Despite the long-standing frustrations with providers and constant flight changes, delays and cancellations, travel chaos isn’t entirely bad for travel advisors, say executives at five hosting agencies and franchise companies.
(In other installments of this series, we talked to executives about how the first half of 2022 went overall, the unexpected influx of new talent, and what they expect for the rest of the year.)
The Frustration is Real … “You can’t turn on the news today without hearing that a thousand flights have been canceled, so it’s completely disruptive,” said Kathryn Mazza-Burney, president of NEST, about how the chaos of the summer air is. influencing travel advisors.
“They’re definitely dealing with chaos with the airlines,” said Michelle Fee, founder and CEO of Cruise Planners. “There are still long times of holding … each reserve lasts twice as long as it could because they are discontinued.”
“It’s very frustrating,” added Jackie Friedman, president of Nexion Travel Group. “But clearly that means people are traveling.”
Jeff Anderson, co-chair of Avoya Travel, agreed. “A headache? Sure … It can be really bad when someone cancels their trip. That’s a major problem, but we don’t see that preventing people from continuing to shop and buy vacations.”
Debbie Fiorino, COO of World Travel Holdings, Dream Vacations’ roofing company, echoed Anderson. “Our customers are dealing with a lot of stress and frustrations, but they’re still booking and they’re still traveling.”
Same Frustration Driving Consumers to Advisors A mess at the airport, or stories of canceled and delayed flights from friends or on TV are not just a sign that people have returned to travel extensively – and not discouraged by all the chaos.
It also highlights the value of travel advisors to people who may have forgotten that counselors still exist.
“I think what’s going on is some of the DIY, those who first do it themselves, now think‘ Oh my God, I don’t want to sit. I need to call a tour guide to help me, ”Fee said. “That kind of travelers are starting to understand the value of a good travel advisor.”
“Councilors do what councilors do best,” Mazza-Burney said. “He serves his accounts. They really show the consumer why it’s so important to use a travel advisor. “
Little Perspective Anderson told TMR when it comes to flights, he believes much of the chaos has been exaggerated.
“I think the recent problems have to be in perspective. There are still only a few percent of flights that are actually canceled … The number is too big, don’t get me wrong. You don’t want cancellations.”
But he said there are more delays than cancellations, adding that during a recent inspection of the FAA site, more than 42,000 flights were tracked. Of those, a few thousand were actually canceled.
Better than the alternative.Several executives TMR spoke with also wanted to remind travel advisors that travel chaos is much preferred than no one traveling.
“There’s a lot of stress, anxiety, frustration for travel professionals right now, whether it’s about COVID restrictions, whether it’s about airline problems,” Fiorino said. “But you know, it was only a few weeks ago that we saw the first ship return to the water. They have gone from worrying about whether or not they will survive a pandemic that has shut down the industry, to worrying about dealing with all this chaos. I would choose the second, every day of the week and twice a Sunday. “
Fiorino added that she does not want to downplay how stressful it can be for counselors. “But it’s such an important thing to keep in perspective. Just stop and think about where we were in 2020 … know these things are going to get better. We have businesses that are doing really well and we’re much too busy to keep up and that’s really good thing. “
Mazza-Burney said it’s one more example of how resilient the travel agency industry is.
“When the going gets tough, the tough advisors in this industry are really standing and shining. We’ve been through some really tough times. But advisors are here to stay.”
