Twenty years ago there was concern in the travel industry that not enough young people were becoming travel retailers. If trends were to continue, as the older generation retired it might leave the field with a shortage of competent retailers.
That wasn’t long after another fear had gripped the industry, the fear that new technologies and airline disintermediation would render the whole profession of travel retailer obsolete.
It’s always something, right? In the early 20th century, some worried that the supply of horses would not meet the needs of the growing population.
The pre-iPhone/social media world was about as different from today’s world as the world of automobiles was to the world driven by horsepower. Now add to the smartphone/social media revolution, the effect of the COVID pandemic, and every profession must be redefined for a world that’s about as different from 1999, as that world was from the pre-automobile period.
Like everything else, the world of travel has been revolutionized. The new generation of travel professionals is here, driven by new technology and new ideas. I had the opportunity to visit with one of the new generation of travel agents the other day, and I got a glimpse into that new world.
Chantal Lamour was born in 1988, which makes her a millennial or Generation Y. I first met her when she was about 5, through her mother, who is more or less my contemporary. From speaking to Chantal, I got a fascinating glimpse into that new world from the perspective of a new-generation travel agent.
Chantal was just a child when the airlines stopped paying commissions to travel retailers and wiped away a way of life. That’s prehistoric to her, and has no relevance at all to her thinking.
In one sense, the predictions of travel agent obsolescence were true: the function of a travel retailer as it was in the early 1990s is gone. But the demand for travel retail expertise and counsel has only grown. In answer to that demand, travel advisors continue to re-invent themselves with every wave of change.
Today, any person can gather a tremendous amount of information via the internet. At one point, it was feared that that would eliminate the need for travel agents. That was false too. It changes the game, but it does not reduce the need for competent travel counseling.
As consumers have become better educated about travel via their travel experience and the internet, travel professionals have stayed ahead and learned to use new technologies to increase their levels of competence. The need for travel guidance has continued to grow with new generations traveling farther and seeking new kinds of adventure and cultural immersion that require higher levels of competence from travel advisors.
The public’s appetite for travel continues to build. It’s fully recovered from the pandemic that wiped it out completely for a long time. No one can predict the future, but even as catastrophic an event as the pandemic seemed to ultimately stimulate more demand for travel rather than depress it.
Chantal’s world as a travel agent bears little resemblance to the travel agents of the 20th century. It has a different language, different technologies and practices, but at its root there is constancy. People still travel, as they have for thousands of years. They still seek lodging in inns or hotels, eat in restaurants, go sightseeing, experience destinations and cultures, meet the local people, etc. Many of these human experiences are almost as old as our migrating species itself. So there is still common ground between today’s travel agents, and those of the past.
Chantal works remotely for LuxRally Travel. Some of us remember when “agents at home” were a separate category. Now, especially since the pandemic, the phrase “working remotely” barely has any meaning. You work from wherever you are, wherever you set up. The office is virtual, wherever it is.
LuxRally was founded in 2017 by David Eisen as an exotic car rally company. Eisen had been CEO at Caucus Digital, vice president at Corsa America Rally, and IT director at Berman and Company, and was a luxury car enthusiast. He organized the Luxury Exotic Car Rally (LuxRally). Seeing a demand for high-end travel experiences, he began curating bespoke travel packages for high-net-worth clients. That led to his creation of a full-service luxury agency in 2022.
He designed his own software, called FastBook, to enhance operational flexibility and efficiency by eliminating manual data entry and allowing bookings to be completed in seconds.
“LuxRally is hard to get into,” said Chantal. “But once you are in, they provide the training free. It’s a robust, self-guided course that teaches about the entire industry and how everything works.”
A passion for travel led Chantal Lamour to her present profession. But although her travel business is conducted virtually, she does have brick-and-mortar storefront retail experience. She’s an entrepreneur who has founded and maintains two stores, a tattoo shop and a smoke accessories shop. She’s built those businesses to where she can staff them with people to run the day-to-day, and now she can devote most of her time to building her new profession as a travel agent.
Interestingly, I found that she refers to herself as a travel agent, not as an advisor. The feeling that the word “agent” was an inferior label that needed to be jettisoned was also something that happened before her time. To her, she’s an agent, and she’s proud of it. Travel retailers are advisors, agents, counselors, experts, professionals, sometimes your best friend, all those things.
Chantal works as an outside agent. She considers herself independent as well as affiliated. LuxRally provides the basic infrastructure in which she works. She calls it “building your own business within framework of larger business.” I’ve heard that referred to as “intrapreneuring.”
LuxRally is entirely commission based. There are no service fees to clients. The agency can negotiate net rates with suppliers, and produce commission from that, but it doesn’t add to the end price. LuxRally believes its own software gets the best prices available by shopping many sources.
“We shop all rates everywhere,” said Chantal. “Our CEO has tech background. Our back-end system is different from how normal travel agencies work. Ours aggregates rates from everywhere. It gives client the benefit of the best rates, a lot more rates. Sometimes it will pull up hundreds of rates, even thousands. We have streamlined it. We can compare rates instantly if we want to.”
The model is most suited to the luxury travel segment, where clients are spending a lot of money and want service, support and counseling to ensure that they have a great trip with no mishaps to taint the experience.
The mission of the agency, according to Chantal, is “to provide good service that’s very personalized, in a sentence, to remove the friction from travel. We provide a higher level of service, without fees. We can give personalized, high-touch service. We are more efficient, personalized. We have no business hours at any time. If one of my clients is traveling and calls at 3 in the morning, I will get out of bed and make sure their issue is resolved.”
LuxRally, does not have preferred suppliers, as such. “Although we partner with suppliers, we are agnostic,” she said. “We don’t have preferred partners. We are honest with our clients about what is best suited to them. Most of the time we get lower rates.”
Because of the inflation set off by the COVID pandemic, people have lost a lot of buying power in recent years. According to MSN prices have increased by about 22 percent since February 2020.” So price is a bigger consideration than it was a few years ago.
“People have lost lot of buying power,” said Chantal, “but they are still traveling.”
Although price may now be more important, it still takes a back seat to service. In the luxury sector, people pay for service and they expect to get it.
“I’m there to help you with your trip,” she said. “The resorts tend to treat clients who come through agencies a little better than someone off Expedia. If someone wants to make a proposal and wants rose petals, we will make that happen.”
David Cogswell is a freelance writer working remotely, from wherever he is at the moment. Born at the dead center of the United States during the last century, he has been incessantly moving and exploring for decades. His articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Fox News, Luxury Travel Magazine, Travel Weekly, Travel Market Report, Travel Agent Magazine, TravelPulse.com, Quirkycruise.com, and other publications. He is the author of four books and a contributor to several others. He was last seen somewhere in the Northeast US.