"You need to get out there now, you need to get your name out there now. There's enough business here for everybody."
Strong advice for travel agents from Pat Probert of Bob Family Travel (TravelOnly) who says business has been very brisk with his agency bookings surpassing half a million the past four weeks alone and is approaching the three quarters of a million mark for new river cruise bookings on Uniworld. The night before our TravelPulse Canada interview, he held a Uniworld webinar for clients, and immediately afterwards had 12 clients book the Uniworld cruise including 4 clients who were watching from Mexico that called.
Probert says that travel agents need to understand that while some agents might be see him and his partner Mary De Almeida as a bit of an anomaly they aren't necessarily; their clients are the "everyday people that every travel agent runs into in the course of a week."
Teachers, nurses, construction workers, school teachers, postal workers, they're all ready to travel and like so many of us, once took travel for granted. They're eager to see the world again and Probert says they will see more places and spend more money in a shorter period of time than ever in recent history.
"This is the greatest time in our industry's history for travel advisors who can make up for lost time," Probert feels. "We've had a huge loss of agencies; bricks and mortar, home based agents and otherwise. When we come out of this, we'll have never have seen such a huge decrease of travel advisors in the industry in recent history."
Probert says if agents focus now on 2022 and 2023 in general for bookings, it would be a very wise move. He says now is the time to start reaching out because waiting until November and December to book for 2022, will mean there likely won't be any inventory left and clients will have already been booked by someone else. He says agents need to be proactive - reach out to clients and let them know you are still in business and will be here when they travel next.
"Give the clients hope, hope that some clients did not have, just a few months ago."
Alaska for example, has been high on many lists, though Probert says that if agents aren't putting effort into selling now, it may be too late. Prices are already going up and space is disappearing.
"Some tours are sold out because everyone's shifted their travel plans from 2020 and 2021, so we've got three years in Alaska to catch up on and the inventory is dwindling."
For example, Probert says he had anticipated the Alaska cruise market might stay closed to big cruise ships, so earlier in the year he and De Almeida booked group space with Celebrity. When the official announcement came, he was ready - he already had lower price blocked space available for clients. It's a big reason why they have such a strong following.
What was once seen as possibly the worst casualty of the pandemic in the industry, Probert has seen a dramatic increase in business over pre pandemic levels for cruising. He says people are wanting to have that more intimate, higher end experience with fewer people found on a river cruise, or some of the smaller ocean cruise ships.
"Business has exploded and we will be there for our friends and clients," says Probert. "It's a comfort zone for many people to only have 150 or so people on board. We have many clients, booked on three, four, even five cruises next year ranging everywhere from the Caribbean to Europe.
We have clients who are doing Regent in the Caribbean in May, then doing Uniworld in Europe and spending a few days in Budapest before heading to London for Ireland, Scotland England for another 2 weeks. Then they're back and doing Russia in July and Vietnam and Cambodia in October."
Probert also stresses the importance of travel insurance for clients.
He says that even though general terms and conditions are very good with cancellations, people want to travel safely and protect their investment. Probert finds many clients are willing to take extra insurance to make sure they are covered better than they ever have been.
"Dig in deep and understand. Clients need to understand and if you don't understand it your clients won't understand it."
Probert says travellers will be looking to the experience of agents to guide them along their post-pandemic travels and being proactive now will go a long way He says they will remember the advice and support agents gave them when we were in the darkest travel days.
"The greatest wealth in history of our industry is changing hands today, coupled with no one travelling in 2020 or 2021 and this alone will be like being on a riding bull at the fair. Try to hold on, be organized and get into it because travel bookings are happening now."
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