旅行混乱是旅行顾问的福音
经过多里·萨尔茨曼(Dori Saltzman)/五家东道国机构和特许经营公司的高管说,尽管供应商和持续的飞行变化,延误和取消的持续变化,但对旅行顾问的挫败感,但旅行混乱并不是所有不利的旅行顾问。
(在本系列的其他分期付款中,我们与高管进行了讨论2022年上半年的总体表现如何, 这意外的新人才涌入, and他们对今年剩余时间的期望.)
挫败感是真实的……
“You can’t turn on the news today without hearing that there’s been a thousand flights canceled, so it’s absolutely interfering,” said Kathryn Mazza-Burney, president of NEST, on how the summer’s air-related chaos is impacting travel advisors.
Cruise Planners的创始人兼首席执行官Michelle Fee说:“他们肯定正在与航空公司打交道。”“仍然有很长的时间……每次预订的时间都需要两倍,因为他们被搁置了。”
Nexion Travel Group总裁Jackie Friedman补充说:“这非常令人沮丧。”“但显然这意味着人们正在旅行。”
Jeff Anderson, co-CEO of Avoya Travel, agreed. “A headache? Definitely… It can be really bad when somebody has their trip canceled. That’s a significant problem, but we’re not seeing that deter people from continuing to shop and buy vacations.”
Debbie Fiorino, COO of World Travel Holdings, the parent company of Dream Vacations, echoed Anderson. “Our customers are dealing with a lot of stress and frustrations but they’re still booking and they’re still traveling.”
Same Frustration Driving Consumers to Advisors
Disorder at the airport, or stories of canceled and delayed flights from friends or on TV isn’t only a sign that people are back to traveling in huge numbers – and not deterred by all the chaos.
这也强调了旅行顾问对可能忘记顾问仍然存在的人们的价值。
“我认为正在发生的事情是一些DIY,那些自己动手做的事情,现在在想‘哦,天哪,我不想坐下。我需要致电旅行顾问来帮助我。”费说。“这些类型的旅行者开始了解良好的旅行顾问的价值。”
“Advisors are doing what advisors do best,” said Mazza-Burney. “They are servicing their accounts. They are truly showing the consumer why it is so important to use a travel advisor.”
一点观点
安德森(Anderson)告诉TMR在航班上,他认为许多混乱都被夸大了。
“我认为最近的麻烦需要透视。实际上,仍然只有百分之几的航班被取消了……这个数字太大了,不要误会我的意思。您不希望取消。”
但是他说,延误比取消更多,并补充说,在最近对FAA站点进行检查时,正在追踪42,000多个航班。其中,实际上已经取消了几千人。
比替代方案更好
几位高管TMR与之交谈还想提醒旅行顾问,旅行混乱是完全没有人旅行的。
“There is a lot of stress, anxiety, frustration for travel professionals right now, whether it’s COVID restrictions, whether it’s airline problems,” said Fiorino. “But you know, just a few weeks ago was a year since we saw the first ship go back into the water. They went from worrying about whether or not they were going to survive a pandemic that shut down the industry to worrying about dealing with all this chaos. I would pick the second, every day of the week and twice on Sundays.”
菲奥里诺补充说,她不想淡化顾问的压力。“但是要保持视角这是一件重要的事情。只是停下来考虑我们在2020年的位置……知道这些事情会变得更好。我们的业务非常好,我们太忙了,无法跟上,这是一件非常好的事情。”
马扎·伯尼(Mazza-Burney)说,这是旅行社行业有影响力的另一个例子。
“When the going gets tough, the tough advisors in this industry truly stand up and shine. We’ve made it through some really tough times. But advisors are here to stay.”