Local travel agents admit there’s little doubt that Internet-booking sites
have led to a decline in business, but said as long as the numerous online travel
sites together present a myriad of sometimes confusing choices, there should
always be a consumer need for traditional travel planning.
Frankie Sanders, co-owner of Yankee Travel in South Kingstown, has been in the travel agency business for 25 years and said the use of the Internet has absolutely led to a drop-off in business in recent years, especially in airline reservations.
But Sanders said for many of her customers, it isn’t always a convenience to go hunting for trip deals online, especially when something goes wrong, such as a flight being canceled or a user who makes a mistake in selecting their ticket.
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“I hear a lot that the process is too time-consuming, too confusing, or something went wrong,” said Sanders, who has a staff of nine employees. Yankee Travel does have its own Web site and advertises on links of other local Internet sites.
“A lot of people call, doing a price check on a rate they found over the Internet,” said Sanders. “Sometimes we can beat it and sometimes we can’t.”
According to the Travel Industry Association of America’s “Annual Travel Forecast” for 2004, this year the industry is expecting to see overall traveler spending increase as well as a higher travel volume growth after years of decline.
The association forecasts that overall traveler spending by domestic and international visitors will increase 4.4 percent to $568 billion (up from $544 billion in 2003). Even better news, is that in 2005 the level of spending – estimated to reach $594 billion – will again surpass the record set in 2000 before the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Released in late January, the association’s annual survey of travelers’ use of the Internet reflected that resurgence in travel. More than 64 million Americans (nearly one-third of the U.S. adult population) used the Internet to check prices or schedules, and of that group, more than 42 million actually booked travel online during 2003, up 8 percent from 2002.
Nearly 30 percent of the people booking online now say they do all of their own travel planning online. Airline tickets are the most frequently purchased item (by 75 percent of all online bookers), followed closely by hotel accommodations at 71 percent, a 15 percent increase from the previous year.
The survey found that total spending by the average online booker rose to $2,600 a year, up from $2,300 in 2002.
Etta Leoni, owner of Cranston’s Mrs. Fyffe’s Travel, said she has certainly seen a decrease in business, and began feeling those effects more strongly when airlines began curbing agent commissions a little more than 18 months ago, and actually started charging her a service fee to run a ticket.
Like most other agents, Leoni now only books flights as part of a package, or is forced to charge a service fee for making the transaction. And, like Sanders, she said she’s had to turn away people with problems who’ve made mistakes in scheduling their own arrangements or find their flight canceled at the last minute.
“People expect us to help after they’ve made a mistake,” Leoni said. “But really, there’s nothing we can do. If you have a problem, I honestly don’t know who there is to deal with. That’s part of the risk you take booking online.”
Leoni, who’s been in the business for 27 years and has owned her own company for the last dozen, now operates Mrs. Fyffe’s herself with the occasional help of outside agents, after having to eliminate a full-time position and two part-timers more than a year ago. While she still puts together a wide range of trips, she focuses on her senior business (which includes regular bus trips to Las Vegas), trips to Broadway and nearly 100 cruises a year.
Elaine Bassis, owner of Davenport Travel Agency in Attleboro, has been in business for 21 years and in the past few years has heard some “real horror stories” from not-so-self-sufficient online bookers. She said for many clients, it’s time-consuming work going online to bounce around on various sites, checking prices and fee schedules, only to finally try and book something that turns out not to be available for any variety of reasons. But on the whole, Bassis said she is more inclined to point to the Sept. 11 attacks as having contributed to the noticeable decline in business.
She said many of her company’s corporate clients, who began allowing employees to book their own arrangements for business trips, have returned to her in recent months, looking to again having their travel managed and eliminate the “free-for-all” booking atmosphere that added to their business’s expenses line.
“The service fee I charge still makes it worth it to them,” said Bassis, who
added that she’s not going anywhere. “Sometimes, and what I think a lot of people
are realizing, it just makes sense to deal with an actual person.”
