Travel industry needs injection of younger agents
The travel industry needs an injection of younger agents to attract millennials and to understand how they want to book and research their trips.
That’s the view of InteleTravel president James Ferrara, who said over 25% of its agents are millennials and the number is rising fast.
In a video interview with TravelMole (see video below), he said: "I’ve met agents in their early 20s who have hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram. They are social media influencers, they swim in that world and are figuring out how to monetise that through selling travel."
He said these younger agents think in more current ways, taking advantage of new technology and social media.
"But they also understand how millennials make their decisions, how to communicate with them, what platforms they use, what messages are they open to, and what role they want to play in the travel booking process," he explained.
He said recent research by cruise body CLIA, not yet widely released, showed the number one reason why younger people don’t use travel agents to research and book their travel is because they think they can do it themselves, and they actually enjoy doing it.
"By telling them that we want to do it for them is alienating them. They want to be part of the process," said Ferrara.
"We need to shift our message in those markets. Unlike baby boomers who want things done for them, millennials want to partner with us on the travel research and booking process."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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