Off you go

>> Travel agent feels pressure from the
net but still finds customers who want
the human touch

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Emely Oliveira

Age: 32

Occupation: Travel agent

Bio: A little over six years ago, this Villeray chica was a stay-at-home mom looking after her two children. After booking a trip to Cuba through Voyages Campus, she returned from the land of Fidel to tell them what a swell time she’d had and was promptly offered a job at the agency, suiting her just fine as she was becoming “fed up with staying at home.” As luck would have it, that same week she also found daycare placements for her kids “after being on waiting lists forever,” was able to take on the gig, and soon sent off by the company to train for her IATA certification and become an official travel agent. Today a card-carrying member of the nine-to-five set, Emely says the best part of her gig is “helping to make people’s travel dreams come true.” She drives a spanking new 2007 Dodge Caliber.

Who the hell uses a travel agent anymore? “Everyone who’s been screwed booking travel over the Internet. People appreciate all the services we offer when booking a trip. Like, fine, you can book a flight online to Vancouver, but then where do you stay when you get there?”

At any of the countless accommodations listed if you click “flight plus hotel” on Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire, etc., perhaps? “Yeah, but people still don’t know. We get clients who booked trips online but then never got their tickets, or were charged double—these things happen, and then they come and have us do the work for them. And sure, you can book many things online, but you’re probably not going to want to book a European package tour online. You want to know exactly what the tour has to offer and you want to see something physical in your hand after you’ve paid for it. Online, no one’s there to explain things to you, like, why that $399 trip to London wound up costing $800, you know, once the taxes are included and everything.”

So, essentially, travel agents are for stupid people? “Uh, no, many people just don’t understand. They come knowing the price difference between us and the Internet isn’t much different, but with us, they’ll have their tickets in hand and when they leave, everything will have been paid for and properly reserved. And remember, things like stand-by tickets, you can’t get those online.”

The percentage of her customers prepared to go to Plattsburgh or Burlington in order to take advantage of the considerably cheaper U.S. airfares? “About 20 per cent.”

Emely’s recommended destination for financially challenged wannabe snowbirds: “Central South America. You can get a cheap ticket to Mexico City and bus it from there, to say, Costa Rica or Guatemala, where things aren’t expensive.”

Does she think there’ll still be work for travel agents in another 10 years time? “I think so. Like, you still have teachers in schools when you can do courses online so… We certainly feel the competition from the Internet, but hey, we’re still here, right?”

Childhood ambition: To become a marine biologist.

Last book read: Something Blue, by Emily Giffin.

Musical preferences: Brown Family, Nelly Furtado, Timbaland.

Words of wisdom: “Live life to the fullest.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net