Condé Nast Traveler - June 2000 Miracles Are Us Wendy Perrin An indispensable travel agent—and they're out there—is like a seasoned concierge: better connected than the internet, faster than a T3 line, able to book the unbookable with a single call. Wendy Perrin discloses 70—don't leave home without 'em When Terry Jones of Dallas suddenly found himself with a few days off, he decided to take his wife to Italy's Amalfi Coast. The airline tickets were easy enough to book on the Web, but not the accommodations. It was July, and Positano's grande dame property, Le Sirenuse, was sold out. So Jones rang his travel agent, Rudi Steele (see profile, page 126), who made a few phone calls and got him a spacious room at Le Sirenuse with a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean. "On Travelocity.com, you can book forty thousand different properties and get what you would get if you called the reservations number," says Jones. "But can you book the third-floor corner room and the right table at Le Sirenuse? Probably not." He should know. Terrell B. Jones is Travelocity.com's president. He acknowledges that "it seems a little weird" that the head of the world's largest online travel site would be using a travel agent. "I plan ninety percent of my trips on Travelocity," he explains. "But there are some unique experiences where an agent like Rudi has knowledge that we have yet to computerize and may never computerize." (Steele has known the owner of Le Sirenuse for years and has pull with top hoteliers the world over.) "People are more comfortable booking simple trips online—say, to Las Vegas," continues Jones. "I don't expect someone to jump on Travelocity and book a round-the-world cruise. They're not that comfortable, and we're not that good." There's been a lot of moaning and groaning, over the past few years, about how the Internet is putting travel agents out of business. Sure, more than eight percent of agencies closed their doors last year—those whose main focus was selling airline tickets—and industry analysts expect twenty-five percent of agents to lose their jobs eventually. But there is a top rung of superagents like Steele who are doing better than ever. They have expertise that a computer cannot approach, and with the number of international travelers expected to double in the next decade, their business is expected to continue booming. "Twenty-five percent of the population has an enormous amount of disposable income," says Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute. What they don't have is time to plan a vacation. "Baby boomers are working, on average, one hundred and eighty hours more per year than their parents did," he says. "And it's a badge of honor for Gen-Xers to work eighty-hour weeks." Adds Stanley Plog, chairman of the travel consulting firm Plog Research, "Planning a trip takes so much longer now because there are more information sources to check: the Internet, the airlines, the travel agent. Tell me that planning your trips now is easier than it used to be!" If what you want is a custom-tailored vacation rather than a generic travel package, the planning is even harder. "These people don't want cookie-cutter tours," says Celente. "They want a unique experience. And they want it fast and easy." They also want it trouble-free. Today's travelers are "very, very demanding," says Bill Burkart, president of Age Wave Impact, a marketing firm that studies baby boomers. "They don't have time for airline delays. They don't have time to quibble about no hotel room being available. They want early check-in and late checkout and a vacation that is flawlessly executed." Thus the surge in business for superagents who can do the flawless executing. True, the travel agent community as a whole has seen commissions drop by $5.2 billion since 1995, when the airlines began slashing the fees they pay agents. At the same time, the number of do-it-yourselfers booking trips on the Internet has skyrocketed: According to the Travel Industry Association of America, 16.5 million travelers made reservations online last year, compared with 5.4 million in 1997. In typical Darwinian fashion, however, as weak agents have grown weaker, the strong have grown stronger. "I've never been as busy as I am now," says Priscilla Alexander, president of Pro Travel International in Manhattan. Her agency had 80 employees before the airlines started cutting commissions in 1995; it now numbers 230. Superagents embrace the Web, since an educated consumer is their best customer. "Initially, the younger people were saying, ‘I can get it cheaper on the Net,' " says Bob Watson, owner of the agency Watson & Watson in Scarsdale, New York. "But now it's an ally rather than an enemy. The more information our clients have, the better off we are. They have a greater appreciation of what we're doing for them that the Internet can't." Needless to say, a local travel agent is no longer necessary—today, it's expertise, not geography, that determines which consultant to use. Even the dot-com world is acknowledging a need for the expertise that—at least for the moment—only a human being can provide. Web sites are starting to match travelers with the right agent for a particular destination or type of trip. Adventure travel site GORP.com is hooking travelers up with the right consultant for their outdoor adventure trip. E-cruise.com, coming this month, plans to list top travel agents for each cruise line—agents who know the line's ships well. And Egulliver.com, scheduled to launch this fall, promises to put visitors in touch with the proper specialist for, say, fly-fishing in Chile or beach resorts on Antigua. Now Terry Jones of Travelocity is preaching what he practices. His site recently began matching travelers with specialists belonging to Virtuoso, a network of 244 travel consultants. People who know which company they want to use for a trip—a Silversea cruise, for instance, or a Backroads bike trip—can go to Travelocity's Luxury Vacations section. There, they will find the Virtuoso consultant who does the most business with that company—which means he or she gets favorable rates and can pull strings. "It's the ultimate little black book," says Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch. The Web sites that are linking travelers to human beings are anticipating big business, not just from the 78 million boomers but also from the 40 million Gen-Xers—notorious online do-it-yourselfers. "The Gen-X affluents and instant-millionaire types streaming from the tech IPOs are taking to travel specialists in a strong way," says Virtuoso public relations director Keith Waldon. "They just want the best source of knowledge and connections, whether that's human or electronic. But it has to be hassle-free. No patience, you know." Specialization is the key to the success of top agents. That’s because with so much information available via the Net and other sources, today’s travelers demand a higher level of expertise. “To claim that we can be all things to all people, that we have equal degrees of knowledge about all areas of the world—it was hogwash then and it’s hogwash now. The consumer just won’t buy it,” says Richard Turen of the agency Churchill & Turen in Naperville, Illinois (see profile, page 122). In the past two years, the number of agents taking Certified Travel Counselor courses at the Institute of Certified Travel Agents—a first step toward becoming an expert—has been growing by ten percent annually. Another key to success for superagents is the Internet—despite weaker agents’ claims that it has been cutting into their business. The Cruise Professionals, an Ontario-based agency that focuses on only six luxury lines, gets thirty percent of its new business online, which has extended its reach as far as Santiago and Mauritius. Rex Travel Organization, a Chicago travel agency specializing in luxe adventures, gets twenty percent of its new clients on the Web. For seventy percent of them, says Julie Lemish, the agency’s online director, it’s the first time they’ve ever used a travel agent: “A lot of them still have the perception that the only thing a travel agent does is book airline tickets. They say, ‘Gosh, I never realized you could get a car and driver for me in Bangkok.’ ” Successful agents have also ceased to focus on selling what is no longer profitable—airline tickets—and are promoting such high-commission products as cruises and tours. A travel agent who sells two airline tickets earns a maximum commission of $100. If he sends a couple on an around-the-world trip by private Concorde, he earns $12,400. To give the best service to the biggest spenders, these agents are also charging service fees and imposing minimum transaction requirements. “Most of my clients already have travel agents,” says Turen. “When they want a rental car or an airline ticket, they go to someone else. They can’t use our services unless they spend a minimum of three thousand dollars. We’re not a travel agency. We’re a vacation-planning firm.” Even the airlines, which are eagerly awaiting the day when travelers book all of their plane tickets online, acknowledge the need for the services of travel agents. “People will increasingly want the help, guidance, and reassurance of a competent, cost-effective retail consultant,” says Lord Colin Marshall, chairman of British Airways. “Technology is not—and never will be—a substitute for personal service.” The Costs When a Travel Agent's Fee Is Worth Paying The right expertise can—and should—pay for itself Service fees are confusing. They can range from $15 for an airline ticket to $500 for a customized international itinerary. Sometimes—typically for cruises, resort vacations, spas, and tours—there is no charge at all. Sometimes there is a “plan to go” fee that is applied toward the total cost of your trip: If you cancel, you forfeit it. Because charges tend to be levied on a case-by-case basis, there may be no printed fee schedule or set policy. So how do you know when the extra charge is worth paying and what amount is fair? A fee should reflect the value that the agent adds to the equation. If you cannot see—or your agent cannot explain—why a surcharge is worth it, then you are either paying too much or using the wrong person. Often a fee is offset by the savings you receive from an agent’s relationship with “preferred suppliers”—airlines, hotels, and cruise lines with whom he or she does a lot of business. New York City–based Pro Travel International (212-755-4550), for instance, holds blocks of rooms at certain four- and five-star Manhattan hotels. Let’s say you need a room for several nights and one of these properties tells you that it’s sold out. Not only might Pro Travel be able to snag you a room, but you might get it for $225, rather than the regular $350—if $225 is the rate Pro Travel paid when it bought the rooms in bulk. In such a scenario, Pro Travel’s one-time reservation fee of $50 would be money well spent. Sometimes a surcharge is based on an agent’s knowledge and time—say, for a personalized foreign itinerary that includes charming hotels and restaurants you wouldn’t otherwise be aware of and other intelligence that significantly enhances your experience. Churchill & Turen (see profile, page 122) recently designed a trip to Greece for a Chicago couple whose budget was $5,000. The pair could have opted for a $5,100 group tour, but instead the agent designed an itinerary that included more of the ruins and waterfront settings that were their stated priority, used private drivers and guides rather than a tour bus, and incorporated hotels with local color. The $4,996 total cost included the agency’s $250 planning charge. If a service fee does not buy you simple convenience, it should buy you something you cannot get on your own. That is why it is important to use a travel agent who has pull with a variety of travel companies. “You want to pay a fee to the person who has the ability to clear a one-bedroom suite for you at the Gritti Palace in Venice, and get you tickets to the opera when it’s sold out,” says Kimberly Wilson Wetty of Valerie Wilson Travel in New York City (see “70 Secret Agents,” page 127). “A service fee should buy somebody’s ability to jump through hoops for you and get it done.” The Savants A Good Agent Is Hard to Find How to locate your own expert in the field Top-notch travel consultants are few and far between. After encountering innumerable agents over the past decade, I’ve found that the following credentials are the most reliable indicators of experience, knowledge, and industry clout: Membership in a travel company’s preferred-agent club. Many of the best hotel chains and cruise lines invite agents whom they respect and do a lot of business with to sit on their agent advisory boards or join their “top producer” clubs. Ritz-Carlton has its Travel Agent Advisory Board, Abercrombie & Kent its Top 100 Club, Crystal Cruises its Crystal Alliance, Cunard Line its Inner Circle. Club membership indicates that an agent knows the company’s products intimately and has regular face-to-face dealings with its chief executives, who may even owe him or her favors. Some travel companies list preferred agents on their Web sites. Membership in Virtuoso, formerly API Travel Consultants. This network of 244 of the finest agencies has special pull with “preferred suppliers” worldwide—luxe hotels, cruise lines, and tour operators. If, for instance, you book a cruise through Virtuoso, you are automatically enrolled in its Voyager Club and are entitled to such benefits as free cabin upgrades, dinner or cocktails with the captain, and certain exclusive shore excursions and events. If you book a stay at one of Virtuoso’s preferred hotels, you have a shot at a complimentary upgrade (based on availability) and added amenities that vary widely from one property to another. At London’s Dorchester, for example, you will receive complimentary afternoon tea and access to the hotel’s members-only private club; at Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos, a free 45-minute massage (contact Virtuoso for a referral: 800-401-4274; www.virtuoso.com). Certification by the Institute of Certified Travel Agents. This nonprofit educational institution grants the designation Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) to applicants who have at least five years’ experience and who pass a series of exams. Out of 250,000 travel agents in the United States, only 10,000 are CTCs. Some CTCs have also been designated Destination Specialists. You can find one for a particular region of the world—though not for a specific country—through the Institute (800-542-4282; www.icta.com). The WEB Online or Off? When do-it-yourself just won’t do When should you book a trip online and when are you better off using an agent? The more complicated, exotic, or luxurious a trip, the more benefits a specialist can provide. The less expensive your travel, the less commission an agent will earn, making him or her less inclined to be helpful and more likely to charge a service fee that’s not worth paying. Bookings that you’re typically better off handling yourself include domestic coach flights, car rentals, low- and midrange chain hotels and inns, train tickets, and last-minute, Internet-only deals. Trips best booked through a specialist are cruises, group tours, foreign itineraries, luxe resorts, private guides and drivers, spas, and anything once-in-a-lifetime. Even Bill Gates didn’t trust his honeymoon to a computer. Wendy's Rolodex—70 Secret Agents After getting to know literally hundreds of agents over the past ten years, these are the best specialists I’ve found. Some charge fees, some don’t, depending on the type of trip and the amount of work involved (see “When a Travel Agent’s Fee Is Worth Paying,” page 125). If you’re wondering whether you’re better off booking your trip on the Internet, see “Online or Off?” page 125. My Rolodex is organized both by type of travel—adventure and special interest; cruises; hotels, resorts, and spas—and by region. If the expertise you need is not listed, see “A Good Agent Is Hard to Find,” page 125, for instructions on finding your own. If all else fails, contact the exceedingly well traveled Gerald Fuller of Travel Advice in South Ogden, Utah. He provides smart, unbiased answers to itinerary-planning questions and can recommend the right travel company or agent to use based on the destination and style of trip you want (800-854-3391, fax 801-476-1994; advice@traveladvice.com; fees start at $30). Mary Jean Tully: Cruise Professionals, Toronto Her Web site (www.cruiseprofessionals.com) and prompt e-mail response system make the booking process fast and easy. Tully has particular pull with Crystal, Cunard, and Princess (800-265-3838, fax 905-275-9213; sales@cruiseprofessionals.com).   Back         Top of Page

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