British travel agents are bracing themselves for a backlash from customers over the introduction of service fees. The charges are regarded as inevitable when airlines and other travel suppliers follow the lead of British Airways, which is abolishing commission payments to travel agents from next January.
Members of the Association of British Travel Agents are concerned that the increased cost incurred by customers will undermine their relationship with the public, given that agents have traditionally pro vided a free service - although a minority make small charges for some transactions.
Furthermore the pressure to switch from commissions to service fees comes at a time when Britain's independent travel agents are under threat from internet travel sites, and threatened by operators printing direct-booking telephone numbers in their brochures.
As if all this wasn't enough, fee-charging also raises the prospect of UK independent agents having to compete with "be your own travel agent" schemes, which have devastated their American counterparts. In the US, newspaper advertisements declare that, for a one-off payment of $495 (around £300), anybody can become a travel agent - thereby avoiding fees and benefiting from the "huge discounts" enjoyed by the trade.
They also promise "first-class upgrades" on flights and explain that, if people arrange travel for friends, they can pass on those benefits and earn commission - without qualifications or experience.
James Ashurst of the American Society of Travel Agents, recently explained the situation to USA Today: "We have a problem with companies that sell travel agent credentials to consumers who have no intention or desire to be sellers of travel . . . who are simply attempting to reap discounts that are often bestowed upon legitimate sellers of travel."
Florida-based Global Travel International has recruited 30,000 "agents" who are currently doing around $120m million worth of business, putting it in the top 1% per cent of America's travel agencies.
The US trade has tried to take evasive action. In 1998, the ASTA asked the Federal Trade Commission to establish regulations for travel agencies to keep out the "DIY" brigade, but the Commission decided, unanimously, that no such rules were needed.
There is nothing to prevent such schemes being launched in Britain either because, as ABTA's Keith Betton said: "UK governments have never legislated the business of being a travel agent".
My inquiries at the Department of Trade and Industry and the Office of Fair Trading turned up no rule or regulation to stop "be your own travel agent" schemes being set up here. But an official at the Office of Fair Trading warned that people passing themselves off as travel agents under such circumstances could lose the protection of consumer legislation in the event of a subsequent dispute.
One veteran observer of the UK travel trade warned that the "DIY" approach has other pitfalls too: "The public believes that travel agents enjoy free, or very cheap, travel and all sorts of other benefits. It is easy to sell them the promise of sharing these perks, and that is why they would sign on and pay up. But without real knowledge and experience, they could pay more for travel products than they would if a genuine agent acted on their behalf."
However that is unlikely to deter people lured by the promise of heavy discounts. On this side of the Atlantic, similar schemes have historically had little or no appeal, mainly because they have been promoted by people outside, or on the fringes, of the established trade, and because British travel agents have traditionally provided a free service. But the prospect of UK agents charging fees means that possibility can no longer be ruled out.
