Do you need a flight anywhere in the world? From Lagos to Vladivostok? A hotel on Copacabana beach? An hour exploring the internet will find you dozens of choices. So how can a travel agent survive in this DIY world? Aren't they all going to wither on the branches and fall away?
But wait a minute, some travel agents have never done better business. They operate flat chat. So what's their secret of survival in our changing business world?
I asked my long-time friend Anne Rogers how she did it. For three decades she has weathered the storms of the internet flood, the changes in business in her Wings Away Travel Agency in Essendon. She is still here, in fact the business is healthier than ever, even as scores of other agents disappear from the high streets. What does she know about the internet - or her business?
"The Internet will only take business from you if you are not adding value to the product you supply," she says emphatically. "If you just want a flight to London you can do it yourself," she's the first to tell the one-stop customer how to do it; in fact her agency handles very few domestic bookings - with all the bargains advertised there is no point, and very little profit.
No, the business walks in as soon as things start to get difficult. "They come to us because to organise a multi-faceted trip on the internet - well you wouldn't live long enough to get it right," she smiles. By the time you've coordinated the best fares, travel times, hotels, side trips, car hire - you're wrestling an octopus.
Years ago in London I spent a day on the phone trying to change the return flight to Australia, to no avail. Then in desperation I called my Melbourne agent and one of Anne's girls took up the battle. Lord knows what time it was around the world, but in an hour she had rung me back with the problem fixed.
This is a major lesson from the internet. Business is not just turning out the goods and punching the till. We have to offer our customers what they can't do by themselves, much of which comes from our length of practice and experience.
Cruising is growing massively these days. It has boomed as a holiday choice, and in turn the ships have become floating palaces. No more deck quoits and watching the gulls. Each ship has a dozen different restaurants, music and variety shows, gourmet food and fine wines.
The escorted tours are dazzling - just from Australia you can sail with Marina Prior, Elaine Paige, John Waters, even have a Countdown cruise with Molly Meldrum and Daryl Braithwaite. Would you prefer the tropical moonlight rockin with Jimmy Barnes or serenaded by hunky baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes?
Anne - like the other dedicated travel agents - spends a lot of her year sampling their products. (I know it's a hard job but somebody has to do it...)
It means an agent can give you up to date advice whether from the Rockies or Himalayas, the Amazon or Siberia, African game parks or Antarctica.
And boy, aren't people getting adventurous these days? Cruising starts in the 40s, the "junior retirees", Anne calls them. The advantage of a cruise ship is that even the slow and creaky don't have to be house-bound.
"I know they make a lot of jokes about zimmer frames and wheel chairs on the ships, but a cruise makes these exotic destinations available to them." And Anne's mission is to bring the exotic to all.
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