A couple of years ago, I was living in Angola and felt the need for a vacation. I decided to visit Namibia, a beautiful country with amazing wildlife and incredible landscapes. Although it is a former German colony, it has none of the efficiency you would expect of the Germans. I had to organize my trip through a travel agent, something I haven't done in a very long time. Despite using this old fashioned way for organizing my trip, I actually enjoyed my experience. I had very customized service (with an exchange of approximatively 30 emails) and more individualized trip. I knew what I wanted to see, and this highly personalized, pre-internet approach to booking my trip actually gave me a much better sense of what I was in for. It was a great tour, uniquely suited to my personal interest.
This approach is less common nowadays with the advances in technologies and communication systems, and today's emphasis on "push-button" convenience. What you loose with this approach is the personalized touch. It's become so extreme that airline companies actually push their customers to use their websites as much as possible, instead of calling a call center. Their objective is not better customer service or convenience but cost savings.
Check out this interesting video comparing online travel booking and traditional travel agents:
Dear Ms. Chansavang,
ReplyDeleteWhat you said about traveling without human touch for the sake of cost savings is really true. What I mean is, when people want to travel, they become enthusiastic about seeing new people and cultures and start to share his or her feelings to increase excitement. That is why we want to interact with people to convey that enthusiasm. In time, as human touch disappears, we have to delay our enthusiasm for travel. I hope airline companies will find some solution to this disappearing human touch problem.