In support of offline travel agents Hrush
Today, Cleartrip changed its home page in a show of support to offline travel agents all over India. We placed a black band on our home page that reads:
Cleartrip supports India’s offline travel agents and stands by them in their time of need.
Since Cleartrip competes with other travel agents (online and offline), Ashish, over at Pluggd.in is wondering why we’re supporting travel agents instead of trying to “kill” them.
No one at Cleartrip has ever been naive enough to think that we can “kill” the offline travel agent. And, honestly, trying to “kill” travel agents is never something that we’ve wanted to do. Even if we wanted to, it would be a fool’s errand in a country where less than 5% of the population is online.
We genuinely believe that travel agents provide a very valuable service and agencies around the world are still thriving and growing. The travel industry has always suffered from complex and fragmented distribution and dissemination of information. For years the offline travel agent has been the conduit to that information–helping uncover it and getting the best products and prices for customers. The economics may be changing, but we don’t believe that travel agents are set for extinction any time soon.
Over in the comments at Pluggd.in, Gaurav states that Cleartrip has no business showing “sympathy to other players.”
Cleartrip competes with the offline travel agents, but that doesn’t mean we have to be unsympathetic. The projections state that over 35,000 travel agencies will go out of business–that’s a lot of jobs and a lot of people. This isn’t all about competition, it’s about families and people that stand to lose their livelihood.
Cleartrip has never been a company that lacks compassion and we don’t plan to become one.
Kudos.
Btw its so unfortunate that its bad time for travel agents. Its also true that its the same in all occupations in the service sector. Remember the STD booths? When bangalore HAL airport closed many people lost their jobs. Nothing is permanant. There is also no guarantee that online agents would sustain for ever, or say software industry or whatever for that matter
But then life should move on, I’m sure we will all find a way out
I am not able to understabd this. What is meaning of showing a token support by posting a token banner on the site. When the whole offline travel community decided to protest against airline move of cutting commissions by shutting of shop for a day, don’t you think your support would have been more meaningful if you too would have suspended flight booking on your site for a day (at least for those airlines who have reduced their commision to 0)
Amit
Hrush,
I respect your views, but presenting alternate scenario just to play Devil’s advocate.
I would say airlines are in trouble and if they do not take cost cutting measures they face bankruptcy. In case a Jet or a Kingfisher is about to declare bankruptcy, surely thousands of employees will lose their jobs.
Also, by the same argument, organized retail should also be banned as it is resulting in serious job loss?
Again, this is only argument for its own sake. Nothing against you stand.
–shashi
Amit–while we support the travel agents and are sympathetic to their needs, we do not believe that a "strike" is constructive for anyone concerned.
Shashi–I agree with you, but the travel agents are merely asking for an extension till the end of the current financial year so that they can honour their existing contracts. We believe that’s a very fair demand. Agencies have been business partners and distributors for airlines for years and that relationship should be respected.
Hursh, you have stated "Even if we wanted to, it would be a fool’s errand in a country where less than 5% of the population is online."
I believe these 5% will comprise more than 80% of people who are frequent air travelers.
Apparently, people haven’t been screwed enough by the offline agents yet. I, for one, hope for the day when those agents switch to doing something more productive than fleecing customers.
I booked air ticket on 02.08.2010 for New Delhi Jaipur one way Trip ID 10088022094 for 03.08.2010 offline through the agent as my credit card was giving some probleme and payment process was getting stuck up. I need an invoice indicating the ticket amount so that I could enclose that with my TA claim. Shall be thankful if the same is emailed to me at the earliest.