ASTA releases its annual Supplier-Travel Agent Marketing report

American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) announced that it has released its annual Supplier-Travel Agent Marketing Report. ASTA conducted its annual Supplier - Travel Agent Relationship Marketing survey in March this year to assist travel agencies and suppliers in understanding and benchmarking typical agency-supplier business arrangements. The survey covered preferred supplier relationships, booking channels used, incentives and the usefulness of supplier education programmes. The survey was conducted using the ASTA Research Family panel of agencies.  The ASTA Research Family is comprised of a representative sample of ASTA member travel agency owners and managers. The report indicates a 95 per cent confidence with an error rate +/- 4.3 per cent.

The survey report revealed that the majority of agencies (69.4 per cent) do not provide incentives to front-line agents for booking with preferred suppliers, the expectation being that travel agents will do what is best for the client and use preferred vendors when appropriate.