These days, the what matters more than the how

by Yeoh Siew Hoon

On Sunday, I spent 15 hours on the road from Penang to Singapore. I had plenty of time to listen to the radio. Most of it was rubbish. I will be glad if I never hear Taylor Swift again.

There was one sentence I remembered though, uttered by a deejay whose name I can’t.

He said something like, “Do you know that for those born in 2011, they will never know a video tape, fax machine, books, newspapers, magazines” and in that list, he included “a travel agent”.

A day or two later, I am sitting at a media lunch organised by Abacus International to announce record growth for last year and how Asia Pacific is set to be the global powerhouse for travel.

And inevitably, a question was asked which is asked at every press conference or event related to travel agents. “Will the travel agent survive?” given the speed at which technology and, in particular, the smartphone is changing everything.

Brett Henry, Abacus vice president of marketing, fielded the question – which I am sure he’s done more times than he cares to remember. (It must be a bit like Eagles being asked to play “Hotel California” each time they perform, even if it’s during a tour to promote a new album. “You can check out anytime you like but you may never leave…”)

Henry said that “aggregating content and managing complexity” is the most important job in the world and that will never change, no matter the technology or the times we live in. People will always pay for that service, but how it’s performed and delivered may change.

So, bottomline is, the need for an intermediary like travel agent will always be there, just in a different form or shape.

Henry then likened it to journalists who too have to find new relevance in this Golden Age of the Consumer – so called by Ariana Huffington, the woman who just sold her Huffington Post for US$315 million to AOL which is clearly struggling to remain relevant as well.

Henry said the basic purpose of what journalists do remains the same – “aggregating content and distilling information”.

During the 15-hour drive, I had plenty of time to reflect on that as well – with the year of the Rabbit upon us – and it’s still Chinese New Year mode for us here till Feb 17, I found myself wondering what groove I should be hopping onto this year.

My work as a journalist has changed beyond recognition, from when I first started in a little office in Penang Road, working for the Straits Echo.

I barely know what I am these days. In fact, I struggle for an answer when people ask me “what do you do?” and I find that traditional labels rarely work anyway in today’s world where everything’s being mashed up.

The key though is not to get so hung up about that question. It’s okay if you don’t fit into any box.

The most important thing to remember is what is at the core of what you do. The tools may have changed, along with the labels but the core of what I do remains the same – creating content and communicating it in context.

Just the how of it has changed – there are now many more platforms to use to communicate and you just have to pick the ones that work best for the particular audience.

And this is what I think every profession, be it travel agencies or journalists or hoteliers, need to be clear about in this new, wild age of distribution, marketing and technology and as we ride out the changes – what is it you do, be good at that and the how will then follow.

For the Eagles, by the way, it’s always been about making good music.

Yeoh Siew Hoon is Editor At Large
Web In Travel/The Transit Café