Customer retention strategies for disintermediated travel agents: How to stop customers from migrating to online booking channels

Remaining relevant to customers and retaining customers who could consider booking online, requires travel agents to modify their marketing strategies. Travel agents need to find new ways to add value for customers and suppliers to reinstate their roles in the travel distribution process and ultimately retain their customers. A total of 600 travel agencies in South Africa participated in the study through the completion of an online survey. The data analysis technique used for the study was path analysis. The findings stipulate that travel agency owners and managers believe that providing differentiated products to their leisure customers, is the key to winning back lost customers and keeping existing customers. Travel agency owners and managers further indicated that this is an existing reintermediation strategy that they plan to practise in the future as well. It is therefore recommended that travel agents focus on delivering high-quality service to win back lost customers and thus reintermediate their businesses.