Why Home-Based Personnel Are Vital to the Travel Industry?
by John Dalton

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The growth of the home-based agent community is setting the stage for a unified industry. Untold numbers of leisure, corporate, group, and other dedicated employees are working from home. Suppliers are following the agency model and have a variety of different jobs being performed by their staff members in their homes and not at their headquarters.

The home-based personnel are much closer to the travelers in their respective market places than those working in the “ivory towers.” They have a better understanding of the needs, motivations, and desires of travelers. They encounter travelers daily and are in touch with trends and consumer changes long before the executives and staffs of traditional res centers, Web sites, and corporate headquarters locations who are chained to their chairs, phones, and computers continuously.

Suppliers finally understand the importance of home-based agents. Most cruise lines and tour operators cannot penetrate market places as quickly as agents who reside, socialize, and intermingle within their community on a daily basis. Relationship building happens in the marketplace. It does not happen in advertising.

In an era where customer service is at a premium, potential customers crave attention provided by someone they know or have been referred to by others. Home-based agents have the advantage to cater to them in grocery stores, at school activities, and in a variety of different forums not requiring a desk, phone, or computer. One-to-one marketing is a contact sport, and no one is playing the game as well as home-based agents. Will they become the focal point for industrywide cooperation?

The forces that bring the travel industry together are stronger than those that divide us. It is time for many of us to change our staunch positions. Economist John Maynard Keynes once said when asked why he changed his position on an issue, “When circumstances change, I change my views. What do you do, sir?” Circumstances have continuously changed, and yet many cannot forget the past and move toward working in harmony to promote all aspects of travel.

Together, we can make tourism the number one industry in America. Staying on our own island and pretending that our part of the travel industry is the most important part of travel is a losing strategy.

It is time to understand and practice what Daniel Defoe stated in his great book Robinson Crusoe: “Although I don’t like the crew, I won’t sink the ship, for we are all in this vessel together.”

(Credit: John Dalton)