The Value of Travel Agents - Customer Service

I recently posted the summary of the presentation by Steve Barnhart, CEO of Orbitz. One the key points presented by Mr. Barnhart is that technologies are very good at aggregating and distributing travel product and controlling costs while increasing profitability, but they are not very good at improving the customer experience. He then went on to say that we, as an industry, should be focusing our efforts on using technologies to improve customer service. I emphatically agree with this point of view and yet I ask the question, why bother? Can technology really be used as a good substitute... Read more »