Finding a Travel Agency without the Internet
By Darren Cronian on Thursday, April 12th, 2007

Kim, a holidaymaker based in Leicester is looking for a travel agency, to book a holiday for her and her husband. She’s not comfortable booking online and doesn’t have time to visit all of the high street travel agents to get the best quotes.

Finding a Travel Agency without the Internet

She’s looking for recommendations, so what’s the best route for her to take. We forget that there are a large percentage of holidaymakers who are not comfortable with using the internet or paying for their holiday by credit or debit card.

The advice I gave Kim was to pick up her Yellow Pages, and look for travel agents in Leicester, get the telephone numbers written down and call them during her lunch break. Give the travel agents some examples of destinations she’d like to go, type of accommodation, length of stay etc and then look for the best deals.

Anyone have any suggestions to help holidaymakers, in the same situation?


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14 responses to “Finding a Travel Agency without the Internet”

Darren Cronian | 12 April, 2007 at 12:54 pm

A few suggestions I have just thought of;

Travel forums
Teletext on the TV.

Kevin May | 12 April, 2007 at 1:34 pm

Yell.com

hoho - lame joke. :-)

Darren Cronian | 12 April, 2007 at 1:48 pm

Thinks about buying Mr May a joke book for Christmas :D hehe

Come on Kev, you don’t have the internet, you work full time and can’t get to the travel agent.

What would YOU do? :)

Lee Harrison(owner Select World Travel Malvern) | 12 April, 2007 at 5:03 pm

Ask to be sent the AITO specialist Travel Agency List .

Darren Cronian | 12 April, 2007 at 9:28 pm

Sorry Lee, had to cut the comment down, I don’t want to advertise travel agencies, because if I let one do it, I’ll be swamped in spam comments. Hope you understand.

Where would consumers find the AITO list?

Nicholas Lee | 12 April, 2007 at 10:46 pm

Darren

To find an AITO Agent go to http://www.aitoagents.co.uk

Also as I said before, recommendation from friends, a work mate etc. is a good way.

My agency was a member but we saw no point staying 3 of my friends who own agency’s felt the same way.

Kevin May | 12 April, 2007 at 10:48 pm

Thomson Local Directory. Yellow Pages. Ask a friend…

Rohan | 12 April, 2007 at 11:15 pm

Word of mouth.

We’ve just booked to go to Prague in June.

The flight is with EasyJet and accommodation booked online through Active Hotels, and checked the reviews on the hotel site and Trip Advisor. This time last year I would not of thought of doing this, but thanks to this blog we’ve become a little more confident about doing so.

Darren Cronian | 13 April, 2007 at 3:17 am

Rohan,

You’ll love Prague.

Do a search on the blog for ‘prague’ and you’ll find a few posts about my trip there.

Also, make sure you take out good travel insurance, and I always take my debit or credit card JUST in case anything happens whilst your own there, i.e. flights cancelled etc.

Darren Cronian | 13 April, 2007 at 3:19 am

Lee/Nicholas,

Thanks for letting me know about the AITO list, never knew it existed and will be helpful for consumers looking for travel agents, especially since you can search by location etc.

Kevin May | 13 April, 2007 at 6:22 am

Pedants corner here: Aitoagents.co.uk sounds like a website to me. :-)

Darren Cronian | 13 April, 2007 at 6:30 am

Links to resources where people can find travel agents = fine.

Darren Cronian | 13 April, 2007 at 6:33 am

Ah, get what you mean.

Website = Internet.

Well spotted ;)

john mcneely | 26 April, 2007 at 4:04 pm

I found a travel agent who works from home and was absolutely fantastic. Try the
Travel Magician David Hoyle on 01484 846186. He certainly helped us with our enquiry.

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