Travel Insurance: Yes, No, Why?

Every time  I work up an itinerary for a client, I include the cost of travel insurance.  If someone declines said insurance, I make them sign a waiver that I offered it and they declined it.  I have been fortunate that most clients have either taken the insurance or had no serious situations arise when they declined it.  I was just reading an article in the New York Times Travel section (I follow this on Twitter) and decided the article was worth a permalink here:  Stuck in Paradise, Needing Medical Help

This story only reiterates in my mind that accidents happen, usually when one can least afford them.  So no matter where you are going, especially if you are traveling outside the boundries of the country you live in, consider travel insurance.  Make sure you check existing coverage with your health insurance provider, the charge card company you book your travel through (you may want to use only one credit card so you can take advantage of the travel insurance they offer, however minimal it may be), and consider purchasing the travel insurance your travel consultant offers you.  It may be the best investment you make on your travels

Internet Travel Research and Booking Trends- The Best Job In The World

I read an article today in one of my trade magazines about how people use the Internet to research and book travel.  Since I am a travel consultant and arrange peoples’ travels for them, I am interested in the stats that these kinds of surveys come up with.  This survey I was reading about was done byThe Conference Board (www.conference-board.org) and global marketing firm, TNS.

This study followed 10,000 households across the country, tracking Internet usage to make travel arrangements.  More women (21%) than men (19%) use travel sites for research.  Ease of use and availability are the reasons cited for booking travel online.  48% of those booking air online and 42% of those booking cars online said they were extremely satisfied.  More men(34%) than women (33%) researched and then booked travel online.  But only 30% of consumers expressed a high level of satisfaction with the sites used and 55% said they were somewhat satisfied.20% of the consumers said they had used the Internet more this year than last year to research travel arrangements but only 18 % have increased their online bookings.  Again ease of use and availability were cited as reasons, but also cited were past experience and promotions targeted at the consumer.  Nearly 25% said they used the Internet less this year than last year for travel arrangements.

In nearly 2 to 1 ratio, consumers will use the Internet to research travel over booking travel via the Internet.  Lodging has the most research online activity while airline tickets are the most booked online. 29% of women versus 27% of men intend to research lodging on line, while 27% of the women versus 25 % of the men intend to research air rates and availability online.  17% of both men and women plan to book their air online and 16% intend to book lodging online.  Close to 30% of those questioned do not intend to do any research or booking of travel online in the next 3 months.  Whether this means they just don’t intend to plan to travel nor to actually travel was not covered in the article I read.

Now what I derived from all this is, there are a lot of people out there who are finally tired of bogus ads and promos telling them they will get something fabulous for next to nothing(not true), or they have been burnt by making bad choices due to a lack of knowledge(or ignorance), or there are just more and better things to do on the Internet than spend half a lifetime trying to figure out the cheapest possible price for one of the most important events of their 52 week working life (the vacation).

In a nutshell it has never been more important than it is today to use a travel agent.  And then to refer your friends, family, acquaintances and clients to that travel agent.  These percentages tell the story.  There are a lot of people out there not using the Internet for researching or booking travel.  A great majority of those who do are less than satisfied, not just with their Internet experience, but also with their travel experience after booking it through the Internet. 

 A lot of travel agents are like me - self-employed.  When I tell people I am a travel agent, they are surprised that the job is still viable.  They think travel agents were a dying breed!  So I read these articles about the surveys and I think:   I may just have the best job in the world after all!