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Travel Agents. I remember growing up they were all over the place and people had to go to them to book flights and hotels or buy package holidays.
They're all but gone now. I'm vaguely aware there may still be some specialist ones left catering to elderly boomers?
Its an entire business and career path thats completely gone, replaced by websites and at a push generic call centres (some people still book over the phone I guess?)
Here in Japan, travel agents are still around. The brick and mortar ones have actually branched out to offer their services online, too.
I assume they mostly survive on people who want to book a package tour, which are insanely popular here.
Some of them will now charge a consultation fee whether you buy something or not, so you can see how the industry is hurting.
Although I'm not a boomer, I did use one last year as they are great for just showing you all the options in a very clear way. With just an hour to spare to book a family trip, it was the way to go (for me at least).
I do think that next time I will use them to consult, but then book online to avoid their fee. Also, it seems that booking though the agent makes the ticket less flexible (the airline will lock out some parts of their website and tell you to have the agent do the thing which you wanted to)
So, yeah, it'll be just like shopping. Go to the store to look and get info, then buy online to save money.
Until Covid one of my co workers was a travel agent. It’s a not insignificant field. People still want to plan their trip and need some advice and would rather pay someone who knows their shit vs digging through the internet.