Northstar

NEWS www.travelweeklyweb.com Industry Insights: Evolving role of Travel Agents IN this column, industry leaders share their expertise and insights with TravelWeekly Asia readers. For our first column we feature Anthony Chan, group managing director, Chan Brothers who speaks on the evolving role of travel agents. How is the role of the travel agent changing? The role of the travel agent has evolved from the concept of nondescript agents issuing paper tickets to that of one-stop-shops offering travel solutions spanning the spectrum from the general to the most specialised and of ten via their own branded online booking tool. The travel industry has become increasingly competitive with thinner than ever margins, such that travel agents have to work harder than before to set themselves apart from the competition and rake in the dollars. In Singapore, with the majority of the population affl uent enough to travel for leisure, the travel agent now plays more than just the role of facilitating travel but also dictating travel trends through awareness building, desire creation or price differentiation. How have you managed to expand your business? Unlike relying on the 'one glove fits all' business You have an online travel portal, are the bookings coming through profi table and why? Our hotel and fl ight portals www.chanbrothershotels. com and www.chanbrothersflights.com underwent major revamps in the fi rst and third quarter of 2010 respectively. Online bookings via our fl ight and hotel portals have been most encouraging with average growth of 50 percent month on month since their revamp while visitorship has doubled. Are LCCs a threat to your business? Why? On the contrary, full service carriers have dropped Anthony Chan, group managing director, Chan Brothers " In this respect, strategy traditionally adopted by many travel agents, we stay focused, relentlessly channelling all energy and resources to grow, renew and reinvent the core business in the areas of product quality, product innovation, value pricing, service differentiation, marketing creativity, salesmanship and technology among others. This allows us to cater various segments of the market. How can travel agents keep their business relevant in this age and time? The constantly changing wants and ideals of the modern day travellers and catering to these shifting needs are not new but challenges that the industry always faces. At Chan Brothers Travel, we believe that innovation in product creation and customer centricity set us apart from other fellow agents. In this respect, creative packaging and passionate selling are very important. We launched our website www.chanbrothers.com in 1999 as the year marked the advent of the dot com era and we realised the growing potential of the internet as well as the urgent need to provide a more convenient mode of supplying information to and communicating with the customers. Hence, by harnessing the power of the internet, we expanded into an online medium that complemented our then physical sales offi ce as an additional platform, so customers had both options of making their transactions at home or visiting our sales offi ce. Through the inception of our website, we were not only able to capture the market locally but also regionally and globally. 6 | ■ TRAVELWEEKLY ASIA | 01 MARCH 2011 creative packaging and passionate selling are very important. One important rule every travel agent should know is that of cultivating brand loyalty. their fares by as much as up to 40 percent since the inception of budget carriers thus bringing about more competitive airfares and more choices for the end consumer, consequently boosting frequency of travel. For customers who book with the budget carriers direct, we are still able to garner that share of business through our chanbrothershotels.com website that offers over 100,000 hotels at competitive prices due to exclusive direct promotions with hotels with room inventories for instant confi rmation. Travel agenc ies are a sunset indus t r y. Comment. Judging from our year-on-year turnover growth, this certainly does not seem to be the case. Our turnover hovered around $200 million in 2010 and for the new fi nancial year 2011, we are confi dent of attaining 15 percent year-on-year growth, eventually achieving $300 million in three years time. As mentioned earlier, we keep ourselves relevant and business thus growing by catering to various demographics of the market, online portals with DIY travel solutions for the tech-savvy youths and PMEBs, hassle-free package tours for the young or middle-aged families and senior citizens, and free and easy holidays for all those in between. What is one important thing every travel agent should know. One important rule every travel agent should know is that of cultivating brand loyalty. We have successfully appealed to the groups of Sliveries, Baby Boomers and Generation X who have grown together with us and watched us grow from strength to strength, from a 3-men setup to 200 over staff today. In this respect, their familiarity and confi dence with the company or brand and the trustworthiness and reliability that we have proven through the years have earned us keen acceptance. Fundamentally, we care for our customers, our partners and our staff so that they care for the business. This is the reason our customers return to us time and time again. In the current competitive climate, with travel agents a dime a dozen, a good product paired with service excellence rules. We have to keep packages interesting so that people will be drawn to them. We always bring new experiences to customers. Every agent can carry the same itinerary but we try to add new, exclusive inclusions. Passionate selling is about sharing and passing on your personal experiences to customers. www.travelweeklyweb.com "

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