为什么旅行社比2023年更重要
经过Laurie Wilson/Last February, Diana Hechler, President of D Tours Travel (member of Ensemble) worked with a family of three on booking their long-anticipated vacation to Peru. But the trip fell apart in late December.
The client was scheduled for the classic Machu Picchu visit, with time in Cusco, Lima, Rio Sagrado (for acclimation to the altitude), and the Hiram Bingham Train back from Aguas Calientes. All the hotels were five-star properties, mostly Belmond hotels. The departure from New York was December 26th, 2022.
然后……秘鲁总统佩德罗·卡斯蒂略·特伦斯(Pedro Castillo Terrones)在12月初第三次弹each,并发出通知他将按照法令进行裁决,他被捕并扔进监狱。他的支持者抗议,随着这些抗议活动的增长并变得更加暴力,火车服务被取消(这对于到达城堡底部的小镇Aguas Calientes至关重要),库斯科的机场关闭了,Latam取消了飞往库斯科的航班(同样,当您开始在利马开始时,对于访问马丘比丘的必不可少。)
Hechler had actually consulted the Belmond Peru staff when she was at ILTM Cannes in early December, and her contact had reassured her that everything was fine and that the protests were insignificant. Of course, in time, that turned out to be wrong, and hundreds of tourists became stuck in Aguas Calientes.
Hechler打电话给她的客户,以填写秘鲁发生的事情,并经常在情况下对其进行更新。她咨询了秘鲁的DMC,并决定12月16日将是“鱼类或诱饵日”,以确定秘鲁的情况是否会稳定。但是在12月15日,很明显,这次旅行无法安全进行。她在秘鲁的伙伴和客户一样,指出他们更喜欢退款,而不是信用。
The family had still hoped to continue their tradition of traveling during the December holiday, and Hechler was tasked with arranging a last-minute vacation. She knew that finding two rooms in a warm-weather destination on such short notice wouldn’t be easy to pull off, so she shifted her focus to a city in a non-traditional vacation destination—the French Riviera. She proposed five days, including New Year’s Eve, in Nice at Le Negresco (the five-star hotel overlooking the Bay of Angels), and then two days in Paris for a “fun ending” and a non-stop flight back to New York.
Hechler checked Le Negresco and, yes, they had two rooms overlooking the Mediterranean for five nights. She also checked with her favorite Left Bank hotels in Paris for Jan 1 to 3, and found availability there, too.
得益于赫希勒(Hechler)在参加ILTM时频繁访问Nice和Cannes的经常访问,Hechler知道天气晴朗的机会很大,而不是很温暖,而是60年代中期和阳光。以及摩纳哥,Antibes,St. Paul de Vence的一日游机会,以获得Maeght美术馆,Eze和Cannes的喜好,所有这些都可以通过火车到达。她建议客户,她没有足够的时间来安排私人汽车,司机和预付款的日期旅行,但她知道,勒内格雷斯科的礼宾服务在他们到达后可以做到这一点。
她通知酒店,她的客户来了,并询问了除夕晚宴,该晚餐需要预订,如果可以的话,请预订。
一家人度过了美好的旅行 - 天气很好,他们忙于活动,房间俯瞰着大海。她说,巴黎什么时候不是一个好主意。此外,还有一些“良好但坚定的”电子邮件给赫希勒在秘鲁的合作伙伴,为秘鲁旅行提供了全额退款。
赫希勒说:“这就是为什么旅行者需要专业顾问的原因。”
保险
There are of course many challenges that advisors are up against, not just political like the Peru situation, but snafus like the recent Southwestern and FAA System Shortage debacles. And then, there’s the often-confusing insurance matter.
“Travel advisors are extremely well-versed in travel insurance,” says Laura Heidt, Insurance Desk Manager atBrownell Travel。“They have detailed knowledge of what is covered and, more importantly sometimes, what isn’t covered.”
例如,在旅行中断的情况下,每个策略通常因不同的规则和排除而略有不同。
海德特说:“有了西南,船员系统的失败就不会被掩盖,但是天气延迟是可以取消旅行或旅行延迟的涵盖原因。”“这很重要,因为航空公司本身对您的酒店房间或食物不承担任何责任,如果您因天气而被困在某个地方。”
旅行顾问也明智地掌握了新的保险单,可以向客户提供重要建议。海德特说:“考虑到我们去年在旅行中看到的所有持续中断,我希望有一种覆盖范围会变得越来越受欢迎。”“大多数人都知道CFAR(出于任何原因取消)保险,但是IFAR(出于任何原因中断)保险越来越受欢迎。如果您的飞行路径在原来的飞行后超过72小时被中断,并且旨在让您参加时间敏感的活动,例如婚礼或您无法再进行的游轮出发,IFAR提供更高的水平在您的其余旅行中退款。”
COVID Game Changer
当然,Covid几乎在一夜之间改变了对旅行顾问的看法,从而为他们的服务创造了新的需求。
“Travel advisors are now in more demand than ever,” says Kenroy Herbert, founder of LeviticusLifestyle & Travel and chairman of the board of directors for the Anguilla Tourist Board. “In fact, the role of the travel advisor has changed significantly, specifically in the luxury travel market.”
赫伯特说,不仅顾问们可以帮助计划旅行,而且还可以帮助旅行者浏览一个在不断变化和更新限制的国家中,尤其是在兴奋后,特别是在他们看来几乎是新事物的世界。
他说,此外,奢侈品顾问还为从私人厨师到豪华交通和经验的一切提供顾问。“他们与客户的角色不仅仅是简单地交易,他们会在更深层次的水平上认识客户,而且关系超出了代理商的范围,但也是一个值得信赖的朋友。旅行顾问的任务是休假,而不仅仅是旅行。”
目的地专家路易丝·贝尔(Louise Baer)Kensington Tours, says she is personally invested in each trip, from start to finish, noting a recent example where a client contracted COVID in South Africa and was unable to fly to Zimbabwe. “Their international phone was not working, and it was over the weekend, so I set up a zoom call with them and we chatted through some options,” she says. “I was able to get them a special rate to stay where they were and managed to get them a full refund on the piece they were missing.” She also arranged daily COVID testing for them.
最终,客户进行了五星级的评论,并立即预订了另一次旅行。“这使一切值得,”贝尔说。
通常,这是最重要的小事
“What I think will surprise people who have not used an advisor before is that they will get some additional perks and benefits from using an advisor whether it's an upgrade at their hotel, early check-in or late check-out, or perhaps a little surprise waiting for them in the room upon arrival,” says Hechler,D Tours Travel。