Oasis Travel managing director Sandra Corkin has revealed the agency is trying to place greater focus on tailor-made trips and reduce its proportion of package holiday bookings.
She shared the Northern Ireland-based business’ approach during a discussion about the modern-day role of the travel agent at Travel Weekly’s Future of Travel conference.
“We will continue to sell package holidays, but I find myself less and less invested in that as the future of our business,” said Corkin (pictured).
“It’s more about what we can create and how we can inspire our customers. It’s about the long-haul stuff and the exciting stuff.”
She said the business had been moving away from mainstream package trips for the past decade or so, partly driven by the need to cut into commission earnings in order to match direct pricing from operators that do not offer price parity.
“We have our own Atol and we use it, and we have our net deals with the cruise companies and try to be creative about what we’re offering people pre and post-cruise,” said Corkin.
She added she did not view package holidays as key to Oasis Travel’s future because “anybody” can book them.
Travel Village Group chief executive Phil Nuttall also said he was striving to make sure agents avoid their role being reduced to that of “order takers” when they are busy.
“I’ve got to stop them falling into order-taking,” he said. “They’re inspirational travel people.”
Training on behaviour and product would be vital in encouraging creativity, he added.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of The Advantage Travel Partnership, which recently ran a survey asking for views on the term ‘travel agent’, said agents had to be recognised for the “full professional service” they deliver.
The term ‘travel consultant’ emerged as the favourite in the survey.
“‘Travel agent’ has a very old-fashioned connotation to it,” said Bue-Said, who added that the world had evolved since the term’s creation and travel professionals were much more innovative these days.
Photo credit: Alex Maguire Photography