The majority of travel agents who work from home or outside a traditional travel agency environment prefer the professional title "Independent Travel Professionals" and do not feel that the term "Home Based Travel Agent" adequately describes their offerings as a full-service travel adviser.
The conclusion is part of a survey from a joint effort by CCRA and the Outside Sales Support Network (OSSN) and was distributed to both CCRA registered travel agents and OSSN members throughout August.
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The survey first asked travel agents who work from home to rate five professional job titles based on their personal preferences.
A summary of the "most preferred" job titles that the survey respondents selected, in descending order based on the total percentage of votes:
- Independent Travel Professional - Most preferred name - 32 percent of the total votes
- Other - 25 percent of the total votes
- Travel Agent - 20 percent of the total votes
- Home Based Travel Agent - 10 percent of the total votes
- Independent Travel Agent - 8 percent of the total votes
- No response - 5 percent
The survey also requested that travel agents separately rate how they felt about the commonly used term, "home-based agent." The results for this rating revealed that the overwhelming majority of respondents (40 percent) felt that there was a better term to describe their 'robust offerings' than the term, "home-based agent."
While 19 percent of the respondents remained indifferent to the term, 17 percent "liked" it because it has been around for a long time, the survey said, whereas 12 percent "hated" it and felt that the term carried negative misperceptions about their full-time professional travel advisor roles and their full service travel agency offerings.
Dic Marxen, president and CEO of CCRA commented: "Since CCRA acquired OSSN earlier this year, the premier association for travel professionals who work outside of a traditional agency setting, we have been working hand-in-hand with Gary Fee, president of OSSN, to gain further insight into the changing needs of this growing segment of travel planning professionals."
"We were delightfully surprised by the results and wanted to share this information with the travel industry, so that travel agents who work remotely may be more appropriately identified as independent travel professionals and recognized for the diverse range of offerings and services that they provide."
Added Gary Fee, president of OSSN: "This survey has vast implications for the travel industry as a whole, and has provided OSSN with extremely useful information for how we can better support our independent travel professional members moving forward. The term 'home-based agent' has long represented travel agents who work from a home office or outside a traditional travel agency but, as our survey results revealed, this term is outdated.
"It does not adequately reflect the technology advances that have led to today’s changing workplace dynamics including the "non-traditional" workplace settings that many companies, including travel agencies, are adopting. Working remotely has become commonplace and we look forward to continuing to support this growing segment of professional travel advisors," Fee said.
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