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October 29, 2001 - reprinted with permission from Canadian Travel Press
Technology And The Human Touch
By Tracy Cooper
Vice President and General Manager,
Canadian Division of Sabre Inc.
One of the business lessons to be learned from the past several harrowing weeks is this: technology is not everything.
Several weeks ago, hundreds upon hundreds of travellers were stranded in foreign destinations looking for a way to get home as chilling pictures of the devastation at the World Trade Center and Pentagon were broadcast nationwide. As these people struggled to find their way home to their loved ones, agents were flooded with calls from shaken customers asking for help to find rental cars, to book trains, or to rebook flights for later times.
Most of all, travel agents provided reassurance to their customers that they would indeed get home safely.
For years, industry experts have debated the possibility that technology would eventually drive out the traditional travel agent. No one is making that argument now.
While today’s networks and servers deliver efficiencies we couldn’t possibly dream of forty years ago, they certainly can’t replace the kind and calming words of a live person on the other end of a phone. At no time has this been clearer to all of us.
In the last several weeks, I’ve heard many stories about how well travel agents served their customers during a time of crisis. I’m both heartened and thankful to know that there are so many wonderful men and women in our business. The level of professionalism shown by our industry in the face of such adversity impresses me. As we go about our business over the next several months, we’ll need this perseverance to get us through a difficult market environment.
In the travel business, we don’t just sell a way to get from A to B. We offer our customers convenience, enjoyment, security and comfort. In some cases, we help them live out their wildest dreams - and that makes our business uniquely human.
But technology cannot be abandoned either. In the last several weeks, it has received its share of criticisms. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that technology has also helped the travel industry deliver on its promise to customers. There isn’t a travel agent in business today who is likely to remember a time when technology wasn’t used in our industry. In that respect, our business has been light years ahead of many other industries. We fully intend to continue our legacy of developing and offering technologies that will help the travel community keep their promises.
We face many challenges in the weeks and months ahead: decreasing tourism, industry layoffs, and declining consumer confidence, to name only a few. A great many of us will continue to reassure customers that their travel itineraries are in order, that travel plans are taken care of, and that there has never been a safer time to travel. We will work diligently to preserve our industry in spite of it all.
But we should be mindful of the longer-term challenge that we all face. It is a challenge that has been expedited by the events of September 11, but it is certainly not a new one. Our challenge is to find a balance between the technology that has helped us do our jobs for so long and the ‘human touch’ that is so important to the customers we serve.
Given the exemplary way our community has risen to the challenge of recent days, I can’t think of an industry that’s more up for this challenge. My compliments and thanks to all of you.
