Europe is in the top three most-booked destinations for the majority (88%) of travel advisors from host agency Travel Experts.
Other destinations that make advisors’ top three list for 2022 bookings are domestic vacations (42%), cruises (38%), Mexico (38%), the Caribbean (34%), river cruises (29%), South America (17%), Hawaii (8%) and Central America (8%).
Eighty percent of advisors report an increase in business for the fourth quarter of 2021, and nearly all advisors (96%) are seeing a steady flow of bookings for 2022.
New Variants Continue to Affect Travel Advisor Business
Despite the uptick, advisors are still seeing the effects of the pandemic on their business.
The pandemic doesn’t seem to be slowing down our business, but every trip takes longer to plan than before,” said Jennifer Martin of Nashville Luxury Travel. “And we always feel like disaster in the form of some new variant is looming around the corner. Our mindset is realistic and optimistic."
It is very difficult to get people to book close in when rules and flight schedules keep changing.
Linda de Sosa, leisure travel consultant for Bucketlist Travel Consulting in Houston, had clients recently cancel their December bookings.
“Some for fright, others for new quarantine rules,” she said. “It is very difficult to get people to book close in when rules and flight schedules keep changing.”
Eileen Anderson, luxury travel advisor for Travel Experts in Raleigh, N.C., said that her clients are leaning toward mid-to-late 2022 for planning to avoid repeated cancellations.
