Travel agencies should charge for services — Joe Issa

Joe Issa, the executive vice president of the SuperClubs hotel group, has proposed that Jamaican travel agents charge clients for consultations �" in much the same way as lawyers and doctors do �" in an effort to maximise earnings in a difficult market.

Issa’s suggestion, made at a function Saturday night at which SuperClubs honoured its travel agent partners, came against the backdrop of a rise in outfits that allow travelers to book flights and whole vacations on-line, sometimes after they had gathered information from travel agencies.

“Basically, the world around us is changing and we all need to work together to embrace that change in a way that creates innovative ideas so that this present and everlasting change will not consume us,” Issa told the agents at SuperClubs Grand Lido Braco hotel in Trelawny.

Added Issa: “These ever-changing challenges have given rise to Travelocity and Expedia, which allow customers to shop with a travel agent but book online after they [travel agents] have done their due diligence.”

He stressed that technology-driven outfits Travelocity and Expedia were a fact of life, so travel agents, whose numbers have dwindled sharply in the past two decades, had to find ways to respond if they are to stay alive.

Travel agencies mostly earn their incomes in commissions, paid by airlines and other businesses, for making sales on their behalf.

But these commissions have been declining in recent years in the face of competition, and in the case of airlines, declining business and heavy losses since September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Most airlines now pay a commission of six per cent, down from nine per cent.

Yesterday Pamela Fenton agreed with Issa’s suggestion and indicated that some agencies were already charging fees for some of the services they provide. Normally, those who charge, apply a US$15 processing fee. They also have a schedule of fees for services not directly related to bookings.

But Fenton, whose own firm, Jetaway Travel applies such charges, suggested that some travel agencies were fearful to follow suit.

“Some agencies don’t want to burden the consumers unduly,” she said. “Some are fearful they will lose business as a result. But it is not so for some agencies who have been doing it, and their customers understand and they appreciate what we do and the help that is offered.”

Issa, who told the travel agents that they would have to band together to push through innovations, said that travel agencies could start with low rates and increase over time.

But the agencies, he suggested, could omit fees once a client booked through them.

“For repeat and loyal customers, then, obviously there would be no charge,” he told the Business Observer.