Life in the High Street yet?

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Last week Abta issued a press release commenting on a survey they had commissioned.  The survey of 2,000 consumers asked if they valued the services of a travel agent; 40% said they did, up from 30% last year.  It also reported a modest increase in the percentage of customers booking their holiday through a High Street travel agent, up from 25% in 2011 to 27% in 2012.  Meanwhile, the number of people saying they booked a DIY holiday fell from 43% in 2011 to 27% in 2012.
It wasn’t the results of the survey that drew my attention – it was the (over)reaction of many in the online sector.  A small recovery in the attractiveness of face to face service, and the reasonable interpretation of this by Abta that some customers valued the help of a human being, was greeted with various attacks on the spin, the numbers and even Abta itself.
Let’s be clear, this survey does not mark the death of the OTAs. It confirms that 60% of people don’t value the services of a travel agent; that more than 70% don’t use one; and that any recovery in the sector is relatively small. 
For the last twenty years, leisure travel has been relentlessly commoditised.  We’ve educated customers to believe that the only thing that matters is price; that a holiday is just a flight seat and a bed; that agents don’t add value, they just add cost.  For a large slice of the market this may well be true, but by allowing that perception to permeate beyond the bargain hunters and into the minds of the wider travelling public, we have created a segment of dissatisfaction. It is these dissatisfied customers – who thought they just wanted the cheapest holiday but now realise they actually wanted the best value holiday - that have spotted their error and moved back towards the services of agents.  It’s not a sea change and in many ways it should have been expected.
Bricks and mortar retail growth is a reality, but only in discrete high value sectors.  Abercrombie & Kent opened a store in London this week, Miles Morgan is showing that there is still room for good multiple branch independents, and Kuoni’s partnership with John Lewis is taking travel retail into a different space altogether.  Thomson meanwhile continue to demonstrate that with a clearly differentiated product portfolio and well trained, service led staff, the High Street remains an essential part of their distribution mix.
Travel on the High Street used to be a messy place, with agents competing to see who could have the biggest brightest discount number in their windows.  It’s no wonder that when the OTA’s came along (replacing the day-glo posters with flashing banner ads) customers deserted agents in droves.

Travel on the High Street now is very different.  Agents have recognised that they can add value in many different ways and that customers see the genuine benefits of booking this way.  That is why the sector is recovering.

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