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Travel agents DES MOINES, Iowa -- For Christine Riccelli and Andy Ball, a vacation is never more than a mouse click away.
changing with times
They're diversifying as
'Net competition growsFrom staff and wire reports
The Des Moines couple are among the growing number of U.S. travelers who book their trips on the Internet -- a few clicks to get their airline seats, a few more to reserve their hotel room. In a matter of minutes, their arrangements are made -- without an intermediary.
"Andy and I don't even have a travel agent," Riccelli said. "I'm not sure of the last time we used a travel agent."
That's not what travel agents want to hear, but it's a reality they're facing. With so many travel options now available on the Web and airlines paying smaller commissions, travel agencies must change to keep up or face the possibility of going out of business.
Some agents have already lost the battle and closed.
From 1996 through the end of last year, the number of travel agencies nationwide fell 4.5 percent, according to figures from the Airlines Reporting Corp., a ticket distribution service for airlines.
In Hawaii, the ranks have fallen roughly 13 percent -- to about 260 from 300 -- over the same time, said Ginger Kolonick, Hawaii field representative for Airlines Reporting, which gets the numbers from its own list of designated agents.
Most local agents, however, attribute that drop to cuts in commissions from airlines, and not competition from the Web.
Unlike on the mainland, customers here still want to know their agents personally and won't book through the Web, said Rachel Shimamoto, past president of Hawaii's chapter of the American Society of Travel Agents and vice president of Travel Ways. Her customers surf the Net to check out competing prices, not buy tickets, she said.
But that could change, Shimamoto noted, if Orbitz debuts later this year as planned.
Orbitz is a proposed airline ticket Web site backed by American, Delta, United, Continental and Northwest. Twenty-three other airlines have said they would join as affiliates.
If such a big consortium gets off the ground, Hawaii's agents could begin facing the same pressures as their mainland counterparts, Shimamoto said.
Meanwhile, the Travel Industry Association of America estimates that $4.7 billion worth of travel will be booked online this year, and that figure is expected to jump to $8.9 billion in 2002.
Travel agents, according to ASTA, booked $130 billion worth of travel last year and still write 80 percent of all airline tickets and book 98 percent of all cruises.
To keep that business, travel agents are being challenged to offer more than what customers get on the Web.
Shimamoto said agents have to prove themselves to be more helpful than searching the Web. "They only thing we have to sell is the service portion," she said.
ASTA is helping members move away from selling point-to-point airline tickets to selling entire vacation packages that include air, hotel and tours, saving clients time and, hopefully, money.
Agents are also finding creative ways to bring in revenue. All About Travel in Mission, Kan., can provide satellite phones to clients who are changing locations frequently so they can always be reached at one number. It also can set a traveler up with a hand-held unit the agency can beep if it receives word of a last-minute change by an airline.
"Travel agents were the very first automated entity in business. We've been on the computer for 20 years," said Kathy Sudeikis, spokeswoman for All About Travel and secretary of ASTA. "So it's not a big stretch for us to go into the next generation."
Some agents have decided to specialize in a particular kind of travel such as cruises, or particular customers, such as school groups. "One of our agents specializes in diving and has found a wonderful niche," said Doris Green of Nina Travel in Miami Shores, Fla. "If he gets requests for anything else, he just turns it over to the office."
All About Travel has an agent who specializes in Disney properties. "If people are interested in that, they can talk to somebody who eats, sleeps and talks Disney," Sudeikis said.
Rather than shun the Internet as a threat, many agencies have embraced it. More than half of ASTA's members have Web sites and 90 percent have e-mail, association president Joe Galloway said.
Diana Lynn Rau is one who operates in cyberspace. Working in Fraser, Colo., she was booking a trip to Nepal for a group in Alaska, communicating with her clients through email.
"I've worked with people in Germany and other places internationally," Rau said. "That's where the Web and Net has broken down all sorts of borders. We need to take advantage of that."
But savvy travelers like Riccelli and Ball prefer to do it themselves. "If you're starting from scratch, it can be daunting and a waste of time," Riccelli said. "Once you get it and know which sites are easy to use, then it's quick and efficient."
Riccelli and Ball are experienced travelers who average four trips a year, often to Europe or the Caribbean. She is a former newspaper travel editor; he belonged to United's 100,000-mile club when he traveled for business. But agents tell stories of frustrated customers who ended up buying two or three tickets online when they just wanted one, and who then ran to an agency for help. But it turns out that agents can't make changes in tickets booked online.
ASTA tries to address that with its slogan: "Without a travel agent, you're on your own."
"The way we look at it is we're saving them time," said Nancy Chavannes, who operates Travel Services Unlimited in Des Moines. "We can search all the airlines for the lowest price as opposed to them calling each airline."
The Associated Press and Star-Bulletin
reporter Tim Ruel contributed to this report.