Host agencies have in recent years found it challenging to
recruit younger independent contractors (ICs), and it's a gap many feel needs
to be addressed so that the future of the profession isn't threatened.
While most hosts are attracting ICs, those recruits are
primarily people who already know about -- or are even already engaged in --
travel retail as a career. So the puzzle lies in how to raise awareness of the
trade and its career potential among younger people who have not been exposed
to agents, agencies or the career potential they represent.
"A lot of the experienced agents just aren't moving
around, and if you talk to any host agency, they'll tell you the same thing,"
said Betsy Geiser, vice president of Uniglobe Travel Center. "We're
getting the new blood now, but we're only getting the new blood that's already
interested in travel."
Nexion president Jackie Friedman agreed.
"We've had that conversation before," she said. "How
do you stimulate that interest in people who haven't even thought about it,
haven't even realized it's a possibility? It's easier said than done. I would
say it's a challenge for all of us."
Nexion, like many other hosts, is enjoying a steady influx
of ICs. Friedman said they include older people looking to start second
careers, such as teachers or nurses, or people skilled in selling, such as real
estate agents. The most successful tend to be referrals from existing agents.
s, both historically and in the present, are people who
already know about the trade.
Many hosts got their start when mom-and-pop,
brick-and-mortar agencies started shutting down after 9/11. They couldn't
afford things like GDS contracts or IATA affiliation, so hosts became an ideal
home for them. At that time, Geiser said, hosts weren't focused on bringing in
new agents, because it wasn't necessary; they were hosting a slew of
experienced veterans.
Next, hosts started seeing increased interest from agents
who were looking to defect from multilevel marketing companies (MLMs), such as
YTB. They were inexperienced but wanted to sell travel, so hosts started to
offer more formal coaching programs.
"Prior, there had been no alternative for them,"
Geiser said. "Once there were alternatives, the good ones were like, 'Hey,
I don't want to sell other memberships [to the MLM], I want to sell travel, and
I want to be professional about it. But how do I do that?'"
Host agencies offered a great solution, and they got a shot
in the arm with that influx of ICs.
"It was actually really great for the travel industry,"
Geiser said, "because this was a way that they were learning about us,
even though they were kind of coming in sideways. But we created a solution to
help get these people into a good program where they could actually learn about
the industry and be legitimate, and we would coach them on being more
professional. And it worked really well."
Another source of potential agents were travel-training
tracts in colleges, especially community colleges. They exposed students to the
idea of travel as a career but now have largely gone by the wayside, likely due
to lack of funding, Geiser said. That makes it difficult to find new agents who
didn't previously know about the trade.
"It's an industry issue, clearly," Geiser said. "We
need more blood because everybody's getting old, and we're not replacing agents
at the rate we're going to be losing them over the next few years."
Geiser said she is not concerned that the trade will ever
disappear because of a lack of agents, but hosts should be concentrating on
getting "new blood" interested in becoming ICs.
Drew Daly, general manager of network engagement and
performance for Dream Vacations/CruiseOne and Cruises Inc., said awareness is
one of the biggest challenges the industry faces today.
"The biggest obstacle right now is an overall [lack of]
awareness for the value of a travel agent as a resource and as a career path,"
Daly said. "People don't really see them in action unless they're active
and involved in their community."
Daly said the demise of many brick-and-mortar agencies is
contributing to the lack of public awareness, because they were a good way to
expose consumers to travel agents as both a service and a possible career path.