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Gloria Bohan
Bohan is president, CEO and founder of Omega World Travel.
I was in Ireland on 9/11, playing golf at the Tralee Golf
Club with a group of golfers. It was a beautiful, sunny day.
I came back to the U.S. several days later, not knowing quite
what to expect.
It is a brave new world for travelers now. After the attacks,
with the airlines having so much trouble, we saw so much need
from customers asking for help. It was as if we had changed
from a travel management company negotiating air fares to
something more. It became "What are you doing to help
protect us because we have to travel?"
On the security side, just keeping people advised on new security
regulations has forced all agents to communicate better and
in different ways. We're more a part of that Blackberry culture
now, and we are acting more like consultants, offering help
instead of just acting as a travel manager. A whole different
realm of issues has emerged over these past five years.
Sept. 11 occurred as we were seeing significant growth of
the online travel agencies, with the purchase of airline tickets
becoming commoditized. But with the need for customers to
make changes because of airport delays or being shut down
over security incidents, even the online agencies saw that
they could not be just an online portal, and they morphed
into something more like full-service agencies. Even customers
going online see the need for more services, and I think that
is one post-9/11 development that will continue.
We still see crowded planes and security problems, and whether
it is a terrorist plot in London or a hurricane in the Caribbean,
we know we have customers who want more help. People are feeling
a need for the personal touch to help them wade through the
inconveniences travel presents. International travel, in particular,
has become a very big deal. Online products are very confusing,
even for my sharpest customers. So, we are doing a lot more
personal service, finding the appropriate car service, the
good restaurant or where to go for business services in Brussels,
for instance. We have gotten more and more of that. Things
have changed. It is a very new, very dynamic environment since
9/11.
About Omega World Travel
Recognized in the diversity field as the nation’s top
woman-owned business, Fairfax, Va.-based Omega World Travel
(OmegaTravel.com) was launched by Founder and President Gloria
Bohan as an independent travel agency in 1972. Now ranked
by Business Travel News as the number two private travel management
company in the U.S., over 1100 employees provide online travel
solutions—as well as personalized service at 200 locations
in 70 countries worldwide—to a diverse clientele: from
individual leisure travelers to Fortune 500 enterprises and
the federal government. Omega World Travel owns TravTech Inc.
(TravTech.com), a travel
technology provider, and Cruise.com, one of the Internet’s
largest cruise specialists.
Media Contact:
Michael Jordan
Omega World Travel
michaeljordan@owt.net
703-359-0200
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