The travel agency in the digital age.

Travel agencies are being increasingly repressed from the tourism market by a new rival – Internet. The consequence is the tourism companies’ independence from intermediaries and the decrease of costs, including the costs for users of tourism services. Does this way of direct purchase mean the exclusive benefits for both producers and clients? Will it dominate in the future or the adherence towards intermediaries will survive and even reach a new expansion? Which are the benefits and which flaws of both mentioned ways of purchase? – These are just some of the questions tried to be answered in this work.
In contemporary tourism, technology enables travelers to make travel arrangements in various ways, for example they can reserve tickets directly from airlines company’s website or purchase products From online travel agencies. Considering that travelers have many alternatives but insist in making Transactions with traditional travel agencies, there must be something that makes traditional travel agency a valuable object. The research sets out to find out why traditional travel agency survives and what value it presents. The thesis is therefore a value study specific in the pre-consumption stage. It is believed that the value construct is constituted by value preposition offered by company and customer perceived value. Therefore, the study looks into perspectives from both service provider and customers. The results suggest that traditional travel agencies have evolved their business model in many aspects and offer greater value preposition so as to secure their position in the value chain. Also, despite possibilities in making travel arrangements independently, under several circumstances, travelers express specific need to purchase services from traditional travel agency. Four specific scenarios are identified. Further, it is recognized that traditional travel agencies possess both cognitive value and affective value, while the cognitive one determines traveler’s willingness to visit the store
and pay for the services.