In praise of travel agents

Author Elizabeth Becker was interviewed by Sales and Marketing Management, and at one point priased travel agents:

I gained a renewed respect for travel agents after traveling around the world for this book.

Sales and Marketing Management asked a follow-up question:

You mentioned in an interview on your website that you learned that lesson the hard way. Can we get more details?

Becker replied:

I conducted an experiment on my own to see how well I could navigate and act as my own travel agent through Brazil. Even though I had the map out and I went through all of these different websites, I had the craziest itinerary and I eventually had to drop one leg of it because I was crisscrossing the entire country. It was like a spaghetti noodle. It was horrible.

Becker's book is entitled Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism. A review of the book, which explores some of Becker's criticism of what is happening to travel, can be found here.