History of Travel Retailing
From an Educational Perspective

First of all, for those of you probably reading this, there was a time before the Internet, personal computers, faxes, toll-free telephone numbers and telecommunications. It was called the 1960s. I started in the travel industry in the late 1960s and lived through the changes in the travel industry. Here is what changed and how it affected the education that was necessary to prosper as a travel agent.

1960s
In the 1960s, if you wanted to book a trip to Europe, you would have found the Europe travel agent specialist in your area and made an appointment with them to consult about your trip. Only the wealthiest people would have done this. They charged service fees and were well worth the fees because they knew the destination they were selling very well.

Agents had to know all aspects of airline ticketing and faring and hand-wrote airline tickets (and other accountable documents) from scratch. A successful travel agent was one that had substantial tenure in the travel industry and a wealth of personal knowledge of travel agency operations. Then travel agents were an extension of the airlines and were bound to represent their interest.

Education necessary: Travel agents relied upon a wealth of personal experience and industry contacts. ICTA (The Institute of Certified Travel Agents) came into existence in the mid-1960s to grant the professional designation of CTC (Certified Travel Consultant) to those that met the qualifications. ICTA became a very influential organization almost over night. An agent had to be competent in all aspects of travel agency operations to obtain the designation. Understand though, that there was basically no marketing of travel taking place, only the process of documentation and settlement on behalf of the ATC and IATA airlines..

1970s
In the 1970s, if you wanted to get an airline ticket, you could go to the airport and wait in line with the rest of the folks, or you could go to a local travel agent who would call the airline on your behalf and make the reservation for you. They would then hand-write the airline ticket, collect payment and send you on your way. During the mid-1970s, some travel agents "qualified" to have an on-line connection to an airline's reservations system.

Travel agents were in the business of serving their clients for fees and commissions. The value to their suppliers was the act of settlement and documentation. Without travel agents, clients would have to visit airports to obtain and pay for their documents. In the early 1970s there were no toll-free telephone numbers and credit cards were few and far between.

Education Necessary: Travel agents needed in-depth training on the reservations process, airline ticketing, reporting, processing accountable documents and in the late 1970s, airline reservations systems (CRS/GDS) Attending travel school was necessary to obtain a job in the travel industry.

1980s
In the 1980s, if you wanted to take a vacation in Hawaii, you would go to a travel agent and book a pre-paid vacation. By the 1980s you may have had a credit card or paid with cash. The airline industry was in chaos because of the post-deregulation short-haul carrier's success. Some people were booking direct with the airlines and paying with credit cards, but ticket delivery was still an issue. Travel agents were being squeezed by the CRS/GDS distribution model. Toll-free telephone numbers were widely used at all levels of travel distribution.

Education Necessary: The GDS/CRS era continued and required travel agents to be competent at processing documentation on behalf of the airlines. All travel agents needed to be trained on airline ticketing procedures, CRS/GDS functionality and the reservations process.

1990s
In the 1990s everything changed. Airlines introduced "direct settlement" and "e-tickets" that would eventually eliminate the travel agent channel from the airline distribution mix. Hotels and Car Rentals would follow a little more cautiously. Deregulation had taken full effect and a created a whole new environment for entrepreneurs. Travel agents were being squeezed out of business for not being able to move market share or contributing value added services to the transaction. Most of the travel agents that felt a "right to commission" perished in the aftermath, while at the same time the roll of a travel agent, as a point of settlement and documentation evaporated. The commission caps came first and then were followed by the entire elimination of commissions in small steps.

It is important to understand why this happened. Airlines simply didn't need the services of settlement and documentation from the travel agent any longer. They could manage their relationships with their customers with frequent flyer programs, process reservations. documentation and settlement through their own web sites and they could reduce competition by eliminating the legacy distribution model that travel agents represented.

The move to a home-based environment from a storefront was obvious, as revenues streams from airlines vanished. There was no need to comply with the ARC standards for endorsement because an ARC appointment became irrelevant. Leisure agents, focused on complex leisure transactions, were the beneficiary of this evolution, as they could move home, high-grade their clients and make substantially more money than ever before.

Education necessary:
Basically, established agents making the move to a home-base needed the information on how to do it successfully. My books and seminars became the "hot topic" within the industry. No longer were knowledge of the GDS/CRS important. Sales skills and marketing were the critical element of a successful home-based travel agent. Each year that wore on, changed the landscape of travel distribution. Unfortunately, the mainstay of travel agent education was slow to pick up on the change. This is when I wrote a CTC module for ICTA (the Institute of Certified Travel Agents) about becoming home based. ICTA was lost, as to a direction because agents simply did not need the CTC designation to obtain jobs as agency managers. Productivity replaced operational knowledge

2000s
Travel agents had reinvented themselves as home-based travel agents n order to accommodate the necessary change created by the confluence of the economic realities imposed by the elimination of airline ticket revenue, technology and telecommunications. Operating from a home-base the lower overhead and increased productivity allowed them to continue in a business that was rapidly changing. They focused on "complex travel transactions" to insure their livelihood. At the time a "complex transaction" was one that was thought to mandate a human interface because of intelligence, experience or knowledge.

Education Necessary:
Knowledge of the CRS/GDS was no longer required, as the on-line booking engines and direct settlement gained popularity with consumers and agents alike. Home-based travel agents needed solid product knowledge in order to be able to survive. Airlines, hotels, car rentals and many tour companies had their own booking engines and direct settlement processes, which eliminated the need for an intermediary to effect a transaction. Further, as younger travelers became more influential in the purchase/settlement transaction, on-line processing promised to become even more prevalent.

2004
Contextual advertising introduced by Overture and perfected by Google began its dramatic impact on connecting the consumer with the supplier like never imagined before. Using contextual advertising, even the smallest supplier could reach a focused market world-wide and the reality of vertical integration and direct marketing (bypassing an intermediary) starts affecting all travel agents who count on their knowledge of complex leisure transactions.

Educations Necessary: It is mandatory for travel agents to embrace the web to evolve their own content-rich corners on the Internet, as a whole new opportunity unfolds in the form of affiliate revenues.

2008
Artificial intelligence is encroaching on the home-based travel agent's sacred ground. Artificial intelligence and dynamic packaging is able to discern the differences of product, experience, likes and dislikes and myriad criterion to compete with a travel agent. While home-based travel agents have the advantage of relationships, it is obvious that they must move to embrace a whole new era.

Education Necessary:
A home-based travel agent in 2008 must possess relationship building skills along with knowledge of the Internet, the affiliate distribution model and e-commerce. The more traveled an agent is, the more successful they might be evolving a community-based environment. Knowledge of the CRS/GDS, ticketing and faring, orthodox travel agency operations and such are simply irrelevant. Having a CTC in 2007 is meaningless. Yet, having knowledge of web publishing opportunities, travel products and destinations is paramount.