The experience of the Covid pandemic is helping the travel trade provide reassurance to customers who are reticent about booking a holiday as war rages in Ukraine, according to industry leaders.
Speakers at a business breakfast hosted by Travel Weekly sister brand Travolution and focusing on investment in technology to improve customer experience discussed the impact of the conflict.
All agreed that bookings had taken a hit as consumer focus turned to the horrific events in Eastern Europe but that the industry, as well as consumers, was showing a resilience heightened by the last two years during the pandemic.
Will Plummer, chief executive of Trust My Group, said: “The industry has learned to change and adapt during Covid.
“Obviously Covid is still going on and we now sadly have the situation in Ukraine. But I think travellers are resilient, they understand the risks. Operators are far better educated and experienced in reassuring them and dealing with them.
“They are also better at saying you can trust us. They’ve all looked at their terms and conditions and at how they look after their consumers because that’s how they are winning business back and that, and how they service them, is what’s giving customers the reassurance to go forward.”
Nisha Botevyle, country director UK and Ireland for Sabre, said: “There’s maybe not been the dip that was expected and maybe that’s because of Covid because after two years people have quite frankly had enough.
“It’s not that people don’t care about what’s going on in the world, but they do want to start living their lives again.
“It comes down to us as a tech provider giving everyone the tools to do their jobs and then you, as an end provider, giving that reassurance that you’re providing your customers with the information so that they can make a sensible decision about what they want to do.”
Peter Shanks, Silversea Cruises managing director UK and Ireland, said people’s desire to travel remains undimmed.
“It’s so horrible what’s going on that it’s certainly impacting short-term demand [but] in some ways that’s been balanced by more and more people booking further out. In our sector we are seeing really strong demand for 2023 and ‘24.”
Shanks said Silversea had a global perspective on the impact as it affected different markets.
“We are very close to it here and for our European colleagues it’s even closer so it’s impacting us more. But Australians are just delighted to be going anywhere, and North Americans tend to look at Europe as Europe so they are a bit concerned,” he said.
“But the underlying desire to travel is still strong and people are just being a bit understanding of what’s happening.”
Jo Migom, digital and marketing director at Thomas Cook, said bookings would take place closer to departure in times of uncertainty and this was happening anyway due to Covid.
However, she said deals that make travel affordable would continue to stimulate the market, pointing to holidays to Tenerife available from just £150 per person for a week.