Americans take a lot of vacations, if TV is to be believed.
We must. Commercials for travel websites assault the tube-watching American populace with astounding regularity.
How much time off do these companies think the average person has to be able to take all these awesome trips they want so badly to help you schedule?
Recent information from iSpot.tv, a television and digital media measurement service, revealed that the national TV advertising of travel-booking sites last year increased by 21.5 percent — to $354.1 million total. That amount entailed 123 different spots from 27 different brands for a total of about 176,000 commercial airings.
We know the names. They are part of the new American consumer lexicon in our post internet age, as familiar to us now as any beloved brands ever were, jingles and slogans, quirky spokespeople and all. Trivago, Expedia, Hotels.com, Booking.com, Priceline, Kayak, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, Travelocity, Hotwire — the list continues, and that’s not even counting the number of cruise lines and resorts that advertise on their own as well.
Which begs the question: Are travel agents obsolete? With such an abundance of options, and seemingly infinite information available at the fingertips of every aspiring traveler, it might seem as if the days of the travel agent are numbered. Could there really be any deals that you can’t find through at least one of those services on your own? Is it another one of those occupations slated to go the way of streetlamp lighter, projectionist and switchboard operator?
Industry pros say no.
Here on Bainbridge
Bainbridge Island alone supports at least three travel agencies, and also one store dedicated to the education and enabling of would-be sightseers.
Barbara Tolliver and Susan Taylor, co-owners of The Traveler, Bainbridge’s longtime premiere travel resource outlet, said they often steer customers to travel agencies and caution against assuming online searches are as thorough as they’re supposed to be.
“It’s confusing because when you do an internet search they like to make you think that you’re booking directly with the hotel and you’re not,” Taylor said. “Then you get locked in to a payment in advance.”
Overbooking, double booking, over pricing, these are the results of a system of middlemen, she added, and the customer is often left with no idea if they’ve gotten the best deal or even seen every flight or lodging option actually out there.
“When something unexpected happens with travel arrangements, the people who have arranged their trip through a travel agent, that’s a big bonus,” Tolliver agreed. “You’ve got somebody to call, somebody to troubleshoot.”
Ease is the most obvious and inarguable benefit of consulting a professional, though do-it-yourselfers are quick to counter: “But at what cost?”
What to know before you go
Tolliver and Taylor said that many people do often dismiss the idea of consulting a travel agent or tour group as too expensive off-hand, without actually looking into the specifics — numbers which may surprise even the more frugal amongst us.
“Cost does not always equate to value,” Tolliver said. “We get an incredible number of questions here about how to travel — the whole experience. We’ve seen it change a bit as people are becoming more savvy, using the internet, but we still have some first-time travelers or some relatively inexperienced travelers and they want to know: What are they going to encounter at the airport? What are they going to encounter at a transfer point in Amsterdam? Or Heathrow?”
“When people used to use travel agents more often, those questions were all answered by the travel agents,” Taylor added. “Now, we get a lot of those questions.
“There are still some very good reasons to use travel agents because they can handle when things unexpectedly take a strange turn.”
Robert Jones of Bainbridge Travel — an island-based full-service travel boutique which began in 1976 as The Travel Exchange — knows all about strange turns, having seen his share in his 35 years in the industry.
He said that planning, researching, booking and troubleshooting a trip is like anything else in life: You get better at it the more practice you have.
“I feel like I’m better at the internet than 90 percent of my clients as far as travel goes,” he said.
“We beat the internet every day. We don’t beat the internet every time, but we do beat it every day.”
Wide appeal for expert advice
There is no typical client profile, Jones said, and he often deals with families, both older and younger couples, many less experienced travelers and seasoned vets alike looking for something new.
“We can pretty much tell you pretty quickly whether you know what you’re doing or not,” he said.
“It does depend a lot on how complicated a trip it is. Even something like if you’re making three or four stops in the U.S., that’s a complicated enough trip that you should not be doing it on your own. You should be checking with a professional, because there’s a pretty good chance that you will spend more doing it yourself than it would cost you to work with a travel agent.”
The relationships formed between a good agent and representatives from the world of travel and leisure make a lot of difference, Jones added.
“Generally you will not pay more for your travel with us,” he said. “You won’t pay more and you will get a lot more.”
Agents have contacts — real live people — all over the world, Jones said, who they can call to help plan and book a trip, many of them having specialties and areas of expertise which the average traveler just can’t find online.
Even deceptively simple vacation plans — like going on a cruise, say — can be improved and often upgraded by a good travel agent, Jones said.
“Working with a travel agent should be a give-and-take relationship,” he explained. “It should go both ways. It’s as if you’ve got an unbiased person looking at what you’re doing — an unbiased person with some knowledge — and saying, ‘Wait a minute. That doesn’t make sense.’”
Some of the most memorable trips he’s ever facilitated, Jones said, came from a frank back-and-forth with clients who knew exactly what they were interested in at their chosen destination, be it a Dracula-themed trip to Romania or a pilgrimage to locate the exact spot where a loved one died in World War II.
It makes cents
So what’s all that service translate to in dollar signs?
There is typically no planning fee for any itinerary at Bainbridge Travel, Jones said. Agents primarily charge based on the number of plane tickets that must be booked — $50 per person per domestic flight and $60 per person for an international flight. Hotel bookings are usually free, minus a deposit when required. Ditto with rental cars.
“Depending on the trip, sometimes you can’t afford not to use a service,” Jones said.
Even as Jones and other travel pros have upped their game, calling on tried and true contacts and the knowledge of experience, Tolliver and Taylor said they’ve changed the offerings in their shop to keep up with the demands of more savvy customers as well.
“We started out about 50 percent books and maps,” Taylor said. “We have had to increase our inventory in, for instance, security devices, comfort devices; neck pillows, back pillows, these kinds of things.”
Maps were a particularly interesting aspect of the inventory, she added, as they seemed they might be the first to go, but were anything but.
“Everybody thoughts maps was going to go away, but it’s not easy when you’re traveling — you can get a map up on your iPad or whatever, maybe — but there are a lot of times when you’d like to be able to pull out a little [map].”
Tolliver said that Bainbridge Island is admittedly a special place, more
supportive of a dedicated travel shop than other communities might be, given the population is generally well traveled, educated and looking for something unique.
“People here are interested in the world and travel is a priority,” she said. “Right now, there is a lot of travel going on the island to, for instance, Greece, to help the refugees. This is the type of mentality you have on this island.
“People are looking for a more authentic or local experience and saving money,” she said. “What other community of this size would support a specialty store like this?”
Learn more about The Traveler at www.thetraveler.com, or visit the store’s new expanded location at 256 Winslow Way East.
The store has previously arranged trips in partnership with two Bainbridge-based agencies, which Tolliver and Taylor also recommend as informational resources: Earthbound Expeditions (www.earthboundexpeditions.com), with whom they recently organized an inaugural trip to Cuba, and also Cross Cultural Journeys (www.crossculturaljourneys.com), with whom they are currently planning an upcoming group trip to Iran.
Bainbridge Travel is located in the Pavilion at 403 Madison Ave. North, Suite 180. Call 206-780-5010 or visit www.bainbridgetravel.com for more information.
Additional travel resources recommended by The Traveler on and around Bainbridge Island:
Worlds Away Safaris www.worldsawaysafaris.com
Grand Asian Tours www.grandasianjourneys.com
Orbridge Tours-USA www.orbridge.com
Painting workshops in Italywww.winslowartcenter.com
Italian Inspirations www.italian-inspirations.com
Ashlee RedfernCulinary tours
Murat TasdemirTours to Turkey
Linda WolfRetreats to Mexico
Kathie McCarthyCamino de Santiago excursions
Sue SutherlandScottish pilgrimages
