Travel is meant to be a pleasurable experience, but if not planned well or without the wherewithal to deal with complexities, it can turn out to be the most harrowing experience. We discuss few simple rationales for travelers to work with reliable travel consultants to make their journeys and experience most enjoyable.
Choosing a destination
If you plan to explore a new destination, you only know little about it from social media or the internet. These sources are most likely to provide you a biased marketing view, which might not be incorrect but is incomplete. Similarly, if you have heard about the destination from your friends/family, it might be more true, though limited based on their own experiences. A travel consultant, who regularly sends their customer to these locations, and has personally experienced or validated these, is likely to know from multiple perspectives. This tells them – “What works and what does not!”. Based on this ability, they are able to suggest the most suitable destination, given your travel interest.
At the same time, the travel consultant is fully aware of all other essential aspects related to the destination, such as – age suitability, visa requirements, flight options, suitable time of the year, approximate travel expense etc. Without all of this information, choosing a destination can turn out to be an ill-informed or complex decision.
If you are a repeat traveler to a destination, you most likely want to explore new locales, or desire new experiences. You would want to know what options exist in terms of – locales, tours, adventure, mode of transport etc. A travel consultant can provide you a wealth of information, including a suitable local connection to book these for you in advance. The local associate agents are experts in in these experiences or specialize in certain tours, which makes the experience worthwhile.
Choosing a flight
Booking flights require an IATA authorized agent to issue tickets, so non-IATA agents could be fly-by-night operators and should definitely be avoided.
Online travel portals provide you a bunch of flight options ranked by lowest to highest cost. This information does not include any description or information about the reasons for the prices being higher or lower. Pricing of airline tickets is one of the most complex and mostly opaque pricing mechanism.
Just to exemplify – many times the return fare to a destination can be lower than the one-way fare, or that the lowest fare is usually the one without any change or cancellation possibility, or that you can get free connecting flights to another destination in Europe if you travel through a major carrier to their hub, or that certain airlines provide you free airport transfers at your origin and destination airport.
Your travel consultant is aware of all such complications and options, when suggesting the best flight and connections. They are also aware of – your preferences, minimum connection time required based on the airport layout, fall back options in case you miss connecting flights, any offers to upgrade your class of travel for a small fee, or the option to redeem your frequent flier miles on a particular airline. Remember, international travel is fraught with exigencies like – missing a flight, losing a bag, immigration issues etc. If you are stuck at a foreign airport at an odd-time in your home country facing any of these exigencies, you will miss a trusted travel consultant the most. This is why a simple search on an online travel portal can only lure you into picking the lowest fare or package, but cannot provide you all of this valuable information.
Planning your itinerary
Cookie cutter travel packages for large groups are usually the most economical e.g. 9 nights, 10 days Tour of Europe starting Rs. 2.5 lakhs – touching London, Paris, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. But as you can imagine this tour cannot do justice to any of the destinations. A city like Paris alone requires minimum 4 to 5 days to visit the main attractions of the city, and if you visit any of the museums or Euro Disney then a few more days. Only this can make the visit to Paris memorable. Also note that the more cities you travel to, you end up adding the cost of connecting flights, airport fees, airport transfers, visa etc, without enjoying any of the cities properly.
You travel consultant is an expert on planning itineraries. With personal experience of visiting all of these attractions, as well as based on the experience of multiple other travelers, they know best on how to plan your route efficiently, to minimize the travel time/expense and provide for a leisurely visit to the attractions which suit your interest. They can also ensure you avoid – long entrance queues or getting hassled with local language/tourist guides etc.
Being in a foreign land, without knowing the local language, and not having someone you can ask for help, can be the most harassing experience. A well-planned itinerary with the support of local travel affiliates avoids all these pitfalls and makes the experience memorable.
Expense of your travel
The travel industry operates on revenue through commissions, which vary between 2% to 15%, depending on the service and supplier. This commission is shared by the end supplier, like a hotel/airline/cruise with the intermediary travel agents.
So, the cost to the customer is essentially the same. The commissions can be on the higher or lower end of this spectrum, depending upon volumes or nature of partnership between the supplier and the agent. It is more of a myth, that one travel agent charges more than the other, since the price from the supplier is more or less same for all. More importantly, even if there is a differential it will be small in the wider perspective of the total expense of the travel. For that small differential, the value-add by a trusted travel consultant can be multiple times larger for fulfilling the objective of the trip. If the trip isn’t memorable, then any expense made small or large is wasteful.
Earning your trust
An online portal or a tour package company focuses on the transaction, and nothing beyond, which limits their incentive to deal with customization, preferences, exigencies etc. This is the difference between making a travel happen vs making it memorable.
A travel consultant strives to become the TRUSTED travel consultant, not only for this travel but for all future travels. They might have fewer travelers, but all happy travelers. They take pride in their experience and their network to make the customer’s travel memorable. This is why you need a TRUSTED travel consultant for your International Travel.
Thanks for reading. Please share your views and experiences with us. If you would like to know more, or have suggestions for another topic to be covered in this blog, please do write to us at info@corporatetravel.in
Corporate Travel Private Limited 