Not only are travel advisors not going anywhere — there might even be more travel advisors serving clients post-pandemic.
That was one of the key takeaways from a recent panel of Internova Travel Group executives shared by John Lovell, president of Travel Leaders Group, a division of Internova (formerly called Travel Leaders Group).
"We are seeing an uptick in new clients reaching out to travel advisors,” Lovell said. “We haven’t reinvested in our website, but during the last four weeks we’ve achieved pre-pandemic levels of referrals to advisors.”
We haven’t reinvested in our website, but during the last four weeks we’ve achieved pre-pandemic levels of referrals to advisors.
Lovell was not the only executive to say that the interest in selling travel as a career — and using a travel advisor — remain strong.
Angie Licea, president of Global Travel Collection, the luxury division of Internova, says there has been unprecedented interest in the brand’s New to Industry Travel Advisor Bootcamp, which relaunched in January.
"I’m surprised by the number of inquiries we’ve gotten from both new-to-industry and experienced advisors,” she said. “The pandemic gave people the opportunity to assess where they want to be in their lives. People are looking for tools to be plugged in.”
Internova’s executives are not alone in their findings. Oasis Travel Network found that, in 2020, new-to-industry entrepreneurs were 2.5 times more likely to join the host agency than experienced travel advisors.
“This tells us the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well, and also that people are looking for a new career for many different reasons,” said Kelly Bergin, president of Oasis Travel Network, in January.
And this month, Virtuoso shared that requests to be connected with a travel advisor “doubled from June to September 2020, and January 2021 brought renewed optimism with as much as a 50% increase over December in requests.”
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