Travel agencies 'thriving' despite Internet competition

Easy Internet access to airline tickets has had some impact on travel agencies, but the travel business is still alive and thriving because it offers the kind of service a Web site can't.

Single airline ticket sales are probably down, said Mike Wright of AAA Travel, based in St. Louis with a local office in Cape Girardeau.

"But that's because of any number of reasons," he said.

Travelers who want to buy an airline ticket don't necessarily have to go to an on-line travel service, Wright said. Most airline companies now have their own Web sites and sell their own tickets. Where it has impacted the travel agencies, Wright said, is that there are no longer any incentives for them to sell airline tickets. Airlines no longer offer commissions to travel agents.

Wright said that sales volume for AAA went up significantly in 2005, and is doing just as well in 2006. Carolyn Kempf owner of Elite Travel Agency in Cape Girardeau said she's having a record year. What sets the travel agencies apart, they said, is service. Any good travel agency, Kempf said, offers more than just a ticket to a destination.

Most of the online sources, she said, outsource their customer service departments, and don't offer the kind of personal attention a local agent can.

"If you had a problem, do you want to call someone in India," she said. "With a local agency your service is going to be 100 times better because it's a local company with local values."

Local travel agencies sell knowledge, added Vicki Baumann, an agent with Travel Horizons in Perryville, Mo.

"We can find the best fares," she said. "There might be an airport closer to where they want to go that we can suggest. If they want to change their rate or change the date, we can help them with that."

A customer may think he's saving money by booking his own flight online, but Kempf said the average savings is maybe $20 or $25.

"Having someone local available to you seven days a week, with 20 years experience is worth $25," she said.

Because travel agents travel and have actually seen the destinations, Kempf said, they know which hotels are the nicest, which areas are safest, and which areas to avoid.

"Most people are looking for the truth," she said. "The Internet cannot be truthful. They can make a place look like the Taj Mahal and it can be a dump. [An Internet site] is not going to talk to you for two hours about what to do in Florida."

Wright and Baumann said they have noticed some customers who went over to the Internet sites come back because they missed the personal service. Kempf said in her agency some people have taken that a step further than she actually likes.

"People call us and want us to clean up their garbage," she said. "We get calls all day long: 'I was on line and now the dates are all wrong.' 'I see bad stuff happening; should I stay here?' I'm not here to fix their mistakes.

"People come back because we guarantee a god experience. They tell their friends and family. That tells you you're doing something right, doing what you need to do to keep clients happy."