CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?
By Carolyn Lass, Burloak Travel, July 2020
This is the front cover for the album Crisis? What Crisis? by the artist Supertramp. The cover art copyright is believed to belong to the label, A&M Records, or the graphic artist(s), Fabio Nicoli, Paul Wakefield, and Dick Ward.
In 1975 Supertramp released an amazing album with this title, and it, along with the spot-on album cover artwork really seems to sum up what we as Travel Professionals have been working madly to portray to our clients since mid-March.
Never in my career have I worked so hard
for something completely intangible – Good Will.
My efforts, when combined with similar efforts
of industry peers has arguably forever changed the way the traveling public
views Travel Agents everywhere. And notwithstanding
the financial pressures, it’s bettered me as a professional.
Asked to summarize some of the instances
where I’ve worked with my clients to lessen the effects of COVID-19 on their
travel plans summons mixed emotions.
From anger and disbelief, to appreciation of so many who selflessly work
for the good of people they don’t even know.
Although I operate Burloak Travel myself, I rely heavily on The Travel Agent Next Door as my host agency. I owe so much to the support of the TTAND team under the leadership of Flemming Friisdahl and Penny Martin.
January, February, and early March were blockbuster times for me and my 8-month-old company. The benefits of the sales I had put together over the first months since joining TTAND were really starting to heat up. I was seeing the fruits of my labour. Anything related to COVID-19 seemed so remote and didn’t really seem to pose much more than a minor hiccup.
Then. Came. Friday. March. 13th. A day I’ll never forget. My great niece was born.
The Government of Canada issued a blanket travel advisory against non-essential travel. Canadians abroad were urged to get back home to avoid being stranded in changing-by-the-minute sea of flight cancellations and delays. Visitors to Canada scrambled to get back to their own countries. What we came to know as the COVID-19 Pandemic had begun.
My already busy phone started ringing off the hook with questions and please for assistance with a situation none of us had really dealt with in our careers. While we had worked through SARS years ago, this felt different. And it was. TTAND rallied the troops and started hosting informational virtual meetings to keep their hundreds of agents armed with the latest in industry intelligence and best practices.
Some of the situations I found myself in were on one hand challenging, but on the other, most rewarding professionally. One of the first actions I took on the first day was to contact the children of great clients who were on their way to the airport to catch a flight to join them in St. Lucia. Devastating news, but in retrospect, so helpful in the long run. My efforts then turned to making arrangements to get the parents back home. Flights for my snowbird clients were evaporating by the minute and demanded flexibility and the patience to wait on hold for long periods of time.
A young international professional hockey player for one of my clients needed help to get back home to Latvia, children of clients studying abroad in Belgium needed flights and a long-time client visiting her daughter in Australia endured a complex triad of flights to get home.
Twelve to fourteen-hour days became the norm. And all the while, the knowledge that none of this hard work generated any commissions sat in the back of my mind. I had to look for and celebrate small victories I was able to pull off for my clients. Texts and messages from clients telling me they were safely home became my small rewards, and through a long day would keep me moving forward.
Throughout this time the support from my clients was amazing. So many whom I’d worked with for years were asking me how I was doing. Those returning home or having to cancel travel would ask if there was anything they could do. Some even offered to pay me in the knowledge that the work I was doing generated no commissions. To them I told that the best thing they could do would be to mention their experiences to their friends and make referrals in the future.
No one knew how long this would last. Those with existing travel plans were left wondering what would happen with their deposits and some who had paid their entire fares had questions that needed answering.
Then came the cancellations. Most notable for me was a wedding group with over 50 rooms with guests traveling from Canada, the US and Europe that was booked last July for mid-April. The bride and groom took it as well as could be expected, but the challenge of juggling the cancellations and inquiries about refunds and insurance claims. I worked hard to maintain the trust of each and every guest.
Many of my clients are seniors, and early on it was evident that travel for the young-at-heart or those with underlying medical issues was especially troublesome. Without knowing when travel would restart, clients were faced with the decision of whether to pre-emptively cancel future reservations or to wait and see. It soon became evident that it was better to wait for the travel providers to cancel in order to secure more generous terms.
I spoke to one heartbroken client after another as weeks turned to months and folks settled in for the long waiting game to flatten the curve.
Then one day in June my phone rang. I was getting calls about new travel, albeit in the next year or so. People were booking again! One reservation turned into two, and so on. An amazing luxury cruise booking for multiple couples was sold, and I finally started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
What have we learned? If anything, the COVID-19 crisis has given us as Travel Professionals the opportunity to prove our worth not only our clients, but to the traveling public as a whole. We’ve regained some valuable ground from those who doubt the worth of having a travel agent. Now’s the time to capitalize on that momentum.
As restrictions start to fall and society begins returning to normal, we as an industry have to promote safe and sensible travel to start moving forward again. We need to travel and to showcase what’s available.
Bottom line…
As a Travel Agent I never want to go through this again, but I’d do it all over without hesitation for my fantastic clients.
It’s #TimeToTravel
