Carol Larocca, a Caribbean destination specialist with Empress Travel Lindenhurst, past president of the Long Island Chapter of the Caribbean Tourism Organization and past recipient of the CTO Travel Agent of the Year Award, defended the the travel agent community against comments being made by two mega online agencies during a MasterClass panel on “Technology: Driving the Business of Tourism – Where are We Now and Where are We Heading?” at the 28th Caribbean Tourism Conference taking place here.

Larocca fielded questions about the ability of travel agents to provide service against the statements made by Laura Veglia, the Caribbean regional director for Expedia, and Michael Remedios, global chief information officer of Lastminute.com that the mega online agencies are the new travel agents in the age of technology.

Lastminute.com’s Remedios told delegates that there are “changes in consumer buying habits and the outlook is good, but to take advantage you need the technology to succeed.”

Expedia’s Veglia noted that Expedia spends about 25% of its advertising budget on search engines and “you have to be on search engines to succeed today.”

Larocca admitted that there was a time when “we were the only show in town, and now we have to get into the modern age” that that a lot of the bookings reported by the online agencies “are our travel agent bookings.”

According to Expedia’s Veglia, search engine marketing is only one aspect of the business, adding: “It’s about the experience they (the consumer) have when they get to your site.”

Lastminute.com’s Remedios added: Customers like the ability to put something unique and personal together and that’s what our sites enable them to do.”

But Larocca countered that travel agents have been doing that forever.

“We provide service because our clients live in such a busy world and they want our help and they want us to be accountable when we book their vacations,” she told the panel.

Meantime, the travel agent community got some encouragement from Larry Lynch, vice president for E-commerce at Travel Impressions, who reiterated his company’s “strong commitment” to the travel agent community.

“We’re investing in technology and the numbers are only going up for online purchasing. With that in mind, we are looking to re-invent the travel agent relationship to help them compete which will help us as well as the agencies stay in business,” he said.

Lynch admitted that a few years ago he would have thought the traditional travel agents “were going away, but now we clearly see that travel agents too must change with the changing times along with tour operators. We’ve enabled travel agents to book on line and made it highly flexible with dynamic packaging for them.”

Ashwin Kamlani, director of E-commerce for Sol Melia Hotels and Resorts, said the online agencies have allowed the hotels to create better revenue management and to adjust rates with the changing demand and this has been a beneficial impact for the hotels, but has adversely impacted the tour operator model.

He warned agents not to try and build their own web sites, but to hire a full-time expert that can do it right. He added that the Internet has “completely changed the way we do business and that e-commerce is no longer just a segment of the business, but a way of doing business.”

Paul Motter, founder and co-owner of Cruisemates.com urged travel agents to compete with their suppliers to survive, but also to specialize and find their niche.

“Become an expert in something and it will get you quoted and get you free branding,” he advised.