Tour operator Tauck has thanked travel agents for helping it recovery from the impact of the pandemic as its boss said next year has the potential to reach pre-pandemic levels of sales.
Guests traveling on Tauck’s Antarctica cruise were given champagne as the trip was the operator’s 850th since resuming operations last January.
Since then, Tauck has operated 96 different journeys in 36 countries on five continents despite the continued impact of Covid-19.
Chief executive Dan Mahar said 2022 has the potential to reach 2019 levels: “The world is in a much better place in December 2021 versus December 2020, and so is our industry,” he said.
“Last year at this time, just seven million vaccine shots had been deployed globally, and borders were largely shuttered. Today, more than eight billion vaccine shots have been administered, borders are open and global travel has resumed in a meaningful way.”
Tauck has hired additional staff in its reservation sales centre, bringing it close to 100% of its 2019 staffing level in order to meet the expected demand. However, he cautioned that “a wave is coming, and I’d encourage guests and travel advisors alike to plan ahead and act soon to secure their preferred Tauck trips and departure dates.”
“I’m tremendously proud of how we all came together to restart our industry,” added Mahar. “Collectively we demonstrated resilience and adaptability and we worked together in new and creative ways to serve our guests and resume our purpose of making the world a better place.
“Success in our business comes down to people and I’m deeply grateful and inspired by the collective care and commitment shown not only by Tauck’s own team, but also by our travel advisor partners and our global network of supplier-partners. Their collective efforts have enabled our successful restart, and have positioned our industry for continued growth in 2022.”
Celebrating the 850th tour since January 2020, Mahar added: “It’s easy to forget that less than a year ago, 100% of our tours and cruises were still paused due to Covid, and that it wasn’t until January and February of this year that we resumed operations with our first departures of a single itinerary, our ‘Wonderland: Yellowstone in Winter’ trip.”
Tauck’s restart spanned land programs across North America, South America, Europe and Africa, river cruises on the Rhine, Danube, Seine, Rhone, Douro and Nile, and small ship ocean cruises in Greece, Iceland, the Mediterranean, the Dalmatian Coast, the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica.
Mahar said guest satisfaction metrics showed 2021 scores “on par with our 2019 results” and exceeding them in some areas of the business.
“The experience we gained this year positions us perfectly to continue our robust recovery in 2022, which will not only serve Tauck well, but also our guests, our travel advisor partners, and our supplier-partners around the world.”