Become a Travel Agent

Surfing and Home Based Travel Agents
Tom Ogg

I was recently escorting a NACTA cruise seminar to the Mexican Riviera aboard Celebrity’s Mercury and had taken my surfboard to enjoy Mexico’s prolific surf. A group of us had made the 40 kilometer trek north from Zihuatanejo to a surf spot known as La Saladita. It is a regional class left point and luck was with me, as it was breaking with 6-foot sets. I bummed a ride from some fisherman in a panga out to the reef and immediately took priority in the line-up. With limited time to enjoy the surf, I had to make every moment count. After a few waves there was a lull and I sat waiting for the next set. I started thinking about my life as a surfer.

I started surfing in 1958 and decided that it would be a major part of my life.  I began making surfboards in 1960 and had my own surfboard shop (Oggie Doggie Surfboards) while I was still in high school. I lived in my surf shop and finished high school and then sold it so I could go surfing. This was about the time surfing exploded in popularity. Initially, the surf community was a tight knit group of souls that loved the ocean, nature and exhilaration surfing provides. I guess this was why it became fashionable to identify with the sport. Overnight everyone started selling surfboards and a whole generation grew their hair long, donned baggies, purchased a surfboard and became “surfers”. Everywhere you looked, people were driving around in woodies with surfboards hanging out the back, and of course they didn’t actually go surfing, they just liked the image it projected. It was incredible to see surfer-looking people with surfboards mass produced by retailers such as Sears and Roebuck driving around pretending to surf. It was such a huge fad; I had no idea where it was going.

The fad stopped just as quickly as it started. The cadre of “surfers” moved on to the next fad, the surfboard retailers exploiting the fad went out of business and were stuck with huge inventories of surfboards no real surfer would ever consider buying, and the core group of surfers and surfboard shapers were the only ones left to enjoy the solitude of the surf and the brotherhood all surfers understand. It was an amazing phenomenon to experience. It has happened several times since, in fact, surfing is currently in a fad state, but I know it will only be a short time until the peripheral crowds move on, leaving only the core group that are committed to the sport.

The lessons of surfing remind me of the reality of business in general. I started thinking about the home-based travel agent phenomenon. Well over a decade ago it became obvious that many leisure agents would not be able to maintain the overhead imposed by operating an ARC appointed storefront and that a new business model would emerge. As the airline sector moved away from retail travel agency distribution in favor of e-documents and direct settlement and the confluence of a rapidly growing Internet based distribution channel, the economic reality of retail distribution costs and world events accelerated the evolution of home-based travel agents. They closed their storefronts, high-graded their client base and moved home to a more effective and profitable business model.

Almost overnight, home-based travel agents became everyone’s darling. While it became apparent to those in the know that most of the retail distribution system that was evolving to a home-base, had done so, others were just discovering the development and were caught up in the excitement of the new reality. Just like the surfboard manufacturers trying to exploit the popularity of surfing, there seems to be lots of people trying to exploit the popularity of the home-based travel agent market. New home-based travel agent seminars, trade shows, magazines and associations are popping up everywhere. This always seems to be the sign that a fad has matured. So how does one know how to avoid being caught up in the fad? Here are some realities to ponder.

…As always, the measure of a home-based travel agent is yield and productivity, just like it was when storefront agencies were predominant.

…The home-based travel agent market is finite. There are not hundreds of thousands of home-based travel agents out there that have not yet been identified. At best, there may be as many as 75,000 of them who are already connected to the travel industry through existing channels.

…The most productive home-based travel agents were here before the transformation as storefront travel agents. They are seasoned professionals with existing buying habits and loyalties.

…The core group involved in the home-based travel agent evolution was here before it began, during the metamorphous and will be here long afterward.

…Don’t be quick to jump on the next “new thing.” Just like a real surfer can tell the difference between a hand shaped surfboard built by a professional shaper and a knock off sold at Costco, home-based professionals know the difference between the core group and those simply exploiting the fad.

Ooops, here comes a set. I gotta go.

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