The owner of Haslemere Travel has compared the current role of an agent to being a counsellor, because she has been investing so much time in talking with her clients to reassure them about holidays.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, Gemma Antrobus – who is also chair of Aito Specialist Agents – said outlining entry restrictions and travel rules in great detail was only possible because numbers were still low.
“We’ve spent a lot of time nurturing these clients, feeding them with the information, instilling the confidence in them, which – in the grand scheme of things – if we were doing the volume of business that we would normally do, we wouldn’t have the time,” she said.
“But because we’ve got more time and we are so desperate to save these bookings, we are literally counselling.”
She added: “What psychology can I pull out that’s going to try and convince them to go – can I get them hang on for another week to see if we get another announcement?” she said, referring to issues such as the traffic light lists and the new health minister which might make a difference.
“Short of packing their suitcases and taking them to the airport, I’ve literally done everything for them.”
Instead of the word “restrictions”, she uses the phrase “parameters around travel”, and tells customers to expect them “for the foreseeable future”.
Antrobus highlighted the case of one family booking to Malta, with parents who can travel as they are vaccinated but the teenagers cannot.
Another client is vaccinated, his wife is not, and his three kids are different ages – so entry restrictions are different for all of them.
“It is complex, it is time-consuming. We wouldn’t have time for this if we had the normal levels of business or people travelling, but it will pay off in the long run,” she said.
She told the webcast she has always tried to offer guidance even for people who don’t want to book with her but do “want to pick your brains”.
“I balance it quite well, in being helpful and informative,” she said.
“People still need us. And they will for some time.”
The situation for operators is similar, said Chris Wright, managing director of Sunvil.
“We’re punching above our weight in the number of people we’re managing to get away, because we’re dedicating a lot of time to explaining testing and that sort of thing,” he told the webcast.
He also pointed out that Sunvil’s relationship with agencies has improved, as more agents allow the operator to liaise with clients directly about travel rules.
“A lot of agents are juggling two jobs,” he said.
“As a destination specialist that’s living and breathing those regulations, and as they change inside out, a lot more agents are allowing us to speak directly to the customer to pass on that knowledge.
“It’s an easier relationship – the customer is getting the best out of it while still retaining that relationship with the travel agent. That has been a real positive.”