How technology has influenced the Thomson Travel Agency Essay

How technology has influenced the Thomson Travel Agency - Essay Example From this, it is quite obvious that travel agents play a vital role in this business. When armed with technological knowledge, they form a force to reckon with. Surveys conducted by various people outline the importance of the latter in influencing consumer’s decisions on the destinations to take. From the time a person decides to make any trip, they are usually faced with the decisions of which airline to take, the particular place to visit if on holiday, convenience and efficiency of the whole process. Due to the boom of technological advancements, potential passengers or tourists can by the click of a button, peruse the options availed to them. However, this information can be mind boggling to an extent that it can became more of a headache than a resourceful tool. Thus, travel agents can make recommendations to their clients and help them in choosing the particular travel package that would best suit them depending on their needs (Howard 1963). It is like they completely allow these people to take over all their travel arrangements so that, all that is required of them are to show up. Tour operators are thus faced with the key role of advertising their products. Marketing becomes an important tool so as to stay in business, of which, travel agents are made to go out of their way to infuse better marketing strategies (Birner & Booms1982). Computer technology provided a way to effectively manage all the extensive information concerning general travel. For example, with introduction of the Computer reservations systems (CRS) in 1953, that was later converted to the Semi Automated Business Research Environment (Sabre). This was a combination of CRS and global distribution system (GDS) that provided a wide load of travel information and reservations. â€Å"Directional selling† which involved the sale of package holidays using a complex chain of travel agents, is a practice that has become