Travel agents must begin to value themselves once again in order to thrive amid an increasingly cluttered landscape, says Travel Counsellors chairman David Speakman.
Speaking to Travel Today in an interview to mark 20 years of the home-based firm, Speakman highlighted the issue as a worldwide problem, with agent training at its root.
“In Australia, and it’s the same in the UK, travel agents are trained badly,” he said.
“They’re told they’re worthless, that what they offer is worthless, that it’s all about the price of the holiday.
“So they don’t value themselves at all.”
Many don’t factor in the time and effort put into clients’ holiday plans, something which Travel Counsellors attempts to address when training its new consultants, according to Speakman.
“You have to retrain the staff so that they believe in themselves,” he said.
The company has enlisted the help of motivational guru Mike Finnigan who has toured the world to teach Travel Counsellors how to change their way of thinking.
“We empower them to become new people and I’m proud of that," Speakman said.
“We retrain people to understand what society needs and society needs carers.”
