What personal selling tactics are most important to travel agency employees as they work with customers and potential customers?

Leisure time travel remains a common pursuit across a variety of markets. Numerous forces influence consumers as they seek out restful, adventuresome, romantic, and family-oriented vacations. Factors such as gasoline and airline ticket prices, economic conditions, political unrest, and the changing world of technology factor into personal and family decisions regarding places to go, things to do, people to see, and events to enjoy. Travel agencies experience the influence of these forces as directly as any other group. When gas prices rise, consumers take shorter trips. When airline tickets are at a premium, travelers look for bargains or seek other alternatives. Unemployment, political turmoil in places such as Mexico and Europe, and other considerations cause people to either stay at home or change travel plans.
The most direct influence on the travel agency business has been the internet and its popular travel sites. Travelocity, Priceline.
com, and other airline booking sites allow consumers to shop online for the best air fares and travel times. Hotels.com plus numerous hotel chain-run booking sites, which also offer frequency programs, make it possible to find the most ideal hotel arrangement without the use of a travel agency. Many internet-savvy consumers no longer feel the need to call or drive to a local travel agency. These individuals have become convinced that they are able to match any price or travel arrangement that an agency can find.