Travel advisor, agent, consultant, expert, manager, counsellor, planner, broker or designer? Which is the best title to describe what you do? And does it matter anyway?
In today’s trendy travel industry, there are a hatful of job titles to describe what a travel agent does. But is it helpful for the general public as a descriptor and point of difference? Or is it just more confusing?
Generally speaking, when it comes to careers, car mechanics have always been, well car mechanics. Builders are builders and, well I could go on, but you get the idea. Unless you’re a specialist car mechanic (Vintage cars for example), people typically and quickly have a basic understanding of what you do when you tell them minus an explanation.
When someone pipes up that they are a travel agent at a barbecue, it’s assumed (after everyone’s asked them if there are any hot specials on right now) that they sell everything from a package to Bali to cruises around the world and must have travelled to every country under the sun.
Case and point by genius Christian Hull, aka Trish the Travel Agent…
That’s because the traditional job title ‘Travel Agent’ has been around for a rather long time.
The first travel agency appeared in 1758 as an establishment of Cox & Kings Ltd. While Thomas Cook himself took 500 people on his first excursion in 1841, who paid one shilling each for a return train journey from Leicester to Loughborough, a mere 20kms away.
Oh, the crazy stories Tommy must have had. I bet it was an absolute riot.
Travel agencies became more commonplace with the development of commercial aviation, beginning in the 1920s. Initially, travel agencies primarily catered to middle and upper-class customers, but the post-war boom in mass-market package holidays resulted in the growth of travel agencies on the main streets of most British towns, catering to a working-class clientele looking for a convenient way to book overseas beach holidays.
By the 70’s, Cox & Kings and Thomas Cook had established a chain of agencies staffed by Travel Agents all over the Uk.
Thomas Cook – The world’s first Travel Agent?
Fast forward to today, and the move away from perceptions of being a traditional transacting only agent to being valued as more of a consultative, problem-solving expert is a positive step for everyone as it rightly helps promote the significance of what many agents do.
Being a Travel Agent is and always has been a professional career. And if anything, it’s a role that is only becoming more esteemed as travel becomes more complex and confusing with so many new products, niches and creative styles of travel desired by today’s travellers.
We all love the internet, but booking engines and robots replacing agents? Dream on. It’s not happening anytime soon.
Even Millennials are using travel agents, and NO-ONE said that would ever happen. You can read more about that here.
Smart Travel Agents know that their best clients are only becoming more time poor and in need of empathy, help, ideas and value as a service. They’re also tired of being let down online and left in the lurch when things go pear-shaped, or their plans change.
There’s gold in them hills because clients are happy to pay for quality service. So how important is your role name?
The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), the world’s largest association of travel professionals, recently rebranded as ‘the American Society of Travel Advisors’ and launched a new marketing campaign – “We’ll take you there.”
The move represents the first name change from ‘Agents’ to ‘Advisors’ for the organisation in almost 75 years, which from its founding in 1931 until 1944 was known as the ‘American Steamship and Tourist agents Association’. Hmm, not quite so catchy that one.
The ASTA website
Zane Kerby, ASTA president and CEO says of the name change;
“ASTA’s new name more accurately describes the value our members provide to consumers and is a distinct declaration of who we work for: the travelling public. It also reflects the renewed prominence of the travel advisor industry and our role as a leading voice.”
So the answer to the great name debate is probably, that every title has merit and depends on you individually or which travel group you work with. Each descriptor comes with its perceptions versus another, so choose the title that works best for you or your brand.
It’d be great to see some formal research as to what the general public think or whether they even care for that matter. Perhaps you’ve done some research of your own?
Advisors, agents, consultants, experts, planners, managers, counsellors, brokers and designers (Did I miss any?)… What do you think?