Travel agent job is really interesting. You get information daily about destinations, offers, last minute opportunities and sometimes you can get almost free or very cheap trips. It’s very important to know how to manage customers, and to transmit them all this information. Sometimes, customers have no idea about what they want to do or where they want to go. All they say is something like “I want to make a trip…” and it seems they are expecting you to give them the tickets. At this point, you think, “of course, that’s because we are here, but telling me where do you want to go should help…” but you can’t use such a direct and ironical sentence. Actually, if they knew where to go, they would ask for it at first time. You have to chat with them trying to guess their preferences, in order to reduce the number of possible destinations. At last, almost everybody wants the same: Caribbean coast, Spanish Islands, Tunisia or medium and far east. Fashion is a main factor of selection at the moment. This year, Tunisia and medium east have been the most demanded. One more year, Canary and Balearic Islands stand on the top of the preferred destinations. Caribbean is more expensive and people don´t like to go far from home in the middle of a crisis as the one we are living in. Other destinies, like New York, have become very expensive along these months, because the increase of fuel at the beginning of the year and the rising of the dollar rated to euro at the end. London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Prague are always good places to visit, but we have a big problem in Galicia: almost ninety per cent of the international links have to connect with Madrid or Barcelona. Right now, Vigo only has an international flight to Paris. Furthermore, Air France and Air Europa have broken their agreement to join their operations up recently, and ticket prices have risen a lot (almost double than the price before the break). It means that the only way to leave Vigo is via Porto, or linking with Madrid or Barcelona, which increases the price of the trip in, sometimes, a 30%. A new fashion is growing up strongly: to spend a weekend at a spa, with lots of leisure time and the possibility of enjoying a peaceful environment, as well as you take care of your health and/or beauty. Many of these houses are situated in small villages, far from cities, giving you a full relaxing experience, allowing you to walk through forests and visiting picturesque places.
Summing-up, every customer needs something different, and to guess what it is, is one of the main abilities asked to a travel agent. It can make the difference between close a contract or not.
Summing-up, every customer needs something different, and to guess what it is, is one of the main abilities asked to a travel agent. It can make the difference between close a contract or not.
