albans high street have been to Syria or Laos? My web and book research gives me a grounding that I feel will be adequate to make our own arrangments, either in advance or on the ground.

2. Increased cost. I shop around online for flights and hotels. Once I’ve selected where I want to stay I look for discounts and deals where they can be found. And where I want to book an activity I’ll research the different providers and select the one that appeals to me, and then contact them directly for the best price. I don’t believe (rightly or wrongly) that an agent will be able to better my deals.

3. Enjoyment. I love planning a trip. I enjoy the research, the bookings, the piecing together of an itinerary, and of course seeing it all come together for real. I enjoy meeting face to face the people I’ve emailed or chatted with by phone. While agents advertise the convenience of them taking away this chore from me, it is not something I would want to hand over.

4. When things go wrong. One of the arguments for agents is the support they provide when things go wrong. Again, it may say more about my own need for control but I would rather back myself when faced with a crisis. We have had quite a few missed connections, unavailable hotels or weather cancellations and we’ve always got through them, whether by changing our plan, by passing a few dollars to the right person or by smiling and making the most of a situation that we know will make a great talking point on our return home. I prefer to dive in and attempt to solve a situation myself rather than call someone on the other side of the world and wait for something to happen.

5. Enjoying the unknown. Looking at our recent trip in SE Asia, we could have got an agent to book much of our itinerary. But some of greatest adventures were the moments when we had no itinerary, and turned up in a town to find a guest house and a bus for the next onward leg. I wouldn’t want to lose this spontaneity by having someone plan the trip in its entirety.

Actually, thinking about it I would not be such a good customer for a travel agent. But if I was to be tempted to visit one, here’s what might entice me:

The ambience would need to attract me to find out more about my destination; think second hand bookshop rather than supermarket. Let’s say I was going to Japan (which is actually our next planned long-haul trip). I would expect to have easy access to an agent who knows Japan well and has been there on at least one occasion. I would be happy to buy my obligatory guide books there rather than online and pick up information to read/watch at home. On giving our wish list (hiking, visiting the wild north of the country, spending time in rural Japan in addition to the most popular cultural and historic sights) the information provided would be tailored to my needs. I might be inspired to do things that I hadn’t been aware of, but that the agent suggested from accurate initial profiling of me as a customer.

I could return and see the same agent, and together we would put together an itinerary that would match our needs. Some days could be left blank and we would have to make our own way between two places. That’s perfect. And the price would be competitive. It doesn’t have to be cheaper than what I’d get online. I’m happy to pay a premium if the process of booking becomes an enjoyable part of the whole holiday experience.

So what do I want in summary?

1. To be treated as an individual customer from my first welcome.

2. To have easy access to a country expert who owns my experience from the start and shares my enthusiasm for that destination.

3. To be presented with bespoke information that helps me to create an itinerary plan that can then be finalised together with the agent and booked by them.

4. To be offered a fair, transparent price that I know will reflect the best possible rates available including a deserved reward for the agent. It doesn’t have to be the cheapest.

Surely that’s not too much to ask? I’m not guaranteeing I’ll visit an agent even with this ideal, as old habits do die hard. But there may be chance, and I’m sure that I’m not alone in these wishes. Let’s see how tomorrow’s debate unfolds.

There’s an old stereotype of the British customer sitting at a restaurant. He complains bitterly to his partner about the meal. The service is slow, the waiter is rude, the food is awful. Halfway through the meal the waiter comes over and asks if everything is ok, and he chirps up “Yes thank you, it’s very nice”.

It’s not only the British who are useless at complaining. While some individuals seem to revel in confrontations with hotel receptionists, airline check-in staff and waiters, to most of us these encounters are stressful and uncomfortable, and we usually back away from them and are content with grumbling to ourselves and others.

Yet as a provider of a service I want to do everything in my power to encourage people who are unhappy with what I do to be comfortable in letting me know their gripes. Positive comments are nice to hear but it’s the criticisms and suggestions that really help a business to improve.

Here are 6 suggestions for effective complaining while travelling:

1. Stick to the facts. The room smells, or the sheets are dirty is a fact. The cleaner is lousy is an opinion. Likewise saying the meat is cold or difficult to cut is a statement of fact. Saying the chef is an amateur will not get you very far.

2. Keep to the issue and don’t get personal. As above, remember what it is that you are unhappy about and how it affected you directly. Try to avoid singling out individuals for criticism, as this will encourage defensive behaviour.

3. Know what you want as a reasonable resolution and state this from the start. If they are even half decent, the management of a business will want to clear up your complaint as quickly as they can. If you offer a way out that is relatively painless for them (change room, another dish, another seat) they will take it and be glad to have you out of the way.

4. If the person you speak to doesn’t have the authority to help, ask politely but firmly to speak to someone who can help. Junior staff are often asked to manage minor complaints and only involve senior colleagues if they have to. Insist on seeing the person who can address your complaint.

5. Don’t walk away without a concrete commitment to resolve the problem. If it’s a hotel and they can’t offer a room change that day but they say maybe tomorrow, get a commitment that you will definitely get that change. If your complaint is being passed on to a senior person, get the details of that person so that you can contact them if you don’t hear back. Commit the other party to follow up on their promises. I am guilty so often of not following this one, and of accepting when the other party says they will ‘see what they can do’.

6. Always respect the other person’s need to save face. This is not only true in Asia but worldwide. If your complaint humiliates the person you are speaking to, they are unlikely to be willing to help you. If you are seen to be polite, respectful and working together with them to find a mutually agreable solution, your chances of success will be greater.

There’s bound to be lots more advice to offer those who might need to raise an issue while they are travelling, and please feel free to add your suggestions. I do think it’s good to be comfortable at letting people know when you are not satisfied with the service you receive, and might one day get over my reluctance to complain.

El fin del mundo - what if there really was a world's end?

When our United Airlines flight from San Francisco touched down at Heathrow, 9 weeks after we had departed for Singapore, we had completed a full circuit of the globe. We had explored many exciting places, and returned home from the opposite direction. An epic journey for us, but we are among millions who have made a round the world trip, following in the footsteps of Phillias Fogg and finding adventure in charting our way around our spherical planet.

But what if the world was in fact flat? We would not have been able to fly from Auckland to Honolulu without falling off the edge and into eternal oblivion. A RTW trip would look very different. In fact the whole world of adventure travel might have created new hot destinations, while familiar favourites would be forgotten backwaters.

Here are three itineraries that might be popular in this two dimensional world (all ex-London):

1. Classic City Route: London – New York – Los Angeles – Rio – Cape Town – Sydney – Auckland – Tokyo – London

Classic City Route

2. The Remote Explorer: London – Nuuk – Fairbanks – Easter Island – Torres del Paine – Madagascar – Papua New Guinea – Kamchatka – Lapland – London

The Wilderness Explorer

3. The World Wonders Tour: London – Grand Canyon – Chichen Itza – Machu Picchu – Christ Redeemer Statue – Table Mountain – Ayers Rock – Angkor Wat – Taj Mahal – Petra – London

The World Wonders Tour

Clearly in the strange new world there would be a whole different set of airports to cope with the flights that have to negotiate the corners of the earth. There would also be some big winners in global (or rather flat) tourism: South America, Alaska, Japan and NE Russia. On the other hand the Mediterranean countries, most of Africa and the Caribbean would find it hard to persuade RTW travellers to make an inward detour to visit their attractions.

On the whole I am glad that we do live in a round world (don’t tell these guys) but I will be careful not to let this stop me from visiting some of the fascinating ‘corners’ of our planet.