Before the advent of the Internet - people had to pay a premium to get their vacations and business trips booked by someone else with little or no hassle.

Now, things have changed. Travel agents must be cheap and good in order to survive in the age of Internet, where people can easily by-pass them and their services.

Travel agents have had to lower their prices and fees to compete with the internet. Most have access to the internet, where there are many sites that enable them to quickly and easily make all travel arrangements on their own.

In addition, airlines and hotels have their own websites, so they have upped the prices they charge travel agents to encourage people dealing directly online with them. Because of these factors, travel agencies have had to lower their prices considerably in order to compete, and the result are cheap travel agents these days.

Being cheaper does not mean that travel agents can have lower quality in their services. On the contrary, they must offer many more services than they used to in order to attract customers and have more business. Besides airlines and accommodation, cheap travel agents may book entertaining activities for you, such as scuba lessons on a tropical vacation or lift tickets on your skiing trip.

Moreover, cheap travel agents must offer you some sources of valuable information that you may not access on the internet. For example, they can tell which companies are reputable and which have had problems. They are also experienced in dealing with local customs if you are traveling abroad, and are very knowledgeable about the weather, food and water quality to give you good advice. They can even provide you with a personal insight into the area you are traveling .You might not be able to find in an online search all of the information mentioned above. Besides services and information, cheap travel agents can also do all the legwork for you. Basically, they can carry out all you want in your travel plan.

Cheap travel agents save you a lot of time and some money as they know what hotels and airlines are the cheapest to give you the best deal. With travel agents, you can get away from the trouble of trying to investigate many websites and compare the constantly changed hotel and airplane ticket prices.

So if you don't have the time or the interest in surfing through various websites looking for airfare or hotel deals, using the services of a reputable and inexpensive travel agent are a good idea.

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