On May 6, the United States Travel Operators Association (USTOA) hosted a Town Hall meeting that brought together travel advisors, destination marketing organizations and suppliers to listen and ask questions as a panel of industry leaders discussed key insights and strategies for moving forward from COVID-19.
Leading the discussion was Matthew Upchurch, CEO of Virtuoso. He was joined by Paul Barry, chairman of Avanti Destinations; Melissa DaSilva, president of Trafalgar; Dan Mahar, CEO of Tauck; Scott Nisbet, president and CEO of the Globus Family of Brands; and Dan Sullivan, Jr., CEO of Collette.
Easing Travelers’ Fears and Anxieties
Together, the group tackled a range of topics, starting with how travel advisors and suppliers can help clients — who each have their own specific comfort zones and levels of risk tolerance — to feel more comfortable traveling in today’s world. Three themes arose among the panelists in response: managing your clients’ expectations to avoid disappointments; being open, honest and clear about cancellations and refunds; and putting your clients at ease by demonstrating your preparedness and equipping them with destination-specific information.
“You can have all the protocols in place, but the reality is there’s so much information, that you need to help distill it down and communicate it to the guest,” DaSilva said. “We’re trying to relieve some of that anxiety before they depart by really helping them understand what exactly needs to be done for each destination.”
Trafalgar has gone as far as creating a new staff division, known as Wellbeing Directors, who specifically work to arm guests with all of the destination-specific information they need prior to departure.
Once you take away that fog of uncertainty, you have a simple business decision to make.
For Avanti Destinations, Barry explained that the company decided to vastly simplify its terms and conditions, so its travel advisor partners didn’t have to sift through and try to understand each complex situation.
With easier-to-understand policies, both agents and their clients know exactly what they’re committing to, he said.
“Once you take away that fog of uncertainty, you have a simple business decision to make,” Barry said.
Communicating the Benefits of Guided Travel
Recent surveys show that consumers who had never worked with a travel advisor prior to the pandemic are now more likely to do so for their post-pandemic trips. It seems that the pandemic has further highlighted the benefits of working with a professional to navigate the sometimes-tricky world of travel, and the panelists agreed that both advisors and tour operators must seize this opportunity to showcase that value to potential guests.
This value goes beyond navigating the pandemic and other top-of-mind issues that travelers usually think of, Tauck’s Mahar explained, citing terrorism as a common fear that travelers may express.
If you’re an independent traveler going somewhere now, you have to navigate potentially more than you have historically.
“It’s all the other stuff that impacts a travel experience somewhere that does require a degree of global response processes and people and experience,” he said. “We’ve all seen over and over again when something goes wrong in a given destination, and people come together to take care of the guests ... If you’re an independent traveler going somewhere now, you have to navigate potentially more than you have historically.”
DaSilva added that it’s also up to tour operators to communicate their value to travel advisors, who can then pass on that information to clients who have, in the past, been more reluctant to go on guided trips because of a perceived lack of freedom or authentic experiences.
“We are still seeing a lot of questions coming in about group size and things like that, but there seems to be no hesitation to going on a cruise ship with 1,000+ people,” DaSilva said. “So, I think it’s incumbent upon us to really seize upon this opportunity to talk about the benefits, and talk about all the amazing things that happen on our vacations, and make sure that travel advisors are armed with that same information so they overcome their own [historical] biases to sell into the benefits now.”
Travel Trends
When it comes to post-pandemic tour trends, the panelists pointed to sustainability as a topic that’s becoming increasingly important for both travelers and tour operators. They pointed to the potential opportunities that lie in helping travelers make their canceled trips a reality again, and also noted the increase in multi-family vacations as people still feel more comfortable traveling with their own “bubbles” and “pods.”
Above all else, the biggest travel trend these experts see is an influx of travelers headed to any country that is open to them. As more countries release clear information about specific requirements for international tourists, those destinations will suddenly see a wave of interest.
“Whatever is open is very popular, so that’s definitely a trend,” Nisbet said. “The other trend is that of the people who were canceling in 2020 and 2021, 80% of them are going back to where they were originally booked, so the hot destinations are kind of the same.”
Of the people who were canceling in 2020 and 2021, 80% of them are going back to where they were originally booked, so the hot destinations are kind of the same.
But as countries reopen, there’s still the possibility that they could shut down again, Mahar noted. For that reason, he explained, tour operators and suppliers — including Tauck — would continue to be flexible in their policies this year to ensure that both advisors and their clients are satisfied.
“Flexibility is the new black,” DaSilva added. “I think for 2021 you're not going to see any changes in those policies. We'll see what the pressure is in future years, but I do think that we’re going to need to have ongoing flexible options for people. What that looks like in 2022 and onward remains to be seen.”
The Details
Avanti Destinations
Collette
Globus Family of Brands
Tauck
Trafalgar Travel
Virtuoso
