SOUTH Africa is following international trends and ditching the term ‘travel agent’ in favour of titles and designations that better reflect the job spec as it is today. Some of the most popular alternatives, based on a recent poll by Travel News, are travel consultant and travel professional.
In a recent Travel News poll asking readers what they want to be known as, 206 votes were cast. Travel consultant (33%) and travel professional (31%) scored the lion’s share of votes.
Travel adviser was the third most popular choice with 15% of the vote; 8% of readers chose travel expert. Only 7% chose travel agent and 6% wanted none of the choices mentioned above.
Otto de Vries, Asata CEO, said he was extremely encouraged by the outcome. Asata didn’t have a preference, De Vries said, but believed there was a certain stigma travel agents needed to shake off. He is also happy that travel professionals (or consultants) are seeing themselves in a different light. “There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong answer in terms of what we should be calling ourselves. The poll shows we are not best described in terms of what we do and our value proposition if we continue to use words like ‘travel agent’.”
De Vries continued: “I’m not assuming I know why other people don’t like the name ‘travel agent’, but when I think about it, we used to act as an agent on behalf of suppliers. Those suppliers were the principals and we were the agents. We made our money by selling on behalf of suppliers and collecting commissions as their agents. Consultants or travel professionals are very different to what they used to be.”
Rachael Penaluna, Sure Maritime Travel Business Manager, said: “The last thing any of us want to be called any more is an ‘agent’. It is archaic in our time. Travel professional is what we all use at Maritime, and I believe most of the Sure Group do too.”
Penaluna felt it was important for the industry to find a way to agree on a standardised professional designation. “We are front and centre for the first time in a long time, and I believe that customers identify well with a standard. It also eliminates the Junior, Intermediate and Senior thing and the connotations attached to those.”
Flight Centre Travel Group South Africa (FCTGSA) refers to its consultants as Travel Experts. However, there has been a shift since the COVID-19 pandemic. Roxy Gonsalves, FCTGSA Recruitment, Internal Comms & Brighter Futures Team Leader, explained: “We started using the designation ‘Travel Expert’ as our people had a wealth of product knowledge, destination knowledge, technical skill, customer service skill and so much more to offer. At the time, Travel Expert seemed fitting. Since COVID, however, we have seen first-hand how customers need support and guidance when navigating a complex travel landscape. We have started to adopt Travel Consultant once again, as we believe this encompasses the support and duty of care demonstrated daily by our team, in addition to the expertise they possess.”
Gonsalves added: “We invest heavily in skills development and on-going training, ensuring that our people are experts in everything they do.”
The Travel Assignment Group (TAG) also uses the term Travel Consultant. Jonathan Gerber, TAG CEO, did not see much scope for a one-size-fits-all industry label. “We are all independent and lots have their own ideas. This is the day and age of free spirits and thinking, so it’s impossible to standardize.”
However, De Vries was interested to see if the poll and fresh conversations about preferred new titles could be the catalyst for an industry-wide shift.
“Travel adviser speaks strongly to how the sector perceives itself. The only comparison we have in terms of where this has happened was about four years ago in the US. Members of the industry, with intent, changed their titles to Travel Advisor. ASTA, the American Society of Travel Agents, then became the American Society of Travel Advisors. They made a definite choice to switch out from being travel agents, and the term isn’t used in the US at all any more.
“I do think it would be useful if there were some global continuity. If we were suddenly all going all over the shop with different titles, I’m not sure that would serve us very well. I’m really pleased with travel professionals. Advisers, counsellors, I’m not precious. Anything but travel agent!
“Noting the Americans have already switched out to adviser, would there be an appetite to follow suit?” asked de Vries.
Would you like to see a permanent change to the title ‘Travel Agent’ in South Africa? If so, should we follow US trends and adopt the term ‘Travel Adviser’ globally?
Share your thoughts with the editor (katen@nowmedia.co.za) or leave your comment below.
