Travel Agents ?Horrified? and ?Appalled? By Woman?s Day Article Knocking Them Jul 16th 2013, 14:40
Travel agents are up in arms over a story on a women’s magazine website that recommends consumers book online because agents “may pressure you into booking less-than-stellar vacations or get you to spend more than necessary to up their take-home pay.” The article also alleges that agents “may fib about their travels to close a sale” and only recommend travel insurance “because it increases the price of the vacation package — and thus, their commission.”
Furious agents have shared the story, with appropriate commentary, through Facebook and other social media, while one particularly outraged agent launched an online petition through Change.org asking the magazine to retract the article or write a more balanced piece. It collected 100 signatures by early afternoon July 16, while the article on the Woman’s Day website so far had 430 comments, virtually all from travel agents.
One of those comments was from Stacy Small, president of Elite Travel International and a former travel journalist, who said she was “APPALLED at the lack of fact-checking that went into this piece and the obvious bias the writer has towards hard-working travel agents who are upfront with their clients (as we are) about our compensation. We work in the same fashion as old-fashioned sales people, real estate agents, and high-income earning financial planners. I have to laugh at how ludicrous your accusations are that we do NOT find the best rates for our clients and only care about selling products that up our commissions. It is a shame that you did not bother to research this piece talking to long-established agents (or our clients) or well-respected organizations like ASTA or Virtuoso but chose to focus on how to get the cheapest flights using kayak or travelzoo.”
Laura Frazier, owner of Bliss Honeymoons in Columbus, Ohio, started the online petition because she was “horrified” by the article. “So many agents are posting things on Facebook and the Woman’s Day website, but I really don’t feel in this situation that that’s enough,” Frazier said. “I really feel as though Woman’s Day allowed this person to trash our reputation and say things about our industry that are blatantly untrue. I think they are serious enough allegations that something more needs to be done. I would like to see Woman’s Day contact a reputable agent and interview us find out what we really do.”
Anita Pagliasso, president of host agency Ticket to Travel, shared the Change.org petition on her Facebook page. “Like most of us, I get weary of the media painting such a dim picture of our profession,” she told Travel Pulse. “That is why I shared the petition for retraction of the Woman’s Day article on Facebook. It seems that, except for social media, we don’t have one united voice for the thousands of professional travel consultants across the states. These types of articles are degrading and harmful not only to our livelihood and chosen occupation, but also to our industry. Travel agents work long and hard hours to build their clientele, book their travel with care, and then also have to fight battles to retain commission levels with the same suppliers that they are supporting, understand and comply with myriad regulations of seller of travel laws, bonding, trust accounts and now the new travel insurance regulations. Every time we turn around it seems that there is another battle to fight. This is an industry that is becoming fractured and needs to come together as a whole. Travel agents are some of the hardest working individuals you will ever meet. They need to be respected for the true professionals that they are, and it should start right within our own industry.”
Steve Cousino, owner of Journeys by Steve near Madison, Wis., agrees that agents need to spread a positive message about the industry. “The fact that articles like this continue to get published is a clear result of the poor outreach the travel agent community has done to the general public,” he said. “If we want these articles to stop, and to have people UNDERSTAND what we do, we need to do better. And we can’t do it individually; it has to be through our organizations: ASTA, CLIA, NACTA, and others. And it has to be 100 percent focused on the benefits of using a travel professional, rather than as part of a combined marketing strategy.”
But Frazier noted that many agents don’t join ASTA. “I think they’re saying ‘I’ll join ASTA when ASTA does something to support us,’ but ASTA does a lot behind the scenes that agents might not see,” she said. “It’s up to us take a pro-active approach and to blog about the things we do. I had a couple a few weeks ago who were stranded at airport on the way to their honeymoon, but the people at the gate said they could do nothing do for them for two days. We got them two first-class seats out that night, and the client sent me flowers. That never would’ve happened if they had booked online.”
Travel Pulse tried to contact an editor at Woman’s Day about the dispute, and received a response via email: “Thank you for your feedback. We’re closely reviewing all the comments that have come in on this web-exclusive story, which did not appear in the magazine. We’re sorry to have disappointed you, and we appreciate your patience as we look over everything.”
The article is also at odds with stories recommending travel agents that have been published by the highly regarded business publication Forbes and Washingtonian, the D.C. city magazine.
Scott Foresman Science
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