Exit Magazine, Death of the high street? Don't write it off just yet.
20 May 2008
Pick up any business magazine and you will probably see an article extolling the benefits of online shopping, the rise of disintermediation, and the impending death of the high street shopping experience. Of course, we know these prophecies of doom are perhaps a little exaggerated to make a wider point but there is clearly a consensus here. One that says that retail life as we know it is changing, and the biggest casualties will be the shops that line our high street.
This school of thought is especially present in the travel industry. Moreover, the predictions are proving true. Over the first three months of 2008 a number of the big high street travel agents have announced store closures to focus on their online initiatives. Are the days of the traditional travel agent numbered? Over the last five years, there has been a rapid rise of online-based agencies and operators. Thousands of travellers have planned their vacation from their laptops. Yet there is something missing from the virtual travel agent. For whilst online makes it easier, should not an in store, physical experience be everything that the internet just sometimes can't match - personal, physically stimulating, exciting, and dare I say it, have a little more soul to it?
Yes, you can't touch holidays in the way you can physical goods and therefore that can negate the need for a store and I also know that I for one regularly wax lyrical about the benefits of being an online travel operator. But for the last two years, something has been nagging at me, saying that whilst it's not the re-birth of travel presence on the high street, there is life in the old dog yet.
So where do these thought that fly in the face of the technologically geared and online driven day-to-day existence come from? It stems mainly from a reaction to what was out there in terms of a travel store experience and the question, if I am looking to book the holiday of a lifetime what service would I want?
Firstly, the traditional travel high street travel agent has never been the most inspiring of places. Stepping into a store to be confronted by row upon row of brochures in stands set ina drab space with office chairs hardly gets the travel juices flowing. Add that to the queues and the (sometime) impression that your questions are met with a 'just look at the brochure' stare and you begin to wonder why you bothered. And here's the irony - travel is one of the most inspirational experiences you can have, so why create one of the most uninspiring environments around to try and sell it? It doesn't stack up to me. Which brings me to the second point: If I'm looking to plan an epic voyage, is this really the best way to do it? Maybe not.
So where am I heading with this? In short, my company has recently opened a travel store in London's Shoreditch area. The aim is to be the antithesis of everything that the traditional travel agent used to be. We hope that our company excites, inspires, provokes some intrigue and most of all gets people really wanting to travel. It's not a master plan to rejuvenate the high street, more a desire to allow people to come and see us, find out what we are about and have a chat about travel plans. If you are looking for an unforgettable holiday or booking a complex trip, that's the least we can do. There's a lot of interesting features, from graffiti murals of Mexico (more of that in a second) by street artist the Krah, to interactive window installations, artefacts and objects sourced on our continuous travels, and to the delight of many, a bar. We are also 'becoming' a country every other month - right now we are Mexico and later in the year we will be Iceland, Namibia, Chile, New Zealand and Finland. Sounds odd but it works. Well, we think so, but even better would be for you to come and judge for yourself. Death of the high street? We'd prefer to say a lapse and we are doing our best to give it a much-needed jolt.
