It’s travel time all year round in the UAE, and with 80 per cent of the population having relocated here from somewhere else, finding the best holiday deal has become a pastime for just about everyone.
The proximity of the Emirates to the rest of the world, as well as the multitude of options for flights and holiday packages to destinations near and far, has seen passports become a resident’s most-valued possession and something of a diary of their treasured journeys.
Mere decades ago, there was really only one way to book a holiday – a travel agent. You went into an agency, picked up a couple of brochures for the destinations you were interested in, took them home to pore over and then asked the agent to put together a suitable package for you, complete with everything – flights, accommodation, tours and transfers. Job done.
But with the advent of the internet and all of its far-reaching possibilities, today’s traveller has a plethora of choices and any one of a number of websites at their disposal – it just depends on how much time they have to spare as to how wide they cast their net and what sort of holiday they end up with.
Expedia, Skyscanner, Booking.com, Helloworld, Agoda, Orbitz and TripAdvisor are among the go-to sites for today’s travellers, but that doesn’t mean travel agencies have gone by the by.
There are benefits for both – some people swear by an agent and won’t do it any other way, while others refuse to trust their experiences with anyone else, and insist on doing all the booking themselves.
“I like the leisure of doing it in my own time,” says Carol Goodey, 50. “Being able to shop around with no pressure to make an immediate decision, time to read reviews and the time to go over the finer details without someone hovering over my shoulder.”
Goodey, who’s from the United Kingdom and lives in Abu Dhabi, is a part-time swim coach. She last used a travel agent about 15 years ago.
“I used to go to agents in the UK, but only to get ideas. Nowadays, the run-of-the-mill agents have not been to the places that I want to go to.”
For another Brit, Ann Garner, who also lives in Abu Dhabi, the freedom to shop around is what attracts her most to using the internet for her family’s holiday bookings – plus the savings she has made.
“I reckon I’ve saved Dh30,000 in the past year by booking online,” Garner says.
The mum-of-one and her family make a few trips out of the UAE each year.
“We do a main holiday, but we also travel home a few times a year, and for those trips I usually look at the airline websites to compare the prices, and I also have eDreams bookmarked,” she says, adding that she hasn’t used a travel agent for at least a decade.
For Hamda Al Hameli, an Emirati mother-of-three, the opposite is true. The relationship she has with her travel agent is a long-standing one, and one she trusts over any website.
“My agent always finds me the cheaper price. I tell him my likes and dislikes, what my budget is, and he always treats us well,” Al Hameli says.
She and her young family have been using the same agent for about six years. According to Al Hameli, he goes above and beyond her expectations every time.
“If there is ever any trouble while we are on our holidays, he is available on the phone all hours. He always responds quickly and makes the arrangements to help us out,” she says.
The busy mum, whose children are 2, 7 and 9, believes that the best thing about having a reliable travel agent is the time you save yourself.
“We try to travel overseas at least once a year, and it is nice to have someone you know who will find you what you are looking for, without having to spend endless hours searching online.”
It’s the same for Manju Saroopa, 55, who works from her base in Mumbai, India, but travels regularly to Dubai and Singapore for work, as well as farther afield for leisure. She only ever uses a travel agent.
“I do it this way because I prefer the convenience of it,” Saroopa says. “My travel agent gives me the best – and cheapest – option, and always remembers the little things, like booking a good seat (not near the toilets) and my meal preferences, and sorts out the travel insurance for me.”
The professional skin aesthetician admits she was put off booking online after having some bad experiences paying by credit card, and after years of travelling, she couldn’t be bothered researching all the online holiday options.
“Besides this,” she says, “cancellation is more of a pain online – my agent allows me to transfer a ticket from one date to another whenever possible and also informs me about the cheaper, non-refundable flights.”
So what do the agents and booking-engine representatives say?
“A travel agent can cut through the noise and give customers realistic real-time advice about what best suits the customer’s requirements,” says Flight Centre UAE’s operations manager Rose Johnson. “Travel agents can leverage their relationships with suppliers to make sure customers get exactly what they need, not just a cookie-cutter solution that is found online.”
Harvey Lines, the general manager of the Dubai-based company Travel Counsellors, believes the ability to tailor a holiday is what sets travel agents apart.
“We can advise better options that clients just aren’t aware of themselves,” Lines says, adding that although “the industry has changed immensely over the last 10 years with technology, apps and online agencies empowering anyone to book their own travel”, he believes the changing demand is having a positive effect on the number of people using traditional travel agencies rather than booking online, because they realise that they need an expert for their more-complex travel plans.
Meanwhile, Booking.com, which has an office in Dubai, says the thing that sets it apart from the regular travel agent is its reach.
“We have up to 60,000 accommodations on our page, 55 million customers worldwide and offer the best service to travellers,” says Booking.com Dubai’s representative Nour Osman.
“Apart from this, we also offer 45 different language services, secure credit-card services and every time you book a holiday with us you accumulate points, and in future can get a discount.” Osman says the site’s point of difference is that it offers 24-hour customer service, something that the agents cannot.
One of the most popular global sites, Expedia, says that when it was launched in 1996 it used its technology to revolutionise the travel market by putting the information and tools previously only accessible to travel industry professionals into the hands of everyone.
“Rather than having to choose from a selection of pre-arranged packages, Expedia gave people the flexibility to put together the flight and hotel combinations that suited their individual needs,” a company spokesperson said.
According to the world’s fifth largest corporate travel management company, Expedia is able to offer consumers access to over 435,000 bookable properties across the world, over 400 airlines and over 5000 activities.
“We are able to offer the flexibility and control to shop for travel on the device of your choice or to speak to one of our agents on the phone,” she said.
Because of the increased popularity of booking travel online and comparing prices, whether it be via an agent’s online quote portal or through a dedicated booking engine, the market is ultra-competitive. As a result, agencies, hotels and airlines have all jumped on to the reward bandwagon as a way of enticing customers to book with them.
Etihad, for example, offers the Etihad Guest programme, where passengers can sign up for free and collect points for being a loyal customer. There are four levels: Guest, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The UAE’s national air carrier has also joined forces with several of the country’s banks, offering debit and credit cards that allow the banking client to increase their points balance with every dirham they save or spend. It also offers lounge access at selected international airports and, in some cases, complimentary transport to and from the airport.
These sorts of rewards have become common, with the lion’s share of major airlines and their alliances developing frequent-flyer programmes to keep companies competitive in a saturated market.
As an extension of this, various banks and agencies have joined forces, just as online booking sites have partnered with hoteliers and tourist companies to package deals that include attractive extras like free transfers and breakfast offerings. For example, Al Rostamani Travel and Holidays offers incentives, such as lounge access and airport transfers, to HSBC customers who use their credit cards to pay for the holiday.
If you’re serious about saving money on your travels this year, it’s worth shopping around for the best rewards and the extras on offer before booking the first thing you see.
Recently released data shows that Dubai International Airport has overtaken London’s Heathrow as the world’s busiest airport for international passengers, recording about 70.4 million passengers in 2014, and with the airport forecasting passenger numbers to hit 103.5 million by 2020 and passenger numbers at Abu Dhabi International Airport expected to reach 27 million next year, the UAE is more of a travel hub than ever – and home to some of the most seasoned travellers in the world.
So if you’re in the process of planning your next holiday and you’re not sure which way to go – online or agent – remember, it all comes down to personal preference. After all, every traveller is different.
mhealy@thenational.ae
