this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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Search engines like Google have cost many people there job; the list of now-rare positions and/or duties associated with a position (thereby thinning the need for such employment) that search engines have replaced is long.
Yeah, when's the last time anyone used a travel agent (though in fairness Google wasn't the only reason that job fell into obscurity, as sites like Expedia also contributed).
Travel agents are still widely used by small and medium sized businesses. It's much faster to say "Get these two people to London for these days" in an email instead of manually looking for flight tickets and hotels.
But I haven't heard of anyone using them for private trips in a long time.
In 20 years of business travel across many countries and industries, I have been happy with the agent's choices maybe four times. These days I skip the corp agent and just book tickets myself, then expense them. Fewer layovers, better seat choices, and having my own name on travel plans is a ton better than I get from someone who is just trying to close a ticket and get someone from A to B.
A nice side effect is that my trips are usually cheaper than colleagues who use the agent, so I never have to justify why I did it myself.
Well, TIL. I've never worked at a small/mid sized business, my jobs have always had dedicated travel coordinators for that type of stuff. Interesting to know, though!
You've had "in-house" travel agents and you didn't realize it! ;)
Why would a small business, but not a big business, use a travel agent?
(It's true that at least the big business I worked at didn't, although it did have its own internal search engine for finding flights and hotels with approved companies.)
travel agents are still around, I know one
and honestly, from what I can tell, you would be a fool not to use one if you are planning to go somewhere you have never been and want it all mapped out for you. They have access to things that you cant find in a google search
How do you think Expedia, et al, function? 😅
Remember when googling was done by (assuming this info couldn't be found in the lexicon) calling directly to the source and asking the receptionist?
I remember my dad and uncle couldn't decide when they thought Coca Cola was founded, so they went to the phonebook, found the number for Coca Cola and just asked. They were happy to help, too. I also remember calling directly to the publisher for Disney comics to ask how much certain comics were, and they sent us a form in the mail that we would fill out to order the specific books we wanted, which then arrived in the mail like 2 weeks later. Pretty much the internet but with extra steps, mandatory human interaction and extremely long wait times lol.