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Travel Agents Say Biz Good Again | Consumers return to firms for complex, international travel arrangements

Consumers return to firms for complex, international travel arrangements

With the advent of online travel sites, it seemed like travel agents are going the way of the Dodo bird or black and white television.

But after an admittedly bad period, local travel agents are reporting a resurgence of businesses as travelers make their way back.

The atmosphere has changed and agents are getting more inquiries in the past six months, according to Lokesh Sharma, the president-elect of the Connecticut chapter of the American Society of Travel Agents.

“People need confidence when they travel,” said Sharma. “They don’t want confusion. They want to know they have someone to go to that is looking out for them and can help when problems come up.”

Complications Arise

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While travelers may feel confident using online services to book domestic airflights, they seem to see a need for expert help when the arrangements become more complicated.

ASTA recently proclaimed that travel agents book 87 percent of all cruises and 81 percent of all tours and packages.

Those national numbers are reflected in Connecticut, where Sharma said international travel continues to spike and travel agents are taking advantage.

“For domestic trips, there has been a shift towards sites like Priceline.com or Travelocity.com,” admitted Sharma. “But people are worried about setting up trips to Europe like that. They want to be sure of what they’re doing.”

When the Internet sites first popped up, Sharma said many smaller travel agencies, especially ones that dealt with domestic trips, faced hardships that led to closures.

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“The playing field changed,” he said. “A lot of smaller operations either went out of business, moved out of an office to their homes or merged with other agencies.”

One of the significant hurdles agents faced was the lower rates airlines and hotels started to offer to those sites, which had previously been offered to agents. In essence, the ability to provide cheap fares was no longer solely in the purview of travel agents. As a result, travelers began flocking to the sites for both better prices and an easier, more efficient way to book travel.

In the past year, though, airlines and hotels have reduced the amount of rock-bottom prices offered exclusively through Internet sites and travel agents believe that the efficiency of online booking was vastly overrated.

“The prospective consumers found out the hard way that it’s not always easier,” said Sharma. “To find the best price on the Internet, you have to search several sites and it can be time-consuming when an agent can do that for you much quicker.”

International Chaos

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Specifically for international travel, Sharma said travelers who had made trips online had come back to travel agents after having problems or not getting the best deal.

Overseas travel, regardless of how the trips are booked, has been skyrocketing in recent years. The Travel Industry Association reported an 8.1 percent increase in travel to Africa, 7.6 percent to the Asia-Pacific region and 3.9 percent to Europe.

Martha Kirsche, owner of Wethersfield Travel and secretary of ASTA’s Connecticut chapter, agreed that international travel has fueled her business.

“We’re definitely busier than we’ve ever been,” she said. “We’re getting a lot of European trips and a lot of foreign travel.”

When she talks to new customers about their past travel experiences, Kirsche said she realized many had grown frustrated with online agencies.

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