Meeting The Challenges

After two decades as a leading light in the Canadian travel industry, Christine James of the Travel Leaders Network has seen some major evolutionary changes in the world of travel retailing. And she has been a significant participant in the movement of stand-alone agencies toward the umbrella of agency collectives and consortium, writes western Canada editor, Ted Davis in this week’s issue of Canadian Travel Press..

Recently, James took the opportunity to look back on those two decades of experience, sitting down with Canadian Travel Press, to talk about how those changes have benefitted travel retailers and shifted the process of travel selling.

“It’s no surprise that the industry and the consortium model have evolved drastically over the past two decades,” says James, who is the vice-president Canada for the TL Network. “The way suppliers manage their partnerships with consortia as well as retailers as a whole has changed, and all parties have had to adapt to that change in order to remain relevant.”

Technology has been a key element to surviving and thriving in the tough travel retailing market, and James confirms that technology has had a massive impact on the way that consumers source and purchase their travel, as well as the ways that travel advisors process those transactions on behalf of their clients.

“The key to the success of any industry, but the travel business in particular, is not only to be able to adapt to the rapidly changing dynamics, but to use technology to our advantage to deliver new customers to their members/travel advisors – in addition to making it easier for the travel advisors to process those transactions in a user-friendly manner.”

For the full story, check out this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press.