CCRA and OSSN Travel Agent Survey Reveals That "Home-Based Agents" Prefer To Be Called "Independent Travel Professionals"
Fort Worth, Texas (PRWEB) September 09, 2014 -- CCRA and OSSN today announced the results of a travel agent survey that revealed interesting insight into the job title preferences of travel agents who work from home. The significant findings of this survey revealed that the majority of travel agents who work from home or outside a traditional travel agency environment prefer the professional title, "Independent Travel Professionals" and do not feel that the term, "Home Based Travel Agent" adequately describes their offerings as a full-service travel advisor.
This survey was a joint effort by CCRA and the Outside Sales Support Network (OSSN) and was distributed to both CCRA registered travel agents and OSSN members throughout August. The survey first asked travel agents who work from home to rate five professional job titles based on their personal preferences. Below is a summary of the "most preferred" job titles that the survey respondents selected, in descending order based on the total percentage of votes:
• Independent Travel Professional - Most preferred name – 32 percent of the total votes
• Other – 25 percent of the total votes
• Travel Agent – 20 percent of the total votes
• Home Based Travel Agent - 10 percent of the total votes
• Independent Travel Agent – 8 percent of the total votes
• No response – 5 percent
The survey also requested that travel agents separately rate how they felt about the commonly used term, "home-based agent." The results for this rating revealed that the overwhelming majority of respondents (40 percent) felt that there was a better term to describe their robust offerings than the term, "home-based agent." While 19 percent of the respondents remained indifferent to the term, 17 percent "liked" it because it has been around for a long time whereas 12 percent "hated" it and felt that the term carried negative misperceptions about their full-time professional travel advisor roles and their full service travel agency offerings.
Said Dic Marxen, President and CEO of CCRA, "Since CCRA acquired OSSN earlier this year, the premier association for travel professionals who work outside of a traditional agency setting, we have been working hand-in-hand with Gary Fee, President of OSSN, to gain further insight into the changing needs of this growing segment of travel planning professionals. We were delightfully surprised by the results and wanted to share this information with the travel industry, so that travel agents who work remotely may be more appropriately identified as independent travel professionals and recognized for the diverse range of offerings and services that they provide."
Added Gary Fee, President of OSSN, "This survey has vast implications for the travel industry as a whole, and has provided OSSN with extremely useful information for how we can better support our independent travel professional members moving forward. The term "home-based agent" has long represented travel agents who work from a home office or outside a traditional travel agency but, as our survey results revealed, this term is outdated. It does not adequately reflect the technology advances that have led to today’s changing workplace dynamics including the "non-traditional" workplace settings that many companies, including travel agencies, are adopting. Working remotely has become commonplace and we look forward to continuing to support this growing segment of professional travel advisors."
CCRA continuously strives to gain personal and professional insights from the travel agent community through monthly surveys that are featured on the CCRA Travel Agent Blog. These surveys not only provide regular opportunities for travel agents to win prizes courtesy of CCRA and CCRA suppliers, but they also help CCRA’s growing network of company divisions to better provide the resources, tools and offerings that travel professionals need to enhance their business and overall success. CCRA remains committed to serving the needs of travel agents who work from home, as this is a large segment of the registered travel agents who benefit from using the CCRATravel.com hotel booking portal and the new CCRA AirSelect Central web-based airline booking engine.
ABOUT CCRA
Based in Ft. Worth, Texas, CCRA Travel Commerce Network has been a global solutions provider for the travel industry for more than four decades, dedicated to bringing together travel planning professionals and suppliers around the world via marketing and technology. The company is comprised of the CCRA Call Center Solutions, CCRA Global Business Development, CCRA Hotel Partner Solutions, and CCRA Air Partner Solutions. In 2014, CCRA acquired the Outside Sales Support Network (OSSN) and Travel Retail Universal Enumeration, Inc. (TRUE) with the goal of furthering the company’s global expansion initiatives. For more information, visit http://www.ccra.com.
Marlene Oliver, NJC Communications, 305-491-0512, [email protected]
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