If I look back on my career in travel I often find myself thinking of things back in the day.
We might have not had Google or email, needing to take reservations over the phone and sending confirmations page by page via thermal fax machine. Air tickets were issued by a rather loud ticket printer that often jammed and needed reseting, airport issues were cumbersome and your hand became red with all the handwriting on carbon copy documents. that required validation on a credit card machine with a little silver plate that added the airline logo onto these documents.
As challenging as they were, there were regulations set by IATA, support and recognition by airlines and value placed on the Travel Agent. Our systems might have changed and tickets now pop out of the internet however the processes and systems still remain somewhat unchanged.On further contemplation of the business module of the travel agent especially within the Corporate Travel arena, things might have certainly changed but the need and value most certainly remains. The new buzz word around when you look at the retail industry is Supply Chain, defined as, “In commerce, a supply chain is a system of organisations, people, activities, information, and resources involved in supplying a product or service to a consumer.” – Wikipedia.
When most people in business think of supply chain, the moving of stock from point A to B via large trucks loaded with pallets of goods, making its way to shelves for the consumer to place in their trolleys. It’s how I see it anyways.Travel, especially Corporate Travel is no different, we take human goods, “People”, place them on trucks “Planes”, onto shelves “boardrooms”, getting them from point A to B, to ensure that they can participate in what is required from them within their own industry. The business executive off to sign a deal, a mining engineer working on a major project, a sales rep needing to see clients to sell much needed medical equipment and so the list goes on.
It’s the corporate travel manager that ensures that these essential travel plans are kept and executed without hinderance. A travel agents ability to achieve this efficiently, cost effectively and still offer customer service at the end of the day, with a smile, is a trade like no other. “Your success in your business leads to success in mine” is a principle I have told many a client I have dealt with over the years.
So when after more than 20 years, things are supposed to me made easier in order for us to help business the world over, succeed, it saddens me that this supply chain is often overlooked, taken for granted. I say have no fear, Despite all this, I refuse to give up and continue to stand my ground, to fight for not only my clients to ensure I can offer them the best possible, service, pricing and technology but for an industry that has stood the test of time, overcoming changes in technologies, terrorism, pandemics, natural disasters, through it all we continue to get you from A to B, not forgetting the smile and inability to accept the word NO.
Through passion, dedication and nothing but PURE GRIT, may we continue to challenge everything thrown our way. I shall continue to speak up over the various challenges we face on a daily basis.
The challenge of IATA accreditation in today’s times, see link below.
https://www.travelnews.co.za/article/airline-demands-r10m-deposit-despite-agents-accreditation
