Is It Still Worth Using A Travel Agent?

By Graham McKenzie

Many people go into the process of planning a vacation by ironically enough, putting stress on themselves with fears about whether or not little details and minutiae of their upcoming voyage will go exactly as they planned. A travel agent helps to ease the mind when it comes to these matters; they can carry the burden of making sure that everything will be alright, allowing us to approach a vacation with the right mind frame of relaxation and tranquility. However, travel agents do cost money; you have to pay a booking fee for the trip and as such, they may not represent the best value there is. The access they have to the cheapest travel packages can also be at your fingertips within a few mouse clicks.

In the age of the Internet, multitudes of online businesses exist to fulfill the role that used to be filled by travel agents. Online travel sites offer similar services to travel agents and do so at a reduced price. Best of all, you have the ability to compare travel sites so that you can be assured that you have found the absolute lowest price. Compare this to the pre-Internet age when you would have to call or visit actual agents to compare prices. Now the same information is merely a mouse-click away.

Travel planning sites will take care of many details for you; they will make sure that you have a place to stay, a mode of transportation, transfers to and from the airport and they can even book activities for you to do while on your trip. Most of the major travel sites will even offer discounts for last minute travel, off season travel and specials given out for reduced fares, making them carry even more value for your money. This gives you an opportunity to visit places you couldn?t afford to go before.

One fear that users of online travel sites have is the lack of personalized customer service. Many of these sites offer the choice of using a human customer service agent to handle problems or answer questions.

Passports and visas are not given in these sites, so you will have to let those who travel on their own to leave the country. The Website provides information needed for your travel, and may even helps explain how to use. Let your travel agent before the establishment of a passport, but your local license bureau and many other agencies on the ground will does the same thing.

The use of travel agents are the individual, some people prefer one-on-one experience and the feeling is worth the additional cost of ensuring that all is proceeding as planned. Others enjoy the freedom of planning their own itinerary, and can use the money they saved to swim with the dolphins, or visit a local winery, and they leave their itinerary.

No matter how you decide to book your trip, the most important thing is that you are able to afford to do the things you love while there and that you have time to relax. If you are willing to spend more money and do not like to spend time browsing the internet for a deal, then a travel agent may be the best option for you. For those of us that are more value-conscious, we might be more inclined to spend a couple of hours browsing travel sites and comparing the packages of our dreams.

About the Author:

Graham McKenzie is a webmaster for the leading UK Flight Comparison website, which offers detailed information on Booking a Flight from the UK.