"Travel agent" remains a popular term with consumers. Google Trends data, which aggregates searches for particular terms and ranks them over time on a proportional scale of 0 to 100, with zero representing low search volume, illustrates its popularity. "Travel agent" has consistently ranked higher than "travel advisor" and other terms commonly used since 2004, the earliest year tracked by Google Trends.
In the wake of ASTA rebranding itself as the American Society of Travel Advisors last year, the industry has, for the most part, embraced the term "travel advisor" over "travel agent."
But ASTA and the travel retail community are both finding they still have to use the term "travel agent" to drive online traffic.
Even so, most are encouraged by the shift from "agent" to "advisor," as they believe it will ultimately help focus consumers on the services they provide.
"I do think that for the sake of the industry, for there to be alignment and there to be a common term that's used among all the different levels of distribution is good," said Brian Hegarty, vice president of marketing at Travel Leaders Group. "If we're all using a common term [for] what we're doing, I think that only does good for the industry. ... It's one of those situations where if the tide rises, all of the boats are going to go up with it."
"Travel agent" remains a popular term with consumers. Google Trends data, which aggregates searches for particular terms and ranks them over time on a proportional scale of 0 to 100, with zero representing low search volume, illustrates its popularity. "Travel agent" has consistently ranked higher than "travel advisor" and other terms commonly used since 2004, the earliest year tracked by Google Trends.
For example, from March 3 to 9, "travel agent" ranked 100, while "travel advisor" ranked 11. The spelling "travel adviser" ranked 0, "travel consultant" ranked 3 and "travel professional" ranked 2.
"The internet hasn't caught up to our name change, and it's going to take time, and it's going to take a concentrated effort on our end," said Erika Richter, ASTA's director of communications.
In the meantime, many in the industry, ASTA included, are deploying a strategy that uses both terms -- "travel agent" and "travel advisor" -- in efforts to drive online traffic, including paid placement on Google searches and search engine optimization (SEO). That includes using both terms for paid searches and including content on websites that references both.
"I think that we have to understand that the consumer hasn't quite caught on yet, and that's just going to take time," Richter said. "We're working on it, but in the meantime, we have to address both terminologies ... but we're also really amplifying our search terminologies for 'travel advisor,' too, so it's kind of like a dual process. That's the reality of it."
Passport Online recently conducted a Facebook poll among a closed group of agents who use its social media posting services and found that 61.6% of respondents use "travel advisor," 25% use "travel consultant," 11.6% use "agent" and the rest use another term.
Jeanne Colombo, Passport Online's vice president of strategic partnerships, said several commenters indicated that while they might prefer other terms, the public responds best to "travel agent."
"We're trying to transition the user to understand that advisor is the proper term," Lazarus said, "but the public largely still uses the term 'travel agent.' You lose on SEO if your website doesn't say 'agent.'"
This is an abbreviated version of the article that first appeared on Travel Weekly USA.
Source: Travel Weekly USA