A recent American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) study highlights the increasing number of millennials working with travel agents, as well as their high vacation satisfaction rate.
A recent
American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) study highlights the increasing number
of millennials working with travel agents, as well as their high vacation
satisfaction rate.
ASTA’s
“Traveler Decision-Making Survey” gathered data from 3,000 U.S. consumers and
dug into key industry trends. Data showed that 92 percent of those who use
travel agents expect to work with one in the future and that 41 percent of
participating millennials used a travel agent in the past 12 months.
Driving
home the value of agents, 59 percent of those millennials felt they got a
better deal and had a better travel experience than they would have if they had
planned their own trip.
Those who
reported not working with a travel agent did not cite performance-based reasons
for their choice; they typically felt that booking a vacation was something
they could do on their own.
The
survey was conducted online and polled consumers ages 18 and up. Participants
also had a household income of $50,000 or more and had taken at least one
leisure trip in the past 12 months with paid-for accommodations.
- Top
benefits associated with using a travel agent included: “They make travel
planning easy,” “When something goes wrong, they can take care of it” and
“Travel agents are good for booking special trips.”
- Travel
agent users in the study tended to be younger, more affluent and more frequent
travellers, among other traits.
- 61
percent of leisure travellers in the study used a travel agent in the past five
years.
-
Participants reported that their key information source for selecting an agent
was word-of-mouth.
What They
Are Saying:
“This study confirms what we found in another independent study we
commissioned last year — when you use a travel agent, you have a better
experience,” said Zane Kerby, CEO and president of ASTA. “We know from the U.S.
Travel Association that 429 million vacation days go unused by Americans every
year. That means that when it comes to using those hard-earned days off, no one
has time for a vacation do-over. Using a professional travel agent is critical
to taking the risk out of travel planning.”
Source:
TravelAge West