It would be nice to believe that change is good; that one thing leads to another and with a positive result. I started in this industry shortly before the first round of airline commission cuts. What resulted from the cuts was an increased interest among professional travel agents to become more knowledgeable in other venues of travel, recognizing that it would not be too far in the future that airlines would eliminate commissions altogether.
At first glance, change seemed to happen slowly in our industry. We moved away from issuing air tickets in a brick-and-mortar corner store travel agency to taking our business into our homes. Cruises lines and packaged tour operators proliferated on the landscape. Then as quickly as they appeared, several of these newly formed suppliers began to file bankruptcy or merge into another entity. Not to miss a learning experience, we embraced travel insurance companies as readily as a person overboard clings to their lifejacket. Host agencies, consortia and franchises all began to take shape and emerge as a way to succeed in an industry of change.
In the eyes of the traveling public, suddenly cruises were not just for a select few, but could offer rock climbing walls, ice-skating, bowling and now glass blowing and lawns that need mowing.
Tours don’t consistently resemble the classic movie “If It’s Tuesday It Must Be Belgium” anymore. There are private tours into the excavation rooms for the Terracotta Warriors in Xian; cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu where you shop for groceries with the chef at small local market. The requirements for travel experiences are in a state of change and we must keep up with the challenges and opportunities for new and exciting places to go to and things to do so that we can constantly grow and nurture our business.
Then, after Joel and Lenore Abels passed away, things began to shift even more quickly. A new family has taken ownership of Travel Trade. The content seems familiar but the design has changed. CLIA merged with the International Council of Cruise Lines and moved from its long-time home in NYC to Ft. Lauderdale. New and timely CLIA classes have been created to keep up with the increasing amount of cruising niche markets. Tour operators have their own Europe river cruises and own their own boats to keep up with the incredible growth in river cruises.
I’ve even changed — from working for nearly two decades as a Home Based agent to a travel manager for a huge organization with scheduled hours and corporate rules and procedures. But it is good. Change is good as long as we can adapt and accept the new ways and means of operation.
And recently, a lightning bolt hit the cruise industry. A totally unexpected change occurred: Vicki Freed, after 20 years with Carnival, moved over to Royal Caribbean. Now with Vicki and Lisa Bauer on the same team, so to speak, one can only imagine the future of Royal Caribbean and the changes that may come from the mélange of talent all under one roof.
So what if the stock market is tanking, elections are looming and we’re on the verge of a recession? You had better get ready for the next round of change. Will it be that you need to acquire more product knowledge to sell North American products — river cruises, National Parks, luxury train travel? Don’t forget...baby boomers are aging. Seniors, who comprise a major segment of travel agent business, are taking trips closer to home. What if cruise fares drastically drop because of a glut of thousands of cruise berths coming into the market within the next four years?
You had better be prepared to change the way you sell cruises. Here’s another idea which could change our perception of foreign travel experiences. If cruise line executives can visualize future travel trends, you’ll see longer cruises to more exotic locations with roundtrip sailings from US ports.
Years ago I escorted a group of clients 1,000 miles up the Amazon River in just 18 days, roundtrip from Miami. This opens up an entire new opportunity to explore the world while fortunately not having to integrate complicated and expensive overseas air travel into a cruise.
If you’re not aligned with a consortium, franchise or legitimate Host, there will be rough seas ahead. The marketing benefits they offer pay for your membership many times over. With so many new options in cruise vacations, Home Based travel agents as well as brick-and-mortar agencies could easily see a tremendous potential need for their services.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: to keep up with change you have to be prepared. If you sell mostly cruises, go for your ECCS level in CLIA. If you concentrate your efforts into FITs, a CTC or a DS accreditation would be extremely beneficial. The travel industry is not static. Keep an eye on the horizon, find balance in your career and remember, “It’s the journey, not the destination. “(tm)
Enjoy the ride.