Let Your Travel Agent Weave Magic for a Dream-Come-True Holiday
“DIY” is contagious; and there are good reasons why. In travel, tourists are lured to do away with travel agents because it is a lot cheaper. They are also empowered by the accessibility of travel information at the click of a mouse. This is in fact a trend in the past 15 years or so. According to PhocusWright, an industry research firm, “Fewer than 10% of leisure travelers now use a travel agent.”
If you are looking for adventure, has enough experience to plan and prepare travel well on your own, you have all the time you need, and you are on a tight budget, going DIY is a promising route. Remember to be thorough in your planning and booking; a mistake may turn out to be more expensive. That defeats your purpose.
If, however, you only have but a few days to relax and enjoy a vacation that you extremely need, you will do better if you will get a travel agent to arrange everything for you. Sure it may cost you more, but you are almost guaranteed to have everything arranged for you without lifting a finger.
There are many benefits when you deal with a well-connected and experienced travel agent. The “6 Reasons You Need a Travel Agent” written by Irene S. Levine and published in Forbes – Next Avenue Section will convince you that a professionally arranged travel is the best way to go, especially if you are looking at a complicated trip (international, challenging destinations, or with a child, elderly or differently-abled company). Consider the fact that today’s travel agents are not merely relegated to being booking agents or order-takers. They have expertise and connections to function as travel advisers.
How can you benefit from dealing with a travel adviser?
Dealing with so much information and making decisions can really daunt you, even if you are a seasoned traveller. A travel adviser can help you make informed decisions resulting in an enriching and safe travel. Levine cited these reasons:
Six Reasons to Use a Travel Adviser
… Here are six other reasons you might consider using a travel agent/adviser:
- You’re not a travel expert.
With their training — and being well-traveled themselves — good travel advisers can offer you options you might not have considered… If you book a cruise through an agent, he or she is likely to be familiar with various lines, sailings, cabins and excursions. Some agents even have subspecialties, such as riverboat cruising.
- You want to get it right.
Some trips are more complicated than others. For example, foreign travel is more complex than traveling to the next state. Or sometimes the stakes are too high to make a mistake… Even on city tours or shore excursions, an agent may be able to point you to the most knowledgeable and English-proficient guides.
- You don’t have advisers’ money-saving connections.
Travel agencies have consolidated and banded together into large consortia, affording them unusual leverage to negotiate with travel suppliers on behalf of their clients. For example, Virtuoso, one of the largest networks, (Signature Travel Network and Ensemble Travel Group are others) encompasses 340 travel agencies employing 8,900 travel advisers in 20 countries…
Levine also stressed that having a travel agent can save you time, anticipate and prepare a safety net when something takes a twist or goes wrong, and make the quality of your travel higher.
Just plainly researching to have enough options takes so much time. Travel agents are experts; they eat “travel stuff” for breakfast. They have all the essential connections to make your vacation a memorable one. They can pull strings when necessary.
They can “weave a magic” when you are caught in a bad situation. So many things can go wrong when you are away from home. Without a travel expert to assist you, you have to find every important contact number, make every call, and book every arrangement. With one, all you have to do call them up, and then sit back and relax while they do whatever it takes so can be safely extricated or rescued from a bad situation.
With their connections, you will be surprised to receive unexpected perks every now and then. Little perks make a travel more special.
With the Internet and competitive tourism, you do have options. One of that is going on a DIY route that has major benefits, as well as potential reasons for disappointments. With a busy life and the need for a rewarding holiday, you will do well with one that has been arranged by a travel agent. Just make sure you are getting yourself an experienced, well-connected and trustworthy one who has his clients’ interests close to his heart.