Agents are always relevant
Travel agents will continue to stay relevant in India and elsewhere, as Hong Kong, Singapore and many other leading destinations had seen growth in number of travel agencies.
An
Indian traveller will stick to a travel agent, feels GM Toh, General Manager (India), Singapore Airlines; especially when it comes to international travel.
“The Indian consumers might have started booking domestic travel more often through other channels, but when it comes to international travel, they prefer services of travel agents. It’s because international travel requires various services like visa, travel insurance, and other allied services.”
“We get a major chunk of bookings from travel agents in India and have a performance-linked benefit structure in place for them. In fact, our experience shows
We get major bookings from agents and have a performance-linked benefit structure
that in markets like Hong Kong, Singapore and many other leading destinations, there has been growth in number of travel agencies. The travel agents will continue to stay relevant in India and elsewhere,” he added. Toh highlighted that ideally, an open-sky policy has done a world of good for all destinations. “We have witnessed our business grow in the markets that have complete open-sky policy like China and Australia, where the demand and supply determines the operations,” said Toh. Singapore Airlines currently operates 57 weekly flights from 6 cities in India. SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, is a fullservice airline that currently operates 42 weekly flights from 8 cities in India.