Brick and Mortar Supply Chain for Travel Agents

. Brick and mortar supply chain for travel agents The supply chain for many brick and mortar travel agencies is not much different from the online travel agencies. Both the online travel agencies and the brick and mortar travel agencies have direct connections into a global distribution systems like Galileo and Sabre, ( Baldwin, 2002). However, the delivery of services from the brick and mortar agencies are much more personalized, because the agents and customers are able to interact with each other face to face. In a brick and mortar store, customers are able to walk in to the store to plan and purchase their travel services. In this scenario, the agents are given the opportunity to market other types of travel services to their customers. In the supply chain of business to customer, the brick and mortar agencies are facing strong competition from the online travel agencies and from their suppliers. The ease and conveniences that the online travel agencies provide has been a big risk for the brick and mortar agencies, especially when it comes to traveling by air. They` are being skipped in the supply chain by their supplier selling directly to the technology savvy `segment of the market. According to Gordon Baldwin, Assistant Director of Canada Transportation Division,
The threat to the brick and mortar travel agencies comes from increased competition from travel web sites and virtual travel agencies which consumers can easily reach to book travel. It also comes from those suppliers of the services that travel agencies sell (airlines, tour operators, hotels, car rentals, cruises) selling their products directly to consumers and by-passing travel agents in the supply chain. (2002).
The changing links of the supply chain has forced the owners of the brick and mortar travel agencies in a fight of survivability to keep their business and to maintain their profit margin. "The Airlines have cut the commissions they pay to travel agencies and now market their own

References: Cfares (2007). Online Travel Agencies, Retrieved on February 5, 2007, from http://www.cfares.com/onlinetravelagencies/ Tedeschi, B., (2005). Travel Services go from Web-only to brick-and-mortar, Retrieved on February 3, 2007, from http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600105252,00.html Baldwin, G. G., (2002) Quit Yanking My Supply Chain, Retrieved on February 3, 2007, from http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/50F0003XIE/50F0003XIE2000001.pdf