CRISIS?&nbsp; WHAT CRISIS?By Carolyn Lass,&nbsp; Burloak&nbsp;Travel, July 2020<img src="https://ttand.imgix.net/supertramp-crisis-1594157492042.jpg" style="width: 50%;"> This is the front
cover for the album Crisis? What Crisis? by the artist Supertramp. The cover&nbsp;art copyright is believed to belong to the label, A&amp;M Records, or the
graphic artist(s), Fabio Nicoli, Paul Wakefield, and Dick Ward. In 1975 Supertramp released an amazing album with this title, and it, along with the spot-on album cover artwork really seems to sum up what we as Travel Professionals have been working madly to portray to our clients since mid-March.&nbsp;Never in my career have I worked so hard
for something completely intangible – Good Will.&nbsp; My efforts, when combined with similar efforts
of industry peers has arguably forever changed the way the traveling public
views Travel Agents everywhere.&nbsp; And notwithstanding
the financial pressures, it’s bettered me as a professional. Asked to summarize some of the instances
where I’ve worked with my clients to lessen the effects of COVID-19 on their
travel plans summons mixed emotions.&nbsp;
From anger and disbelief, to appreciation of so many who selflessly work
for the good of people they don’t even know.<o:p></o:p>Although I operate Burloak Travel myself, I
rely heavily on The Travel Agent Next Door as my host agency.&nbsp; I owe so much to the support of the TTAND
team under the leadership of Flemming Friisdahl and Penny Martin.January, February, and early March were
blockbuster times for me and my 8-month-old company.&nbsp; The benefits of the sales I had put together
over the first months since joining TTAND were really starting to heat up.&nbsp; I was seeing the fruits of my labour.&nbsp; Anything related to COVID-19 seemed so remote
and didn’t really seem to pose much more than a minor hiccup.Then.&nbsp;
Came.&nbsp; Friday.&nbsp; March.&nbsp;
13th.&nbsp; A day I’ll never
forget.&nbsp; My great niece was born.The Government of Canada issued a blanket
travel advisory against non-essential travel.&nbsp;
Canadians abroad were urged to get back home to avoid being stranded in changing-by-the-minute
sea of flight cancellations and delays.&nbsp;
Visitors to Canada scrambled to get back to their own countries.&nbsp; What we came to know as the COVID-19 Pandemic
had begun.My already busy phone started ringing off
the hook with questions and please for assistance with a situation none of us
had really dealt with in our careers.&nbsp;
While we had worked through SARS years ago, this felt different.&nbsp; And it was.&nbsp;
TTAND rallied the troops and started hosting informational virtual
meetings to keep their hundreds of agents armed with the latest in industry
intelligence and best practices.Some of the situations I found myself in
were on one hand challenging, but on the other, most rewarding
professionally.&nbsp; One of the first actions
I took on the first day was to contact the children of great clients who were
on their way to the airport to catch a flight to join them in St. Lucia.&nbsp; Devastating news, but in retrospect, so
helpful in the long run.&nbsp; My efforts then
turned to making arrangements to get the parents back home.&nbsp; Flights for my snowbird clients were evaporating
by the minute and demanded flexibility and the patience to wait on hold for
long periods of time.A young international professional hockey
player for one of my clients needed help to get back home to Latvia, children
of clients studying abroad in Belgium needed flights and a long-time client visiting
her daughter in Australia endured a complex triad of flights to get home.Twelve to fourteen-hour days became the
norm.&nbsp; And all the while, the knowledge
that none of this hard work generated any commissions sat in the back of my
mind.&nbsp; I had to look for and celebrate
small victories I was able to pull off for my clients.&nbsp; Texts and messages from clients telling me
they were safely home became my small rewards, and through a long day would
keep me moving forward.Throughout this time the support from my clients
was amazing.&nbsp; So many whom I’d worked with
for years were asking me how I was doing.&nbsp;
Those returning home or having to cancel travel would ask if there was
anything they could do.&nbsp; Some even
offered to pay me in the knowledge that the work I was doing generated no
commissions. &nbsp;&nbsp;To them I told that the
best thing they could do would be to mention their experiences to their friends
and make referrals in the future.No one knew how long this would last.&nbsp; Those with existing travel plans were left
wondering what would happen with their deposits and some who had paid their
entire fares had questions that needed answering.Then came the cancellations. &nbsp;&nbsp;Most notable for me was a wedding group with
over 50 rooms with guests traveling from Canada, the US and Europe that was
booked last July for mid-April.&nbsp; The
bride and groom took it as well as could be expected, but the challenge of
juggling the cancellations and inquiries about refunds and insurance
claims.&nbsp; I worked hard to maintain the
trust of each and every guest.Many of my clients are seniors, and early
on it was evident that travel for the young-at-heart or those with underlying
medical issues was especially troublesome.&nbsp;
Without knowing when travel would restart, clients were faced with the
decision of whether to pre-emptively cancel future reservations or to wait and
see.&nbsp; It soon became evident that it was
better to wait for the travel providers to cancel in order to secure more
generous terms.I spoke to one heartbroken client after
another as weeks turned to months and folks settled in for the long waiting
game to flatten the curve.Then one day in June my phone rang.&nbsp; I was getting calls about new travel, albeit
in the next year or so.&nbsp; People were
booking again!&nbsp; One reservation turned
into two, and so on. &nbsp;An amazing luxury
cruise booking for multiple couples was sold, and I finally started to see the
light at the end of the tunnel.What have we learned?&nbsp; If anything, the COVID-19 crisis has given us
as Travel Professionals the opportunity to prove our worth not only our
clients, but to the traveling public as a whole.&nbsp; We’ve regained some valuable ground from those
who doubt the worth of having a travel agent.&nbsp;
Now’s the time to capitalize on that momentum.As restrictions start to fall and society begins
returning to normal, we as an industry have to promote safe and sensible travel
to start moving forward again.&nbsp; We need
to travel and to showcase what’s available.&nbsp;Bottom line…&nbsp;As a Travel Agent I never want to go through
this again, but I’d do it all over without hesitation for my fantastic clients.&nbsp;

















































































It’s #TimeToTravel&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://ttand.imgix.net/logo-transparent-cropped-1594213798165.png" style="width: 25%;"> <o:p></o:p>

How I turned my frustration with COVID-19 into love for my clients and my industry.

CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?

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