Destination Approaching is your guide to the innovations helping travelers create authentic and memorable experiences. The series celebrates the launch of Chase Sapphire Reserve. With premium travel benefits designed to keep up with the way you travel, this card is your partner in international adventures.
Travel agent is one of the jobs that is most commonly reported to have been “killed” by the internet. Who needs a travel agent, the thought goes, when there are dozens of online booking sites allowing travelers to customize their voyages? And who needs a hotel concierge, for that matter, when there are GPS-enabled restaurant-finding apps loaded with user reviews and photos?
But a new generation of travel companies are betting that premium travelers need personalized, local expertise more than ever.
And not without reason: Earlier this year, the American Society of Travel Agents reported that the number of people using travel agents had reached a three-year high. That may be partly thanks to the health of the industry overall. Travel and tourism constituted a growing portion of the world’s GDP for six years running, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, and today accounts for one in 11 jobs worldwide.
In fact, some travel experts believe the success of DIY travel planning sites serves to underscore the value of old-school travel agencies and concierges,
“Online travel companies have become enormous,” says George Morgan-Grenville, the founder of specialty travel planner Red Savannah, “and economies of scale are the enemy of the quality travel planner.”
Anyone can find gold sinks and infinity pools, Morgan-Grenville says. Harder to locate are the substantive, in-the-know experiences that define today’s luxury travel experience. Think: The Tulum hotel that only has one star because the bungalows are simple but where the fish tacos are unparalleled on the Yucatan peninsula.
Travel has come a long way since Thomas Cook, of the UK’s Thomas Cook Group travel agency, arranged the first publicly advertised chartered excursion in 1841. (It was all of 11 miles by train.) Our smartphones may have replaced some of the traditional duties of the travel agent, but they are sometimes the very thing we hope to escape when we travel. The new class of international travel experts are redefining the role of agents and concierges to meet the needs of today’s travelers. That often means using existing technology in unique ways, and creating new, original travel technology that’s more human than machine.
Time is precious
Online booking and review sites have made travel planning more accessible, but using them is time-consuming. Busy people may want to outsource decision-making to a trusted, expert individual. Time spent at our destinations is especially priceless. Who wants to search for a nearby restaurant when they could already be seated, taking in their surroundings, and savoring every second of their vacation?
Enter Quintessentially, a global concierge service for the “,” as founder Jacob Zucker puts it. Quintessentially’s 6,000 local experts around the world work to meet members’ individual needs, no matter where they find themselves.
Say Quintessentially notices you’re in New York. They will send you an unprompted message, Zucker says.