Universal Tour & Travel Service Inc., a fixture on the island since 1954, will close its doors for good at the end of this year. The triple whammy of the events of Sept. 11, airlines cutting commissions paid to travel
Universal Tour & Travel Service Inc., a fixture on the island since 1954, will close its doors for good at the end of this year.
The triple whammy of the events of Sept. 11, airlines cutting commissions paid to travel agents and agencies, and the economic downturn with no rebound in site led Lynne T. Matsumura, Universal president, to make the decision.
Prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackings of airliners and attacks, “we thought, OK, we could cope with the cuts,” Matsumura said of airlines announcing they would put caps on commissions paid to agents selling tickets for airline seats.
The decision to close the agency that her parents started was painful, “but I think it’s the right thing to do,” she said. “It’s the prudent thing to do.”
Her parents, Kiyoshi and Fumiko Sasaki, started the company in 1954. Since then, other agents who have moved on to open their own agencies, or remained in the travel industry as airline salespeople, can credit their origins in the industry to time spent at Universal.
After sending out a letter to customers earlier this month announcing the closure, Matsumura said she received positive feedback from many clients. The comments “make us feel good about what we’re doing, but I still don’t think it would change things. It wouldn’t change my decision,” she said.
While other agents in her office have pretty much decided to leave the travel-agent profession, Matsumura hasn’t decided what she will do.
“I don’t know. I need to work,” she said.
Some work for certain clients will extend into the new year, but Universal isn’t taking any new customers.
“We want to assure you that we are financially sound,” Matsumura said in the letter to clients. Airline credit vouchers may be applied to new bookings prior to the agency’s closing or forwarded to customers, and gift certificates will be honored or refunded, the letter states.
While there are no other agencies on Kaua’i thought to be in similar danger of closing, the Hawai’i president of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) thinks the new year will see agencies consolidate or find other ways to survive an extremely unstable marketplace.
“Our business has been absolutely terrible since the 11th of September,” said Mary Lou Lewis, ASTA Hawai’i president and part-owner and manager of Carl Erdman Travel and H&L Travel Associates on O’ahu. “People were canceling and just not rebooking, putting off travel. At least they have been for the last couple of months. I think that some travel agencies certainly are thinking about closing.”
Regarding the consolidations, Lewis need look no further than her agencies, which will consolidate in the new year.
Lewis is confident that Hawai’i travel – inbound and outbound, resident and visitor – will eventually rebound.
“I do think that people from Hawai’i are used to traveling, and it will come back. I don’t think there’s any question,” said Lewis.
Agencies are busy booking holiday travel, and immediately after the terrorist events were helping travelers not necessarily among their clients get to and from the state once airports reopened.
“I hope that once people get over the fear of going on an airplane for five hours that Hawai’i will come back. Because you walk into Waikiki, and it is a ghost town,” Lewis said. “I think once we’ve had a good, safe period of time, as far as air travel goes, that Hawai’i will come back strong, because it is America, and people love it. It’s a great destination. I think that our inbound traffic will be very good.
“And people in Hawai’i like to travel, so I think that that will come back, too. They’re not afraid to go off in an airplane for five hours, because that’s the only way we can get away from the islands.”
“It’s very sad” about Universal’s closure, Lewis said, adding, “I’m sorry for any that are closing.”
Lewis said that the events of Sept. 11 and the aftermath showed the potential trouble for those who book travel online, either with discount services or the airlines. “Nobody was there to help them,” so stranded travelers turned to travel agents for assistance, she said.
“I do think that it’s made a big statement for probably using a travel agent in the future, and I do think that people who didn’t use the Internet before may think twice about it in the future,” Lewis continued. “There is a place for travel agencies, definitely. We do serve a very important role to the consumers, I think.”
Travel agents provide personal contact and other services that travelers can’t get via the Internet or by calling the airlines, she said.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
