p18 ETOA Nov13 10/11/09 12:50 Page 18
news etoa 2009
ttglive.com
November 5-7 • London
COMMISSION.
The Etoa conference revealed how US travel agents
Operators target
are coping with the recession and how the industry is
cruise ‘resenters’
developing across the pond. Lee Hayhurst reports
RECESSION.
TRADITIONAL land-based operators are fighting
back against the growth in cruise as anger
increases among agents about non-commission-
Positive thinking is key
able elements in fares.
The increase in such elements, such as port IF YOU are a travel agent, are you content with they sold and increased their marketing saw a
fees, combined with lower prices generally, is your lot, or are you unhappy and like to moan, rise in business,” he said.
hitting US agents’ revenues for cruise holidays. or do you see yourself as being on a dynamic “The tendency we all had last year was to pull
The agent survey found domestic and interna- career path? in the wagons and conserve cash, but it turns out
tional cruise sales now accounted for more than How you answer this question could that for travel agents, moving forward aggres-
one-third of agency revenues. Of all the holiday determine how successfully you will cope with sively helped them through a tough period.”
types, the sector came top when agents were the recession, according to the latest research Unsurprisingly, the bigger the agency, the bet-
asked which area they focused on, with 76% involving travel agents in the US. ter it coped with the downturn, said Weissmann,
saying cruise, 56% packages and 45% tours. The Etoa conference heard how 80% of US and this was particularly true for leisure agents.
But Weissmann said the rising proportion of a agents had seen a decline in revenue in 2008, But researchers wanted to drill down further
cruise fare on which agents do not earn commis- with traditional agencies reporting a 25% drop into the psyche of the successful agents, he said,
sion was an opportunity for rival land-based and homeworkers 30%. and they came up with three broad categories:
operators. But researchers wanted to find out what “contenteds”, “seekers” and “careerists”.
“There is growing resentment against cruise common factors were shared by the 10% The study found that a positive atti-
lines,” he said. “Agents are simply not making as of agents who appeared to be tude brought results, with 24%
much money from cruising, and operators have “recession-proof” and reported of the “careerists” saying
been very good at taking advantage of that.” an increase in revenue. revenues did not decline
Despite this, the agents polled said they were Arnie Weissmann,
16%
in 2008, compared with
optimistic about prospects for cruise in 2010. veteran journalist and 13% of “seekers” and
Just over one-third of the 1,500 respondents founder of destination 16% of “contenteds”.
said they expected to sell more tours or pack- information service 24% Weissmann predicted
ages, but 54% said they expected to sell more Weissmann Travel Re- pressure on traditional
ocean cruises and 30% more river cruises. ports, said factors such as travel agents would
longevity, product type,
13%
continue in the
corporate or leisure mix future, but he said
In brief
were not significant.
Attitude The proportion of
they had proved more
However, he said that accord- resilient in the US than
ing to the research, agents that
‘types’ of US agent who saw
he had thought.
had been most aggressive in cut-
no decline in revenue in 2008
■ Americans rush to get passports But he warned the
Travel agency revenue from outbound US ting costs, headcount and market- ■ Careerists industry was benefiting
trips is nearing parity with that from domestic ing tended to have fared worst. ■ Contenteds from serving the “baby boomer” gen-
holidays, a point that exploded the myth that “On the other hand, those ■ Seekers eration it had grown up with and had to
US citizens rarely travelled outside the country, who increased the products find new blood to prosper in the future.
said Weissmann. Changes requiring US
residents to have passports to enter Canada
and Mexico had sparked a rush to obtain
EDUCATION.
passports, fuelling the market for international
travel. In 2003, this accounted for just 40% of Suppliers step in to supply training
agency revenue, but in 2008 it was 49%.
TRAINING provided by suppliers has replaced fers product-specific and general hotel modules.
■ Lawsuits threaten homeworking set-ups generic training offered by industry bodies in the One notable exception to the decline in
Lawsuits in the US could put an end to US, Weissmann told the conference. industry training, he said, was in cruise, where
homeworking agencies that tempted people As training programmes provided by The Clear, the US equivalent of Ace, did “an
with low start-up costs but offered little Travel Institute had declined, they had been unbelievable amount of training”.
support. Weissmann said agents upset by the supplanted by programmes from suppliers. Weissmann added: “There has been a large
low level of central support had taken out Weissmann said the Marriott hotel chain had movement towards education [in the US] while
lawsuits and, as a result, homeworking even gone as far as to not pay commission to at the same time a lot of generic education
operations were “beginning to collapse”. agents who had not taken its training, which of- schemes have come apart at the seams.”
18 13.11.2009
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