Available services for Agency Travel Managers

The then and now…

The definition and hence job description of a travel agent has been changing for a while now. Gone are those days when tourists would require a travel agent to make flight or hotel reservations, find a car for hire or take care of arrangements for sightseeing trips and other tours. Most of what a travel agent used to can be attended to by any traveler. There is no need to pay someone any money to facilitate something that can be done online, at no additional charge. This has lead to the emergence of travel experts. You can call them agency travel managers, travel experts or personal holiday planners. The fact remains that the services for agency travel managers have evolved by leaps and bounds.

So, what are the services of Agency Travel Managers?

The contemporary services for agency travel managers are more focused on consultancy, information, real-time communication, notifications pertaining to changes or updates, optimization of cost, passenger assistance, technological assistance and personalization of the entire holiday. At the crux of services for agency travel managers is managing the entire holiday or vacation, which entails taking care of everything.
This would cover reservations that a tourist or traveler can make online but the manner in which travel managers would go about doing it will be the difference. For instance, anyone can make reservations at one of the theme parks to explore any of the attractions. A travel expert or manager would be able to make the same reservation but also might make arrangements for the family to skip the long queue.
Optimizing cost or expenditure is one of the focal services for agency travel managers. Traditionally, travel managers have tried to help people save money but they have been confined to the options they had to offer. Travel agents rarely went out of their way to explore offers they did not have access to. Travel experts or agency travel managers must find ways to help their clients save money. There is no such thing as beyond the ambit or unavailability of relevant offers. Cost optimization is not just about offers, promotions or discounts. The planning should be daft enough to spend less wherever and whenever possible.
Passenger assistance is another important service, from lost luggage to stolen money, misplaced documents to repatriation. At times there may be generic consultations pertaining to everything about a holiday. In some cases, the consulting may be more specific, such as choosing a destination, acclimatizing with a local culture or special travel advice.