It’s hard to believe but it has now been 20 years since Avis Australia first began rewarding customer-service focused consultants with its Travel Agents Scholarship.
That means some of the Travel Agents competing for this year’s award may not have even started school when the prestigious award was unveiled.
There’s no doubt that Travel Agents today face challenges (and enjoy opportunities) that their counterparts could never have even imagined back in 1997. If you don’t believe us, just consider some of the ways the retail travel world has changed since the Scholarship’s inception:
1. Internet Access
In 1997 just 14 percent of Australian households had home Internet access, today the figure is 86 percent of all households.
2. Online travel agencies
OTAs were in their infancy and of little threat, with Sabre Corporation’s Travelocity and Microsoft’s Expedia just a year old, and Australian players such as Webjet (launched in 1998) and Wotif (2000) yet to launch.
3. Social media
Travel agencies couldn’t yet market their products and services through a myriad of low-cost social media channels because most didn’t exist just yet (LinkedIn popped up in 2002, Facebook launched in 2004 and Twitter didn’t arrive until 2006).
4. User generated reviews
Before TripAdvisor came to life in 2000 and began popularising user-generated product reviews, customers didn’t turn to cyberspace for recommendations on hotels, airlines or sightseeing tours, instead they asked their friendly travel agent
5. Cruising
Cruising holidays are a lucrative product line for today travel agents, but back in 1997 the number of Australians taking a cruise each year was estimated to be well below 100,000 – that’s less than 10 percent of the million-plus Australians who now take to the water each year
6. Mobile devices
In 1997 the number of Australians who owned their own mobile phone was estimated at less than 20 percent, today the number of mobile phone accounts in Australia exceeds the country’s population, and the devices are used for a lot more than just making phone calls.
Of course the key ingredients to customer-service excellence don’t really change with time. All Scholarship winners over the past 20 years have demonstrated a desire to exceed expectations and a talent for finding creative solutions to the problems that sometimes confront consultants.
If you think you have what it takes to win the 2016 Avis Travel Agent Scholarship and take home a life-changing prize package valued at more than $40,000, register at www.avisscholarship.com and complete a submission before 29 August 2016.
This year’s Scholarship winner will receive two return Qantas Airways Business Class tickets to New York, six nights’ accommodation in Manhattan and seven days car rental from Avis, along with a scholarship to study at Southern Cross University, tickets to Cruise3sixty Australasia in 2017, professional coaching from Polonious Resources and tickets to the 2017 National Travel Industry Awards Gala Dinner (including return flights and overnight accommodation).
For more information on the 2016 Scholarship please visit www.avisscholarship.com.