In this issue’s cover story, “Masters of the Craft” (page 14), we share the conversation we had with veteran travel agents at the recent Global Travel Marketplace (GTM) West. This roundtable discussion included advisors with at least 20 years of experience in the business, and it was fascinating to get their views of the past, present and future.
After the meeting, I kept thinking about the group of Americans who are described as “The Greatest Generation.” These are the men and women who lived through the Great Depression, won World War II and helped build the U.S. into a world superpower. It occurred to me that experienced professionals such as the ones featured in our story may be the travel agent equivalent of The Greatest Generation.
These travel advisors navigated their way through profound changes. They saw the end of a commission-based system, the rise of the Internet, the aftermath of Sept. 11 and the growth of social media. Essentially, the past 20 to 25 years have seen fundamental shifts in every aspect of an agent’s business — including what is sold, where it’s sold, how it’s sold and even to whom it’s sold.
Given this revolution, travel agents who have been in business throughout these years are more than merely survivors; they are superheroes. In order to guide a business through this upheaval and make it to the other side, an owner would need to be smart, flexible, confident and tenacious. It’s hard to imagine the chutzpah it takes to remain in business when just about every expert is saying the industry is doomed. But these agents also had to be flexible enough to give up everything they thought they knew about their business and then adapt to a completely new environment.
When you consider all these factors, the success of this Greatest Generation of travel agents is so remarkable that it deserves to be in the curriculum of every business school in the country. Yet, I know that whether these advisors ever get the credit they are due doesn’t matter at all to them. These superheroes will continue to adapt and prevail, and that will be their ultimate legacy.
