Gone are the days when travel agents are needed for booking a trip for a vacation to other cities, towns or overseas. Gone are the days when a live person is needed to connect travellers to reserve and purchase airline tickets, to reserve and purchase hotel room bookings, and to reserve and purchase different types of trips.
However, in the recent 15 years or so, self-service websites such as Airbnb and Orbitz have motivated vacationers to avail of the self-service features these sites offer. These sites have made the travel agents hide behind the shadows as compared to how they used to be in the past, as reported in Time.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that the employment rate for travel agents would have decreased by 12% by the time 2024 comes. This fact comes after the travellers have had the capability to utilize the internet to look up vacations and reserve their trips all by themselves.
However, word has it, though, that sites like Airbnb and Orbitz have been offering too many deals that at times, users are torn in choosing the offer that they would benefit them the most.
Meanwhile, a travel agency in Japan has received bashing from online followers and users. This is due to the following incident of the agency offering to passengers to fly with women university students taken out of random pictorial of girls.
The H.I.S. Co. travel agency in Japan defended its purpose as to why they made this offer to their clientele and to the women featured in the pictorials, as reported in The Guardian. An H.I.S. representative was quoted in a statement by NHK, as the representative revealed his stance on the offer for an entertainment flight between a clientele and those women, saying:
"The concept was [for the winner] to pass the time in the cabin of the aircraft in a fun and meaningful way. But this has given rise to a misunderstanding."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
