The value of traditional travel agency in the digital age

Sammanfattning: 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.