ASTA's president and chief executive officer, Zane Kerby, and director of communications, Erika A. Richter, kicked off a media tour by traveling from their home office in Alexandria, Va., to New York City. They're making the rounds among media outlets to talk about ASTA's recently completed consumer research project, "How America Travels," and how it will affect ASTA's marketing efforts going forward.
The results of the association's latest market research project were released on May 2, one day before National Travel Agent Day. Certainly, as that day dawns ASTA has plenty to celebrate, and its new research bolsters it.
Travel agents are on a roll.
"The agent community is thriving," Richter told reporters at a press event. "Travel agents are thriving. Business is good for our members."
At the same time, ASTA has its work cut out for it, as its research also shows. With 42 percent of consumers surveyed having no opinion at all about travel agents, the association is obviously faced with a major task in getting its message out to the public.
At the same time, the evidence shows that there is a huge untapped market of consumers who have not used a travel agent and have virtually no reference points to them. Of those who have used a travel agent in the last 10 years, a whopping 80 percent have a favorable view.
The task is to move the 42 percent who have no opinion of travel agents into the column of those who use travel agents. The research data indicates that the market would be receptive if it can be reached.
"We learned from the survey that people are not really against travel agents," said Kerby, "they are more agnostic. They don't know where to find a travel agent at the time of purchase or when they are dreaming. ASTA has helped with that problem. We have travelsense.org. The traffic on Travelsense continues to rise. More than 50,000 people a month go there to find a travel agent or to look for travel advice."
[READMORE] READ MORE: Report Showcases Consumer Views About Travel Agents [/READMORE]
The effort to reach the agnostic public begins now.
"This week ASTA is kicking off some exciting new consumer awareness initiatives," said Richter. "Our new research study How America Travels gave us a chance to dig deeper into the public's travel experiences in order to understand what they're thinking and uncover trends that may impact the travel agent business. This is the first of hopefully many media tours - where we share our message to the broader public that not only are travel agents vibrant and strong, but they're continuously exceeding consumer expectations while changing the way the world travels."
Since Kerby arrived at ASTA four years ago, he has been trying to push research that will enhance the association's understanding of what makes the travel consumer tick.
"I felt it was really important to try to understand the consumer," he said. "As Wayne Gretzky said, 'You don't skate to where the puck is, you skate to where it is going to be.' This is our way of trying to help agents understand what consumer trends are out there so they can try to skate to where the puck's going to be, so they can meet the needs of consumers."
This year's research differed from past efforts in that it not only sent surveys to consumers to be completed electronically, it also spoke with focus groups around the country. Kerby said the in-person meetings provide insight that does not come through in electronic surveys.
"You learn things from people when you are sitting eyeball to eyeball," he said. "They are willing to say things to you that they don't put in a less personal electronic survey that they fill out from the comfort of their own home."
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One particularly bright spot in the research, Kerby said, was what it showed about millennials. They are suddenly the stars of the travel agent world.
"Millennials are using travel agents more than any other age demographic," Kerby said. "They've really come into their own. They are buying packages from travel agents in greater numbers than other groups. It feels that millennials are looking at the whole travel experience, saying, 'I'm not coming here to book my airline ticket or my hotel. Help me find the right things to do when I go to a particular destination.'"
Millennials are also becoming the face of business travel, Kerby said. Fifty-seven percent of millennial males took a business trip last year. And, surprise: millennials are also the group most likely to take cruises.
"If you thought cruises were just for the gray, like I am now, you are wrong," said Kerby. "Millennials are cruising in great numbers. And they are loving it. 90 percent of the millennials who took a cruise say they are going to go back. They are taking an average of a cruise every other year because they are so happy with their experience."
Another point for travel agents: the study showed that consumers surveyed believed travel agents save them money, by an average of $300 per booking.
But the focus groups also revealed another surprise: Consumers really enjoy planning trips.
"People said, 'I really like planning my trips,'" said Kerby, "and this is something that wasn't ferreted out in the electronic survey. They said, 'I love planning my own trips. It gives me a lot of pleasure. In fact, sometimes it's more fun planning than taking a trip.'"
To Kerby, this means that travel agents have to find a way to get into the planning process with the clients.
"What I would say if I owned a travel agency right now is that you have got to snuggle up to your customers," he said. "If you don't have a CRM [customer relationship management system] you should get one. A lot of times I think travel agents have a lot of tacit knowledge, but I don't have a sense being out and about talking to a lot of agency owners that it is written down and codified in a place that they can reference all the time. I think a good CRM is really important."
Following its latest consumer research, ASTA plans to modify its messaging.
"We're going to focus more on two things," said Kerby, "first, all the things around a trip that an agent does for you that will help ease your trip and make your trip better. And second, to try to insert themselves in that dreaming and planning process.
"They are not going to take away the consumer's ability to click around. Our messaging has got to be: 'Get out there and see everything you can see on the Internet and then come and talk to me. Or give me a call while you're doing it and let's plan this together.'
"Trying to insert travel agents into that dreaming and planning phase is really going to be a goal of our messaging this year."
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