cases, but the vast majority of home-based agents do not.
Agents continue to report that they
direct substantial portions of their
cruise and tour sales to preferred suppliers, to a greater degree than other
supplier groups.
When travel agents were asked to
select three or four support services
offered by travel suppliers that they
consider to be most important to
them, fam trips ranked highest overall, at 56%, followed by overrides/incentives, at 51%. Email updates, at
47%, edged out educational seminars
for third place. These were the top
four in last year’s survey, but email
slipped from second place to third,
while overrides/incentives rose from
fourth to second (Page 14, Fig. 14).
Predictably, overrides and incentives increase in importance among
larger agencies in both traditional
(65%) and home-based situations
(43%), reflecting the fact that they
are more likely to benefit from this
practice because of their greater
revenue.
Email communications are selected
CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
Figure 15
Travel Products Agents Expect to Sell More in 2008
Product Total
Total air 22%
Low-fare carrier 43%
Hotel 35%
Tours/packages 42%
Ocean cruises 58%
River cruises 34%
Figure 16
Approach
Email
Agency website
Flyers
Newsletter
Newspaper ads
Total
76%
57%
30%
29%
24%
Less than $1M
75%
51%
34%
23%
31%
Marketing Approaches Used to Attract New Clients
Traditional agencies
$1M to $3M $3M to $10M
69% 74%
59% 61%
28% 27%
30% 30%
31% 36%
$10M or more
73%
73%
18%
37%
20%
Home-based agents
Less than $50K $50K to $250K $250K or more
84% 87% 80%
61% 46% 44%
40% 38% 30%
26% 36% 23%
10% 10% 11%
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