Travel agents need to have “honest conversations” with clients as airline rescheduling and cancellations continue to pose a major problem during the booking process.
Westway Travel managing director Ian Prior told the Aito Overseas Conference 2022 that scheduling issues and flight cancellations remained a “big problem” for the trade.
The comments came as Aito’s latest quarterly business tracker survey of its members, which compiled 135 responses from 94 Aito operators and 41 agents, said 96% had said operational challenges were affecting their business performance.
This was followed by recruitment challenges (43%); demand (41%); regulations (36%) and staff turnover (25%).
But he said: “You can get around these issues if you have honest conversations with your clients. They understand their flights may be changed. Be honest. We deal with clients on a face-to-face basis and we say “we will work with you to overcome that”.
“If we manage our operational problems properly and we are honest and we talk to our clients in the right way they will come back.”
Nature Trek managing director Andy Tucker said car hire supply had also proved a challenge for its tour operation.
“Our European product is reliant on car rental. There’s not been the supply so prices are four to five times higher. Families have been turning up at the airport to find their class of vehicle is not available,” he said.
Domestic operator McInlay Kidd said UK rail strikes had been an ongoing challenge this year, with clients having to be rebooked on different journeys.
Managing director Heather McInlay admitted: “We have tried to stay positive but at times it’s been exhausting.”