Travel Agencies VS Publishing Industry
Abraham Cheng
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. BC
Publishing 401
Evolution has impacted many industries, but one that I figured was hit just as hard as the publishing industry is the travel industry. Not only are technology and the Internet replacing travel agents, the way we travel and the systems we use are being replaced too. The internet has created many beneficial ways that save us time and money but these have also been detrimental to travel agents. Some have to learn to adapt and evolve with technology, or end up dying. There are changing markets that have come into play and through looking at the history of the travel industry, we can see when it changed and how it is similar to the publishing industry.
Just the other day I was helping my mother book a flight to Hong Kong and she was rambling on about how hard it used to be to book a flight and find cheap tickets and that lead me to think of how the travel agencies have been greatly affected by technology. For my parents, when they need to find a place to travel to, they still go to a physical location to find a place to go to. Maybe it is because they are still stuck in the past or it is because they find that talking to someone that speaks the same language is easier. For my generation and I, I think it is easier to find places to go to via Groupon or just online where there is an organized list of places with the prices for everything all laid out.
A service that recently came out is AirBnB. I have only used AirBnB once, but I highly recommend it for anyone to use. I make most of my money through buying and selling on Craigslist and AirBnB reminded me of the same experience. The process of going through and looking at the price range of the rooms and looking at the photos and description was exactly like when I look for things to buy on Craigslist. AirBnB is successful as a new company because it is a travel/hospitality service but it is also connected to the use of social networks. When connected with Facebook, you can see the mutual friends you have in common with the owner, and even with one mutual friend, it makes it that much more acceptable or comforting to live in their home. After reading good reviews and seeing the pictures, I decided to go for the place. It was so much better than a hotel as it was very homey and welcoming and the hosts even gave me an apple because she knew I had lost my apple at the airport. As a popular communications scholar notes, “Even behavior that has existed before – such as sharing information with our friends and family, or connecting with people who have similar interests – becomes qualitatively different when hunders of thousands or even tens of millions of people are involved” (Shirky, 2008)
In 1976, travel agents were the first to offer their services and always the first point that customers went to for travel tips. Gasson notes that By 1985 the first business oriented computer could be used to allow consumers to access airline and hotel rental reservations directly. (2014) In 2001, a technology group known as SABRE took over the travel market and connected 60,000 travel agents around the world and provided content from 450 airlines.
In the mid 1970s when technology started to impact travel agents, technology soon changed the way travel agents complete a transaction to give better information on pricing and availability. Travel agents were essential to the process of booking a flight because they had access to technology that allowed them to be able to connect the consumer to a flight easier and connect them to an airline that would not be available to them otherwise. A lot of time and training was required to use these complex and direct reservation systems. For travel agents, technology at that time had made things much easier and faster for the consumer but would also lead to being a significant threat to their jobs.
With the widespread of the Internet, airlines are cutting out the middle man much like in the publishing industry. The cost between doing an online transaction between a consumer and an airline is much lower than having a travel agent to do the same work for the airlines. In the publishing world, authors could also begin to not deal with agents and commissioning editors, but with the companies that sell their work directly to the public. Amazon had bought print and digital rights to bestselling self-help author Timothy Ferriss’ next book. JK Rowling also had a Pottermore website that became the only outlet for the eBook versions of Harry Potter. (Vince, 2011) the publishers polish up the author’s books and with marketing and publicity, they should be used a lot to get books pushed out but they are not because of companies like Amazon that get stock moving and push prices down. While publishers give away their margins and authors are suffering because of it, authors will want to cut out publishers and just try and get their book to something like Amazon. Much like Amazon undercutting prices, Airlines are able to offer discounts on bulk purchases as well for many different routes and travel classes for corporate customers.
A trouble for travel agencies are that they are now faced with consumers that think they know a lot about travel booking because they did their research. The travel agent then has to enhance their knowledge further on the travel package. While technology has made it easier and faster to book a ticket for the travel agents, it is also the same technology that is getting rid of travel agents. Internet booking engines can do price comparisons quickly and it is very easy to act as their own travel agent. Even with this technological pressure and direct vendors, “travel agents are still responsible for almost 77% of the total cruise bookings, 55% of air travel bookings and 73% of travel package bookings.” (Travel Technology Solutions, 2014) There are many successful travel agencies that are not on the verge of dying because they have evolved with technology and used it to their advantage. With the use of smart phones, some travel agents can keep in touch with their clients through mobile devices or through the web even during their trip to access all their venues, airlines and hotels quickly to make sure the customer has the best trip.
The role of a travel agent is typically to: arrange transportation, prepare individual itineraries and tours, arrange hotels or resort accommodations and handle and advise on the details of the trip. Customers used to visit their travel agents to purchase travel tickets or gather information for their vacation. With the Internet as a new technology, customers soon discovered that they could search for their own destinations and purchase it themselves. It is really easy for anyone to use the Internet for travel arrangements with sites such as Expedia or Travelocity. Those that do not evolve with technology will fade. Reasons that more traditional travel agencies will die out against the Internet are because of the obvious convenience of planning at home. Travel agencies may even be afraid to enter the online market because the commissions to be made are so low. Airlines are then cutting or eliminating commissions by cutting out the travel agents and can offer reduced costs when ordering online tickets.
In 1978 when the Airline Deregulation act was put through, it caused a massive shift and changed the structure and role of the travel agencies. There were strict rules on how travel agencies were to sell air tickets prior to the act. (Cheung, 2011) Travel agencies would only handle leisure traveling. Globalization made a change in how travel agencies gained advantage amongst competition. With the increased competition through globalization and deregulation, this changed the travel agencies significantly. Reservation systems have become more cost effective and flexible, decreasing costs of air fare and offering easier access to destinations. Customers were becoming more knowledgeable because of the Internet and the customer’s demands would increase. With the globalization and deregulation, travelers realized they could save a lot of money. The speed of technology made it easier to access more buyers and made it less expensive to operate creating opportunities for consumers. As globalization creates more competition for travel agents, it also creates more competition with publishers. When a new company comes into your country, there is a threat to your company. Local publishers have to find a way to survive with the bigger newer company. The big sellers will try to dump their style on oversea companies. “one of the big under-reported stories of last year is why Penguin and Random House merged – because they fit together like a puzzle piece overseas and each complements the other almost perfectly on an international scale” (Biba, 2013) It markets itself as the world’s first truly global trade book. Biba also goes on to say that when Kobo announced a deal with a Brazilian company, Google and Amazon both opened a Brazilian eBook store shortly after. Amazon has opened a store in India and starts the pricing in Rupees giving competition to the locals. Globalization opens up new opportunities. This added competition has made huge impacts on Tourism and in publishing industries. With the widespread technology and communication, systems have become more flexible and more cost effective, cutting the costs of products and often offering easier access. The spread of information tech has allowed easier access to find more knowledge and improved efficiency. There is increased demand for products. The impact of technology and the Internet has affected all operations in the travel industry and in publishing through globalization.
The role of the travel agent has changed dramatically over the recent years with the rise of the Internet. It has changed agencies to focus on online sales instead of having to go into a physical location wasting time and money. Travel agencies now have evolved with technology as it creates more advanced ways to travel and as new systems come in. There will still be a place for travel agencies and they are still surviving today, much like publishing industry but both industries will have to evolve both online and in the traditional sense of their industry.
References
Biba, P. (2013, February 13). Tools of Change – Publishing in the Age of Globalization. Retrieved October 7, 2015. From http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/tools-of-change-publishing-in-the-age-of-globalization
Carson, R. (2006, August 26). Tomorrow’s world. Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/aug/26/travelwebsites
Cheung, R. (2009). How Travel Agency Survive in e-Business World? Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/CIBIMA/volume10/v10n11.pdf
Gasson, S. (2014, July 8). The impact of E-commerce technology on the air travel industry. Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/28675337_The_impact_of_E-commerce_technology_on_the_air_travel_industry
The Impact of Technology on Travel Agencies. (2014, July 1). Retrieved October 1, 2015. From http://tts.com/blog/impact-technology-travel
Vince, I. (2011, August 21). It’s little surprise Amazon and authors are cutting out the middleman. Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/21/amazon-publishers
abethebabeblog 