Talk:Travel agency
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Paragraph starting "Despite all the hype" is clearly not neutral and should be rewritten. Article generally could use some cleanup in terms of tone.
--Mactenchi 19:40, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
I'm sorry, but the "dot-com hype" phenomena is very real, and needs to be acknowledged. It is objective fact that internet-based businesses very much oversold and exaggerated what they were capable of in the 1990s. Growing dissatisfaction with online travel services, such as Priceline.com and Travelocity, have prompted at least partially a return to face-to-face travel agencies, e.g. "reintermediation".
--JJR
- Yeah, right. If that were true, I doubt that those bozos at ASTA would have to promote the services of travel agents so heavily. I don't need no stinkin' travel agent just to fill out a simple Web form on southwest.com or bestwestern.com. The same goes for the vast majority of consumers, which is why the number of travel agents will continue to shrink for the next decade or so.
- I know what ASTA says about the importance of travel agents. But during the times when I used travel agents in the past, they were not very helpful when problems developed with the underlying service provider. If I need an advocate, I'll hire a lawyer.--Coolcaesar 06:28, 6 September 2005 (UTC)
Houm, Coolcaesar, if you had to buy a holiday package, where would you buy it? Which tour operator would you use? Which are cheapos, which are middle range, which expensive? Which offers the best quality/price ratio? You got two options: do a lot of research and reading, or visit a travel agent in a travel agency. At least, that's what people do around this corner of the world (Spain)... luckily for me, but also since "cheap costs expensive". People, how would I say, are dispapointed to see that "Fly Rome for €10!" becomes "per trip, plus 25 € emission fee, plus taxes, only if you buy the ticket 6 months in advance" -which is when the 4 only ultra-cheap seats out of 170 will be bought by someone faster than you. Also, some fares are availabe only through travel agencies. There are barbarian at the gates, but somehow they don't look as fierce as they used to... Bill Bones 17:31, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
I am starting to add some material which is largely based upon the British/European experience. Some source material will be added.--Train guard 17:59, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
