Hong Kong prides itself on being a center of technology and commerce, so it may seem strange that one basic service is decidedly low-tech. At a time when the world is growing ever smaller, the travel business still takes an awful lot of manpower to navigate.
In America, travel is increasingly the domain of Internet sites like Travelocity and Orbitz. The business in Hong Kong, however, is still face-to-face. A visit to the travel agent is less a friendly conversation and more a battle of wits. The agent has a destination in mind for the client, the client has another. Your vacation hangs in the balance.
Ivan and I have been having a heated exchange over the past week. We are by now well-acquainted, as we have hammered out several trips already. He works at my favorite travel agency, a cheap place located in the shopping district of Mong Kok. His agency's office is tucked into a back corner on the fourth floor, crammed with 15 eager agents seated around a long U-shaped table.
There were no other customers on Monday afternoon. Eight agents perked up when I strolled through the glass door.
Ivan greeted me with a warm smile and a "hello." He gave a glare to the other agents to indicate that I was his customer.
"Hi." A pause. "I want to get a plane ticket to..."
"You want to go to Taiwan!" Ivan finished my sentence for me. I did not want to go to Taiwan. I had already been, two months earlier, and it was Ivan who had sold me the ticket.
I was there for a ticket to Phuket, in the south of Thailand. Ivan did not seem too pleased with the destination. He fiddled with his mouse, and checked his messages on MSN before searching the computer. He pulled up a screen showing several three-, four-, and five-star hotels. When I told him I was not interested in a hotel, he brought up a screen of even more expensive packages.
He was not one for small-talk. Little comments about the tsunami met with no reply. I asked Ivan if he had ever been to Phuket, and which beach was his favorite. He did not answer the question, but deflected it with a general comment about tsunami damage on one particular beach. The best deals, he said, were to be found on the southwest side of the island. He showed me some four-star hotels that were on the beach.
We went back and forth for the better part of the hour. I finally was able to put in a request for three plane tickets to Phuket. There was, however, a problem - the airline did not have a computer system. It would be a day before I would know if I had gotten my plane ticket. Ivan was confident he could get the tickets.
The next day I spoke to Ivan on the phone. He sounded frazzled. There were no tickets on the day I requested. Everyone was going to Thailand on the same day as me. He suggested that I leave the next day. "There is only a small surcharge," he said. When pressed, he admitted the surcharge was almost $200, or more than double the cost of the ticket. Ivan seemed shocked when I balked at the amount.
I asked him if there were tickets for the price we had agreed on the day before. He was evasive, trying to lure me into expensive packages or through additional air miles. Eventually, we settled on another flight, which would require leaving three days earlier and coming back in the middle of the weekend, and paying slightly more than the first fare.
In the battle over travel, it seemed like a victory. Ivan and I are not chummy, but we do need each other. I have used other travel agents, and it has been much worse. One agent would quote a fare and then immediately say, "Will you consider?" She said this for every single fare for an hour.
Another agent asked several times why an American would be traveling with a Canadian and a Swede (we all go to university). Ivan at least was pleasant in trying to reroute my destination and upgrade me to business class.
The dominance of the Hong Kong travel agent may soon be under threat. Discount airlines, including Malaysia's Air Asia and Thailand's Orient Thai, are beginning to service the region. AirAsia does not use travel agents; rather, it sells fares directly on the Internet.
The huge travel centers that currently dominate, with their pictures of tropical beaches and exotic temples, may soon be replaced with shopping malls and fusion restaurants. Down the street from Ivan's agency, Langham Place, a 12-story futuristic shopping mall just opened.
Ivan and company have a right to be worried. If things get too bad, however, they can always head over to Taiwan.
Jon Schubin is a junior majoring in political science. He can be reached at jonathan.schubin @tufts.edu.
