{"id":58258,"date":"2019-01-30T09:01:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T06:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/novosti\/v-ssha-predlojili-otkazatsia-ot-poniatiia-tyragent.html"},"modified":"2019-01-30T09:01:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T06:01:04","slug":"v-ssha-predlojili-otkazatsia-ot-poniatiia-tyragent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/en\/novosti\/v-ssha-predlojili-otkazatsia-ot-poniatiia-tyragent","title":{"rendered":"The US has proposed abandoning the concept of travel agent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<strong>The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) has published an open letter in which it stated the need to abandon the term \u201ctravel agent\u201d and replace it with\u00a0<\/strong><strong>&quot;travel consultant&quot;<\/strong><strong>As Russian experts emphasize, the initiative is more than <!--more-->relevant - according to representatives of the tourism industry, it is high time to apply such a practice in our country.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/f2ff84dcc087ecb71ed7fa4b41246882.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\nAs the letter&#039;s authors note, today a travel agent is not just a booking intermediary, but a trusted person, like a financial analyst, for example.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThe term \u2018consultant\u2019 not only more accurately describes the value ASTA members provide to consumers, but also serves as a clear statement that retailers can take the travel industry to the next level,\u201d ASTA emphasizes.<\/p>\n<p>\nIn its statement, the Society of Travel Advisors also called on its partners and the broader American travel industry to support the initiative and &quot;add their name to the growing list of organizations that have made or are in the process of transitioning from the term &#039;travel agent&#039; to the term &#039;travel advisor.&#039;&quot;<\/p>\n<p>\nIt&#039;s worth noting that Russian retailers have given their American counterparts an extremely positive assessment of the innovation. Thus, according to <strong>Director of the Belmare travel agency Diana Ferdman<\/strong>, our business should follow ASTA&#039;s example.<\/p>\n<p>\n&quot;In my opinion, this is a very good initiative. On my social media platforms, as well as in my column on the TRN portal, I&#039;ve long been trying to convey one simple idea: in today&#039;s world, we need to retrain ourselves from salespeople to consultants. Agencies must understand their value, learn to sell their knowledge, and feel their own importance. Tourists, meanwhile, must understand that we don&#039;t charge for nothing. Clients need to be made aware that they&#039;re paying for a consultation, for knowledge, for time, for skills, for expertise\u2014for the fact that we constantly keep our finger on the pulse. A good travel agent will always advise which tour to choose and which to avoid, where to fly and where to avoid, and which seat to choose on the plane. We&#039;ve gained all this knowledge over many years of working in the challenging tourism business. And this gives us the right to charge for consultations. &quot;I&#039;m convinced that we simply must combat the stereotype in the minds of Russian citizens that travel agents are speculators,&quot; says Diana Ferdman.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trn-news.ru\/news\/86649\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trn-news.ru<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) published an open letter declaring the need to abandon the term &quot;travel agent&quot; and replace it with &quot;travel consultant.&quot; As Russian<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-novosti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.prestigtours.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}