A major cruise line recently launched a new ad campaign titled, “Starring You.” Well, the same can be said for our cover story this issue. It really does star you the travel agent. It’s our annual Travel Industry Survey (TIS) of agents conducted for TravelAge West and sister publication, Travel Weekly, by noted travel industry researcher, Stanley C. Plog, Ph.D.
This year’s survey delved into some interesting territory. Not only did we ask agents about their business outlook and strategies for future growth, we took a look at their personality types. The net result is an informative, thought-provoking and sometimes surprising portrait of today’s travel agent.
Here’s a look at what the survey revealed.
Is the West Better Than the Rest?
Survey author Plog broke down the results of the TIS into national and regional categories, with the “West” defined as the TravelAge West circulation area of California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Montana, Hawaii and Alaska.
From the outset, it looks as if agents in the West have something to crow about. The survey reveals that Western agents are responsible for a whopping $37.7 billion in annual sales. That’s 7 percent above average compared to the rest of the country. Overall, an average agency in the West generates 6.4 million in annual sales, which is also 7 percent above average. And when you look to home-based agents, the numbers are higher. Western home-based agents generate $314,000 in yearly sales, as opposed to $270,000 for other states. That’s 16 percent above average, according to the survey.
While not all the data in the survey revealed strong distinctions between agents in the West and their counterparts elsewhere, we think there’s a discernable Western mind-set to the results.
What Agents Are Focusing On?
Our survey took a look at the types of travel that agents are specializing in. By a large margin, leisure bookings dominate revenue at agencies across the country. We did find that agents in the West tend to focus less on inclusive and partial vacation packages than their counterparts. The same is also true for spas, high-end resorts and family travel, when compared to agents in the Northeast and Midwest. And, agents in the West focus less on wedding packages when compared to agents elsewhere in the country. But their numbers are higher than their counterparts when it comes to destination-focused travel that is leisure trips to specific destinations. Agents in the West also rank high when it comes to selling adventure travel.
As for specific areas of concentration, cruises come in at the top of the list for agents in the West, pretty much the same as in other regions. More than three-fourths of the agents in the survey responded that they focused on cruises. That’s a statistic that the cruise industry has worked hard to cultivate in recent years, and it is no doubt paying off.
Travel Products Focus on
| Types of Travel | National | West |
| Cruises | 75% | 75% |
| Packages | 51% | 45% |
| Tours | 45% | 47% |
| Family Travel | 44% | 42% |
| Resorts/Spas | 42% | 38% |
| Destination Focus | 28% | 36% |
| Luxury | 25% | 18% |
| Wedding | 24% | 18% |
| Corporate/Incentives | 18% | 17% |
| Business/Incentives | 17% | 16% |
| Adventure Travel | 15% | 17% |
| Motorcoach Tours | 13% | 11% |
| Affinity Groups | 13% | 13% |
| Sports/Hobby Enthusiasts | 12% | 12% |
| Eco-Travel | 7% | 9% |
What Agents Are Selling:
We looked at categories of products sold, both on a percentage and total revenue basis per travel agency. Air travel ranked surprisingly high, representing some 29 percent of revenue in the West and 26 percent in the rest of the country. Approximately one-third of agents nationwide indicated that they received some sort of incentives or overrides from airlines.
Cruise sales (both U.S.-based and international) reached the 26 percent level with agencies across the country. But, cruising takes on greater importance when you look at the numbers for the West. Cruise sales make up 33 percent of total revenue per agency surveyed in the West. Western agents sell a higher percentage of both domestic and international cruises than do their counterparts in the rest of the country.
Revenue From Various Travel Products
| Product | National | West |
| Air Travel | 27% | 29% |
| Cruises from U.S. | 22% | 23% |
| International Cruises | 8% | 10% |
| Car Rentals | 5% | 5% |
| Hotel Bookings | 12% | 12% |
| Inclusive Resorts | 13% | 9% |
| Tours | 10% | 10% |
| Rail Travel, etc. | 3% | 2% |
Travel Products Agents Expect to Sell More in 2007
| Product | National | West |
| Total Air | 40% | 40% |
| Low Fare Carrier | 41% | 40% |
| Hotel | 49% | 47% |
| Tour/Packages | 57% | 57% |
| Ocean Cruises | 72% | 72% |
| River Cruises | 41% | 45% |
Choosing Cruising
We asked agents about growing their businesses. Specifically, which products do they believe will lead to increased sales in the future? Once again, cruises rank at the top of the list. In fact, agents in the West tell us that they expect sales of ocean cruises to increase by 72 percent. Western agents also anticipate river cruise sales to increase by 45 percent, as opposed to 41 percent nationwide. When it comes to selling particular cruise destinations, we found some notable differences between the West and the rest of the country. The Caribbean and Bermuda tend to dominate sales elsewhere, but Alaska is first with the West, when it comes to a cruise destination, followed by the Caribbean. Hawaii is also more important in the West, as is Western Mexico. Another interesting fact: the West ranks highest when it comes to bookings to Western Europe and the second highest (behind the Northeast) in bookings to the Mediterranean.
According to Brad Anderson, co-president of America’s Vacation Center, the fact that cruising is so high on the radar screen with agents in general is not surprising.
“Cruise lines have designed a complete package for the agent, offering education, marketing support and tools that are being used more and more to gather information for client presentations. The simple fact is that we all like doing business with people that appreciate us and who are willing to pay for our services,” said Anderson.
Potential Impacts on Future Business
We asked agents to rate various factors that may have impacted their revenue in the past year. Across the country, Internet competition and the increased cost of travel ranked highest in the TIS; followed by fears about terrorism and security; airport delays; natural disasters; poor opinion of the U.S.; and epidemics, such as bird flu, SARS and the like.
Percent of Agents Indicating Events Impacted Revenue in 2006
Interestingly, the results were slightly different when we asked how those factors might impact revenue in the upcoming two years. Increased cost of travel topped the list, followed by fears about security and terrorism as well as competition from the Internet. Agents in the West expressed a greater concern than their counterparts that the poor opinion of the U.S. will affect the demand for travel. And they’re less worried than other regions about the effects of epidemics such as bird flu.
Attracting New Clients
The TIS asked agents about their preferred marketing approaches for attracting new business. By a large margin, E-mail was the top choice in every region. As for other means of client development, agency Web sites ranked second (62 percent nationwide), with agents in the West slightly less likely to rely on Web sites as a marketing tool. Flyers came in third, with 35 percent of agents nationally indicating that they relied on them. Across the board, one-third of all agents in the survey indicated that they used newsletters. Newspaper adds followed, at 30 percent nationwide and 26 percent in the West.
Hosting a “travel night” to attract new clients measured in at 24 percent nationally, 22 percent with agents in the West. And some 23 percent of agents nationwide plan to take part in some form of charity or community event as a client-attracting opportunity.
So, is the West really better than the rest? The TIS results have shown that some regional differences do exist, but that’s not too surprising.
“Westerners travel more, they travel longer distances, they are more adventuresome,” said Plog.
We think we can say the same thing about Western travel agents.
What’s Your ‘Agent Profile?’For the first time ever, our Travel Industry Survey asked agents to tell us how they feel about their profession their outlook, level of contentment and hopes for the future. Utilizing responses to a set of 14 questions, survey author Stanley C. Plog, Ph.D., came up with three distinct agent categories. Plog dubbed these personality types “Contenteds,” “Careerists” and “Searchers.” He found that their ranks broke down into essentially equal numbers. But as you can see, their distinguishing characteristics are quite revealing.
Which type are you?
The Careerists: This group of agents loves to travel and they definitely enjoy being a part of the travel industry. They’re distinguished by the fact that they’ve chosen the travel industry as a vocation, and are quite happy with that choice. They’re focused on creating successful careers for themselves both personally and financially.
Careerists enjoy their day-to-day activities and expect revenue to increase over the next few years. They enjoy being a travel agent today just as much as when they entered the profession. They have no plans to change careers. They don’t feel that their industry is any more demanding than other occupations. They don’t see it as boring in any way. In general, Careerists see their profession as a rewarding business and feel they made the right choice.
The Contenteds In a nutshell, Contenteds love the idea of being a travel agent and love their day-to-day activities. They especially value the opportunity to travel. Contenteds became travel agents because of their interest in leisure travel and have maintained that interest over time. Despite the problems that may be facing the travel industry in general, they still feel that their profession is exciting and interesting. And they don’t find their work tedious. They’re the type of people who attract cocktail party conversation about their profession. And they plan to remain in the profession for the foreseeable future.
The Searchers: As their name implies, Searchers are having a more difficult time of it. They’re generally unhappy about their chosen profession, and if they could start all over they would do something different. Searchers worry about the future, and feel that the problems facing the travel agent industry will increase. They have a higher sense of concern that the potential for another terrorist attack would reduce the demand for travel and therefore have a negative impact upon their livelihood.
Searchers feel that it is hard to make an adequate living as an agent and will probably leave the profession within a few years. They’re unhappy because reduced commissions limit the amount of time that they can spend on client service. They look at much of their work as tedious and boring. They live with anxiety.
Putting It All TogetherThe personality data may be mixed, but the good news is that two-thirds of the industry is currently happy and content with being a travel agent. On the other hand, “the fact that a third of the people in this profession feel disenfranchised is a crisis,” noted America’s Vacation Center’s Brad Anderson.
Is it best to assume that the Searchers will simply leave the profession, leaving the Contenteds as “cheerful hobbyists” and the Careerists as the full-time professionals?
It’s really not that simple. Our survey found that the type of business agents were involved in made a difference in their category type. For example, when it comes to agents working in traditional retail offices, the largest number (37 percent) falls into the Searchers category. Home-based agents have the largest amount of Contenteds (44 percent) followed by Careerists (35 percent). Only one-fifth of home-based agents described themselves as Searchers.
We found that Contenteds focus more on leisure sales (79 percent) while Searchers have a higher mix of business/corporate clients. That calls into question whether the demands of business travelers and the less personalized client relationship add to the unhappiness of this group.
As for the types of travel sold, cruises dominate the sales of each category. But, cruises are more important to Contenteds (81 percent) than to other segments. Careerists offer a broader array of products and place higher emphasis on selling corporate meetings and incentive travel than other groups, especially Contenteds.
The travel products for which agents expect sales to increase show strong differences according to their group. For example, Careerists are most positive, and anticipate an increase in air sales, hotels, tours and packages and most of all, in cruises.
The different groups also place a different value on the types of services that suppliers offer. For example, fam trips, although measuring high for all groups, are most important for Contenteds. Perhaps this shows that this group is more interested in travel as an avocation. Searchers place the greatest emphasis on getting overrides and incentives from suppliers. This is consistent with their belief they aren’t being adequately rewarded. They also are least likely to be interested in educational seminars.
Is there a broader lesson to learn from the data? We think so. As an industry, it’s time to not only reach out to the disaffected Searchers, but redouble efforts to attract new professionals interested in a travel-selling career.
