Thomas Cook?

The oldest travel agency in the world has shut down, and quite suddenly.

Vacationers around the world are struggling to find a way home.  Future travelers have unpaid reservations.

Brexit may be one factor, but given that mess, I don't want to speculate how.  (That subject can compared to our own headaches in the states!)

I'd say it is the general decline for the need to use a travel agent when many vacationers can simply book air, hotel and car on the web. 

After all, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports:

"Employment of travel agents is projected to decline 6 percent from 2018 to 2028. The ability of travelers to use the Internet to research vacations and book their own trips is expected to continue to suppress demand for travel agents. Job prospects should be best for travel agents who specialize in specific destinations or particular types of travelers."

Expedia to buy Orbitz for $1,300,000,000.13

Again I threw in the thirteen cents for fun.  This report follows the blog I wrote last month.
 And makes it more likely a monopoly will develop in travel reservations.  This future merge includes cheaptickets and hotelclub, hotels.com, hotwire, trivago and so on.  So while the tourist may think they are shopping around, they really will not.  And it is quite possible, due to the search engines protocols and such, that pricing will likely be different making the consumer think htey are getting a good deal.

Buyer beware.

Thomas Cook and tourism

Travellers outside the US probably know about Thomas Cook.  We got our AAA and American Express and so on, but Thomas Cook has been planning tours since 1841.  A chronological history of Thomas Cook can be found on their website.

They are also addressing Sustainability and the logo "Travel the World, Without Costing the Earth" is noteworthy.  Also several data tables are available about their impact.

Remember when you last used a travel Agent?

About ten years ago I gave a paper at the 8th International Symposium on Society & Resource Management (Western Washington University) titled Eliminating Boundaries for Tourism Using the Internet.

It dealt with the growing movement away from using a travel agent to book travel to using the Internet. Remember the uncertainty you may have felt when you booked a flight online? I do!

Anyway, internet travel sites blossomed in the in the new decade. Orbitz was one of the first, but from the start, I simply used that site to get some basic information since the search engine was not exclusive. Next came Smarter Living (now Smarter Travel). And next came Kayak.

Well, at the doctor's office waiting room yesterday, I discovered Hipmunk. Perhaps the best site for flights at least. I did a local search from my local airport (BDL) as well as one around the world (HKG to BKI) and I like it.

The graphic is an advertisement from the period warning people against using the unknown search engine called the Internet to book travel.