The point is, the Internet-connected traveler (and that is quickly becoming a redundancy) can now do all of those many things herself — probably in less than an hour. You have in your hands a list of Internet sites claiming to provide precisely those services; as a Convention & Visitors Bureau, we wonder, should we be tracking these sites? Policing them for accuracy and fairness? Rating them? Partnering with them?

Sites like The Internet Travel Network provide one-stop shopping links to all these possible services; or the consumer might have a series of familiar and favorite sites, such as Microsoft Expedia, American Airlines Online, and HotelView, and use all of these to make reservations — even to perform quick, efficient comparison shopping.

Where do you want to go today?

Some people have claimed the Internet will inevitably be the death of the professional travel agent; and while you will see in a moment that is not necessarily true, it is true that every individual computer user with Internet access can now cut out the middle man and act as her own agent.

America Online, the largest single Internet access provider in the world, even has an entire section of their Travel Channel entitled Be Your Own Travel Agent. This should at least make us pause and reconsider the audience we are targeting as we write our copy and mail — electronic and otherwise — our brochures.

And everyone seems to want in on the travel/tourism business these days. It makes sense — according to the C|Net News Service, "travel represents one of the largest electronic commerce areas for consumers. [Therefore] Net businesses of many stripes — always eager to grab consumer dollars whenever possible — have responded."

Microsoft, Netscape, AOL, Yahoo! and other familiar Internet names now provide their own specialized Travel sections. In other words, people who "do the Web" for a living are now providing travel services and in many cases are wildly successful.

People who "do travel services" professionally aren’t necessarily providing Web services — and when they are, it’s not necessarily successful.

Where do you want to go today?

I do not mean to dismiss the very real effort many of our industry leaders are making toward incorporating technology into our everyday business. But I find some irony in the fact that as I prepared for this presentation, I was told I could have an overhead projector, a 35mm carousel slide projector with remote, as well as any handouts I may decide to give out.

When I spoke to our Bureau’s Internet Editor to discuss ideas for this presentation, he told me "I haven’t given a presentation since 1994 in which I didn’t have access to at least a Liquid Crystal Display unit. How are you going to talk about Internet technologies without looking at them live?"

Of course, I am doing just that, so it’s clearly possible — and possibly it’s even clear! But the fact is, we do not as an industry think "technology first" — and because we are a people-friendly industry, a hospitality-first-last-and-always business, we may never think that way. In fact, I hope we never do. But we have not done our jobs incorporating the new media, the changing expectations and demands of our clientele.

Let’s be honest just for a moment. Perhaps we are simply scared. A badly-designed or badly-maintained Web site is probably worse than none at all; an impersonal e-mail surely negative to the point of canceling out any positive follow-up phone call. Misinformation on the Net and Web can spread so quickly that we hesitate to use the medium for accurate information — these are real problems.

Where do you want to go today?

There are facts we must face. Here in Dallas, we can reasonably expect that by early 2000 — and that is just over a year away — the number of e-mail requests we receive at the Convention & Visitors Bureau will outnumber the number of phone calls and walk-ins to our office combined; that the number of visitors to our Web site in one month will approach the number of visitors to our downtown Visitors Center in one year; that our current stable of publications will either be mirrored in an electronic format, or in some cases actually replaced by electronic media.

This is not to suggest the number of phone calls we receive will decline, or the number of visitors to our downtown Visitors Center will decrease — in fact, those numbers are more likely to grow, if we do our job well. As more people become aware of us and what we offer through our electronic presence, the more traditional requests will follow. But — what is our job in the "E-Merging Marketplace," and how can we do it well? The answers are changing.

Where do you want to go today?

We can argue, I suppose, that technology is making travel more difficult for the everyday browser. One professional travel agent — the dying breed mentioned earlier — recently wrote in an Internet publication, "The fact is that the vast majority of people, who actually travel only two or three times a year, need professional help when it comes to interpreting the labyrinthine depths of airline rules and marketing schemes — or, for that matter, just about any detailed travel itinerary. Otherwise they will be eaten alive."

His comment does not necessarily address the real issues facing the current generation of traditional travel agents; whereas they used to be the ones to handle complicated travel details, they now must compete with self-service travelers who bargain-hunt on the Web believing — whether they are correct or not — they are saving time and money "doing it themselves."

Web sites are open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and users now have direct access to the very same reservations databases that travel agents and airlines have used for years. As of this past summer, four Internet-only travel agencies — Expedia, Preview Travel, Travelocity and Internet Travel Network — were ranked in the top 50 U.S. travel agencies.

The travel agent’s relevant point, of course, is that "real folks" will always be required — or at least desired — to help other "real folks" in face-to-face, or telephone conversations. As members of the hospitality industry, we are inclined to agree. But what do we do when the phone call comes and the question is too technical for an otherwise knowledgeable salesperson or representative?

Where do you want to go today?

At the Dallas CVB, we frequently get calls (and e-mail) asking us to confirm information a traveler found on CityView, CityGuide, CityLink, CityNet, CitySearch, DigitalCity — you get the idea. Or a complaint from a traveler who made reservations through a specific hotel Web site, or dinner plans based on a menu and map provided by an online dining guide. Again, we are left with the question, what is our job? To monitor? To "link"? To provide ratings and endorsements? To form partnerships?

The problem is, as we take our time formulating and asking these questions, the answers are already being provided — by the customers using the Internet daily, both at home as they plan their trips and while they are actually on the road, traveling. To borrow a phrase, our industry has not been made up of "Market Makers" on the Internet — we are passively watching the market take shape and wondering how to enter into the fray.

Kevin Jones, a reporter for Inter@ctive Week Magazine, recently wrote that "Internet Market Makers, a phrase being applied to the many new entries into the burgeoning world of electronic commerce, can provide more perfect information about markets, and a small, nimble player can create a shock wave in a huge industry right from the outset." Companies may feel threatened initially, but it is a new sales channel, and if we can't beat them, we will have to find some way to join them.

And as we consider how to join them — whether that be by competing or collaborating — we will, as we always have, be responsible enough to put the needs and expectations of our customers first. That is where we will run into some hard truths.

Where do THEY want to go today?

Think about the few well-known truths of marketing and sales — the customer wants clear choices, the best deal in the fastest turnaround time, and wants to feel they are treated well in a place where they can return to for quality repeat business. In the best of all worlds, the customer has a one-stop shopping experience and the name on the front of the store — as long as the product and price are satisfying — really doesn’t matter.

Shopping at Expedia as opposed to Travelocity doesn’t really make a difference to a consumer. Buying that American Airlines ticket with the frequent flyer miles — whether that’s accomplished through Preview Travel or through AA.com doesn’t really matter. Getting information about your destination city from CityView as opposed to CitySearch — what’s the difference? A brand name? Unfortunately (for the travel industry, anyway) the only "brand names" Web users tend to pay attention to are those of the provider. Netscape, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft.

Where do you want to go today?

In that one stop, the customer wants ...

• Integration — everything available in one place;
• Customization — to be treated like an individual as much as possible, especially where there is no personal interaction;
• Accessibility — in our world, this may mean multilinguality, frequently- updated data, and a clearly navigable design. Each of these individual aspects of "accessibility" could easily provide material for a full hour of presentation and conversation.

[Hand out press release.]

This Visitor Center, built into the first floor of the historic Dallas County Courthouse, goes beyond the traditional racks of brochures and maps. Certainly, we have the brochures and maps — but there is also a large-screen video room to show off Dallas sights and attractions, as well as a full staff available every day of the week.

More to the point of this presentation, we have eight interactive touchscreen kiosks showing off the very same information available on our data-driven Web page, as well as Internet access and Web stations for the walk-in user. The 21st-century traveler not only wants to use technology to plan her trip in advance — she wants to be connected while on the road. This too is a topic worthy of much conversation, but best suited for another time.

Where should I end this presentation today? (I suppose you might ask, where do I want to go today?) With a series of recommendations, suggestions, a call to action? Not precisely.

Instead, I leave you with an invitation to further discussion. If you’d like to spend more time talking about what we can and must do, I urge you to sign the sheet that is going around the room right now, and list your name and e-mail address; our Internet Editor at the Dallas CVB will create an e-mail discussion list for those of you interested, and we will take this conversation to its natural surroundings — online, where we as an industry have not spent nearly enough time.