Travel agents aren’t going the way of the Dodo just yet
Posted On November 29, 2019
With the advent of online travel tools that allow you to book a flight, rent a car, schedule a tour and find a hotel or AirBNB, it would seem that travel agents would follow milkmen and full service gas station attendance into obsolescence.
And yet, travel agents have survived.
Our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working With Cam Marston” tells us how. Bowden Sarrett, a vice president and travel advisory at Brownell Travel, says the key for her firm is creating personalized experiences.
“These days travel is so easy with a cellphone. You can go out on your own,” she says. “Our niche is for people who really want to plan ahead, who really want to have some structure, so that then when they do go off it’s in their planned off time.”
Brownell uses a process it calls “Discover More” to find out what each of its clients wants in a vacation: seeing the sights or lying by the pool, trying to do it all or as little as possible.
“Tell us what works and what doesn’t for you,” Sarrett says. “Everybody’s different.”
Sarrett shares which destinations are hot right now and which are on the rise, discusses travel etiquette and the problems with destination weddings, shares why private guides are often a good idea, and shares how personalized vacation planning can be the right option for a wide range of clients – from honeymooners to retirees, multigenerational families to single travelers.
Join us for a wide-ranging discussion about travel and how an agent can help you get the most out of your vacation.