The travel landscape is ever-changing these days. It can be a bit unpredictable, which creates challenges for travel advisors.
While advisors are always there for their clients, the job certainly
isn’t easy, especially in today’s times. Top executives in the travel
industry share their best advice for travel advisors to start 2022.
Start slow, but stay on course
“There's lots of good tips. I think if I had to narrow it down, I
would say it's a combination of now's the time for them to put a price
to their expertise, then they should not be afraid to charge for their
services and they should start even slow such as posting a cancellation
fee,” Scott Wiseman, senior vice president and general manager of ALG
Vacations Corporation, said.
"So
they could say to the client: ‘I did all of this work and even though
you cancelled, you might get your money back from the cancel for any
reason insurance, I still need to be compensated for my work and my
efforts.’ I think it's time to put a dollar amount to it and to really
monetize what they're doing, and now is that the perfect opportunity to
do that. So that would be my big advice. Make yourself earn more through
all the things that you're actually doing for your client,” Wiseman
added.
Patience is a virtue
“I would remind [advisors] of that old adage that patience is a
virtue. I have heard from so many travel advisors about how many times
they've had to rebook and rebook an experience due to this pandemic and
my heart goes out to them because it's got to be challenging, but
exhale, be patient. We will get through this,” Terry Dale, president and
CEO of United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA) said.
Stay agile and nimble to prepare for the unexpected
“In addition to just keeping flexibility and patience, have some
backup plans in mind and even if they're templated for your clients. But
if you're client is buying this, have something in mind to switch them
to if something happens that whether it's a different destination, you
know, moving from a river cruise to a land cruise or whatever it is just
to have some backup plans," Elizabeth Crabill, CEO of CIE Tours
International, said.
Stand out from the crowd
Jeff Roy, executive vice president of Collette believes advisors
“should be selling the value that they provide, and they should
differentiate themselves on service. There's a lot of changes all the
time between booking and departure…there's a lot of information going
out from us on pre-travel requirements to on tour requirements and
re-entry requirements…take any of that pressure off their customers and
differentiate their service and they would command probably a higher
price for the package because that's really people looking for right
now.”
Another
way for travel agents to differentiate themselves, and to personally
reach out to potential clients, according to Carilis Felipe, director of
field sales at AIC Hotel Group would be to “engage with customers on
social media, especially Instagram and TikTok. Experiences will reign in
2022 and there will be plenty of opportunities to upsell these to their
clients.”
Choose the right partners
Charlie Ball, executive vice president of Holland America Group,
said: “If your customers have an opportunity to carefully and accurately
fill out any pre-trip information they [should] invest the time and
energy to do it and to look at their itineraries carefully. For any
travel agent who's choosing vacations, find partners that won’t leave
the customer stranded. We're still in a period of time where difficult
things happen to nobody's fault and different companies have different
policies about getting their guests home. Choose people that will stand
behind you as an agent."
Source: TravelPulse