Blog

Canada seems to be entering a second wave of COVID-19 and many restrictions remain in place that are hampering the travel industry’s efforts to start up again. This has left most agents with time on their hands.

Travel agencies have been hit hard by the pandemic and are having to cut costs in order to survive. One option has been to join a host agency – but it does not have to mean giving up their storefront or branding.

We’ve heard it from every major company in their advertising for the last six months… “In these uncertain times…”

When we look back on 2020 and 2021, we may well see it as the year our retail model changed for good.

It’s no secret that our lives are all in turmoil these days. Travel will never be the same, so perhaps now is the time to introduce service fees – if you haven’t already.

People love to travel. Many of our agents have told us that their clients have shared with them how much this has made them appreciate that experiences matter more than ‘things’.

It’s almost impossible to imagine how we would cope with Covid-19 without the internet. How would we communicate without email, Zoom, Skype and access to online research?vWe would surely be even more isolated than we already are.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a lot of us to change how we live and work. For many, adapting to working from home was a challenge at first — everything from IT issues to finding a suitable workspace in our homes to boosting our Internet speed.

As the travel industry hunkers down to weather this unprecedented time, large and small agency owners have to find every possible way to cut costs. The ongoing cost of things like rent or fees, or employees can be the undoing of a business when revenue isn’t coming in.

Just because travel has effectively come to a halt, doesn’t mean travel retailers aren’t busy. Quite the opposite, in fact. Just ask TPI’s CEO, Zeina Gedeon.