If you are a travel agent looking for answers to the problems and opportunities of service fees, ASTA’s new Travel Agency Consultancy Fee Course, a 14-part online program to assist ASTA's travel agency members, may help. The course promises to help agents transform themselves from a commission-based business model to a consulting-fee business model. The course is the latest weapon in ASTA’s education and business marketing arsenal.
Presented by Nolan Burris, noted industry author and educator, this multi-media course takes insights from ASTA agency research and consumer research from Burris' company, Future Proof Travel Solutions. It lays out in plain terms why changing to a consulting-fee based business model is beneficial to an agency's long-term viability. The course is available to members at www.ASTA.org.
"This course couldn't come at a better time for travel agency owners and managers," said ASTA President and Chair Chris Russo. "The course breaks out in plain English the importance of transforming to a consulting-fee business model and then goes about explaining how to achieve it. With the slowdown in travel, it is the perfect time to take inventory of your business and business model and determine whether you need to change course as an agency. If the answer is yes, then there's no time like the present and no better program to get you to your end goal—increased profitability."
To assist members in developing and implementing their own progressive fees strategy, the program integrates a variety of online and print course materials, ASTA says. This allows ASTA members the freedom to review material at their own pace and at their convenience. Each component includes a short Web cast and accompanying text, along with interactive spreadsheets travel agents can use to analyze their own business.
Among the subjects covered are: the pros and cons of charging fees; fee models and fee-based services; corporate travel and fees; corporate-specific fee models; frontline agent challenges; marketing fees and incorporating fees into marketing and business plans.
Future Proof Travel Solutions, a division of Visionistics, provides skills training and strategic planning to the travel industry. The Travel Agency Consultancy Fee Course is funded through the ASTA Foundation, an education-based subsidiary of ASTA.