KYTA - Know Your Travel Agent

Travel agents are dime a dozen. A small corner shop, a best friend's wife or a ticketing agent that your father always booked with in past, travel agents come in many forms and types. You have a family doctor, a financial travel planner then why not consider having a travel agent for your travel needs. Let me today give you an idea of different types of travel agents out there and you may identify the one to go with in times ahead.

Local Agent

A local agent is someone you can walk upto, talk to and buy anything and everything in travel. A local agent thrives on the proximity, visibility and is expected to sell you tickets (Rail, Bus, Air), do your visa, hotel bookings and even holiday packages.

A local agent is typically buys from bulk supplier of travel products and is able to present to you a "Standard" travel product.

Seasoned Travellers often have more than one local agent in their list and often pit these agents against each other for bargaining and getting the "Best Rate".

A local agent is hardly a travel buff and is more like a trader of travel products. Neither does he/she have an opinion nor is he/she well informed about what is being sold.

These local agents were backbone of the travel industry till Online Travel Agents (OTA) emerged in 2005. Question really is, in the day and age when everything is available virtually, do you really need the comfort of having a local agent around ?

Online Travel Agents OR OTAs

Online Travel Agents (OTAs) (e.g. Makemytrip) are basically virtual form of Local agent. You can book tickets (Air, bus, Rail), Hotels and even simple packages. They do not have any expertise of their own except that they aggregate reviews and general content that helps travellers making a choice. It completely lacks the proximity and human interface element, for a lot of travellers it is a convenient way to book simple elements of travel such as flights and hotels.

OTAs chose a direct B2C strategy. So instead of automating the local agent, it tried to bypass the agent and acquire customers direct. "Best Rate Online" perception that was created has been fought hard by traditional travel industry and stake holders have arrived at a strategy where everyone can co-exist.

OTAs are still not the place where customers are able to plan a complex holiday. Content is nor fully reliable and OTAs do not offer tools to wade through ever increasing complexity of choice for users to do everything online.

When OTAs work, It is a charm. You wonder why you wasted time with a local agent. However when it does not come off, shit really hits the fan. Online forums are filled with reviews of dissatisfactory customers and their horror stories. Lack of Human Interface and a credible grievance policy has been one of the biggest reasons why most travellers are still reluctant about shifting their loyalty to OTAs barring simple Flight and hotel reservations.

Fuzzy Agent

There are large travel websites that displays travel content and have excellent search engine rankings to grab your attention. So you are most likely to find them when searching online. The flip side is that they do not sell travel and are just "enablers" or leader generators for local travel agents. They make money when you place a requirement with them, however these entities take zero responsibility for what happens after that. Such platforms are online traps and best avoided.

Home Agent

Advent of Social media and increased awareness among population at large has given way to the Home Agent segment. It could be a best friend's wife or friends sister or a bank manager doing it by the side. These are Individuals who after a few trips felt they could monetise knowledge they acquired by impressing and pursuing those around to do exactly what they did. Such agents tend to have limited areas of expertise and are kind of part time in nature.

One thing to ponder for all serious travellers is that would you really trust a part-timer to plan a lifetime memory for you or you'd rather trust a full time professional.

Google Agent

A Google agent is one who has very little understanding of travel industry and have almost no experience of selling travel. Such organisations are typically founded by ex-Banker, ex-Techie or ex-digital marketing professional who enters the space assuming they can make a difference. Their entire knowledgebase, content and offering is based on what is available online i.e. Google research. So beware of swanky websites, amazing tech interfaces and suave sales teams. Instead of using tech to deal with the complexity, they try to oversimplify Sales processes and eventually fail to deliver. Their backend typically suck and beyond standard products they get found out sooner or later. So travellers please remember the old adage "Everything that glitters is not Gold".

Travel Consultant

Travel Consultants are a breed of passionate professionals who are dedicated to offering travellers good recommendation, excellent value and memorable experiences. Travel Consultants explore around extensively and are able to offer traveller profile specific recommendations and are ones to go to for complex holidays and special interest travel (such as Wildlife, Wellness, Offbeat / Experiential etc.).

Well heeled travellers understand value that a travel consultant bring to the table and therefore are able to engage with them to personalise the kind of travel they are looking for.

Travel Consultants are typically smaller and localised entities and it may be a process a genuine traveller to find a good Travel Consultant around them. Nivalink understood this and built itself as an Online version of Travel Consultant, where idea is to attract customers looking for specific experience from all over India (100+ Cities) and globe (60+ Countries) via authentic web content.

Well-heeled travellers opt for "well informed Travel" and "ease of travel" offered by Travel consultants over "ease of booking travel" offered by OTAs (preferred by "Online Happy" travellers).

Question to ask for everyone before engaging a Travel consultant is "is this travel complex enough to bother for a travel consultant to add any value". Travel consultants thrive on challenging assignments and thrive where they can make a difference. They also can take unusually long for what looks like a simple thing. So do not bother them with simple tasks that you or your local agents can easily do (such as booking a standalone Air Ticket).

Tour Operators

Tour Operators are ones that organise fixed departures (e.g. Kesari, Veenaworld, SOTC etc.) where you can join others on a trip pre-planned by these organisations. Such Tours are popular with Senior citizen travellers, first time travellers and those who prefer to travel in a group (with Indian Meals) instead of doing their own personalised trip. Tour Operators have big offices and big advertising campaigns that nullify any advantage of bulk purchase of travel they may have. So these are often more expensive and less convenient (A lot of on road travel involved) as compared to a travel consultant organised personalised travel.

Post Covid-19 Pandemic, most of these Tour Operators have been most notorious with their refunds. While hotels, transporters, Travel consultants, local agents all are refunding amounts for travel that did not happen due to the lockdown. However Tour Operators have been very poor here and this leaves a big question of why anyone should pay in advance for travelling with a Tour operator in future ?

Specialised Agents

There are agents who specialised in areas such as Adventure, Wildlife / Bird Watching conduct tours that offer an experience. These agents know little beyond these segments and often have an expert personally travelling with the group. Typical Group sizes here are smaller and the entire experience is most intimate.

Pricing of these specialised tours are higher as compared to a recommendation based travel organised by a travel consultant. The price is worth paying if you are looking for next level experience. However the space is getting crowded now with many bloggers, self styled "Experts" and Pseudo intellectuals getting in this space. You have to be sure of the pedigree of the expert before committing to it.

Remote local Agent

A lot of travellers assume that a local agent of the destination will offer a better rate and better services. Generally local agents look at travel from prism of their experience, which mostly is touristy travel. So if you are also a tourist then this assumption can be correct, however if you are a well-heeled traveller looking for specific experiences then you would be better served by a travel consultant who knows your style, pace and preferences.

DIY Agent

Last but not the least, DIY agent or your own self. Our ability to plan own travel varies and it is important to understand what can be done on own and whats needs an agent assistance. Your overestimation of own ability to plan travel can result into a poorly planned trip. So it is important to draw a line somewhere and find an agent (suited to your traveller profile and purpose of travel) that can serve you.

Summary

Like different doctors for different category patients, there are different travel agents for different travellers. It is time you recognise the kind of traveller you are and kind of travel agent you may need to engage in times ahead.