UPDATE:
ASTA CEO Tony Gonchar sent us a letter to the editor. Gave it a post in its own right - Tnooz and others are wrong when they say Barack Obama is right.
ORIGINAL:
Forget the Libyan revolution, debt crisis and the US presidential elections in 2012, Barack Obama needs to concentrate on making peace with travel agents.
Or so representative groups and commentators would have the industry believe.
Obama was speaking at an event in his home state of Illinois in the US last week (captured below on Fox News), discussing the economy and growth, when he said the following (go to 1min 00 secs):
"… one of the challenges in terms of rebuilding our economy is businesses have gotten so efficient that - when was the last time somebody went to a bank teller instead of using the ATM, or used a travel agent instead of just going online? A lot of jobs that used to be out there requiring people now have become automated."
Cue an inevitable angry reaction from the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA).
CEO Tony Gonchar issued a statement:
"While the President’s intention surely was not to disparage the travel agency industry, his statement makes clear the need for greater education and understanding of the important role travel agents play in today’s travel marketplace.
"ASTA has communicated with the President to ensure he understands the contribution travel agent make to the economy."
ASTA is absolutely correct in trying to uphold the profile of its members, any decent industry representative organisation should.
But the reality is perhaps somewhat different.
Being a political leader is not a popularity contest, and Obama perhaps more than anyone understands this after quite a dramatic fall from grace in recent years.
All Obama is saying is that times change (especially when technology is involved) and that, inevitably, people and consumer behaviour change with it. Automation and efficiency almost always leads to less of something being required, in this case travel agents, but he is a long way from saying agents are dead.
In some respects ASTA is trying to pick a fight it cannot win, because Obama is actually right. Indeed, should a leader go out of his or her way NOT to highlight changes to business processes, for fear of upsetting pockets of those affected by it?
You decide...