Posted on: Sunday, December 12, 2004
ASK AN AGENT
A business built on service, knowledge
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Travel Editor
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| Wendy Goodenow |
Wendy Goodenow has been in the travel business for more than 24 years, is a Certified Travel Agent and a Certified Adventure Travel Consultant. She is president/owner of HNL Travel Associates and president of the Hawai'i chapter of the American Society of Travel Agents, or ASTA, as her mother was in the 1980s.
Q. What is ASTA?
A. "ASTA is the professional organization of travel agents whose mission is to promote professionalism and profitability among member agents. We offer a lot of educational opportunities to our members." ASTA members are agencies and individuals who are authorized to issue tickets and who are fully bonded and licensed.
The extension of ASTA membership to home-based agents is a recent development made necessary by the number of brick-and-mortar agencies that have downsized, merged or gone out of business, Goodenow explained, and the inclusion of more individual agents — who may have fewer opportunities to pool information or call on others for their expertise — adds urgency to ASTA's educational mission, she said.
"The ASTA logo has always been the sort of 'Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval' for travel agents, so with changes in the industry, it's more important for us than ever to build the knowledge and skills of our membership."
Q. ASTA's World Congress was held in Hawai'i in 2002. What happens at these meetings?
A. "We've just been through some major changes in our meeting schedule. The World Congress in Montreal next year will be the last one of its kind. In the past, we've always combined education with a trade show (in which vendors — airlines, cruise lines, hotel chains, attractions, purveyors of guide services and such — roll out their latest offerings). But what we're finding is that, with budgets what they are now, vendors can't afford to do trade shows all over the world. So starting in '06, we will have one trade show rotating once a year between Las Vegas and Orlando. Our international meeting will be an educational invitational meeting."
Q. We've all heard about how much business travel agencies have lost to independent Internet booking of travel. What do travel agents have to offer?
A. "I have nothing to sell right now but service and knowledge. You can get the hotel reservations or the airline tickets anywhere. The biggest thing is that one-to-one relationship between the client and the agent, and the agent and the vendor. That is the most important tool ... when you're working with an agent who does have a long-term business history with the vendor, if a problem arises, they're going to be able to deal with it and resolve it.
"People who book on the Internet have to fight for themselves. My biggest concern with the Internet is that people don't even know the right questions to ask to be sure they're getting what they think they're getting."
Q. At one time, travel agents were routinely offered free or very deeply discounted "fam" ("familiarization") tours throughout the year. Today, fam trips must be paid for, and agents are traveling less often. If expertise is the main thing agents have to sell, how are they coping?
A. "A lot of the independent agents are getting into little niche markets. They'll specialize in one cruise line or in ski trips to Whistler or whatever. They've narrowed their market. They don't have to know the whole world, they just have to know this one area very, very well."
In larger agencies like Goodenow's — 35 agents work with her — knowledge is pooled. "When somebody takes a trip, they come back and we all hear about it. And the next time one of our clients wants to go there, we have someone to call on who knows the place and has relationships with vendors there," Goodenow said.
Q. What are the current trends in travel?
A. "Well, we're finally seeing people book more than three months out. What we're not seeing are the deeply discounted prices that we had a couple of years back just to get people to travel again. We're seeing more international travel, and we're seeing people cautiously getting back to some of the 'iffy' areas. In May, the ASTA chapter presidents' meeting will be in Jordan, which will be a good opportunity for them to show us what they have to offer and us to show our customers that we're not afraid to travel in the Middle East."
Q. There's a perception out there that being a travel agent is a cushy job, and you get to travel all the time for free. You've made it clear that this is not so. What keeps people in the business?
A. "The agents that are here today are here because we love it, we're passionate about it and we have a wealth of knowledge that we want to share. We live our dreams through your travel."
If you'd like to be the subject of an Ask An Agent column, call or e-mail travel editor Wanda Adams at 535-2412 or wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com. Ask an Agent is published on the third Sunday of each month.
