NEWS THE INTERVIEW
Watch the interview with Steve Byrne in full at:
travelweekly.co.uk/media
travel companies have gone out of their way, notwithstanding the challenges, to make sure they look after customers and enhance their reputation. Not everyone has, not everyone has been in a position to, but we have certainly done it and had affirmation. “There is a great opportunity now
for travel advisors to not only retain loyalty built over the past 15 months and before, but to leverage the advocacy from existing customers to get more new business. People who have had a bad experience see there’s an increasing need for hand-holding. They want to make sure their trip is safe and secure, so the advisor has never been needed more. Those who have been doing acts of kindness because they care about the customer can look ahead to a brilliant few years. They just need to navigate the next few months. “There were some not-so-great
stories last year about refunds or timing of refunds, but overall the industry, particularly those on the
travelweekly.co.uk
frontline, have done an outstanding job supporting customers in managing changes over which we’ve had no control whatsoever.”
Welfare fund “Our Financial Welfare Fund has helped over 200 people, either directly with money or, in some cases, by providing IT equipment for their children into their own homes. “We’ve also put mental health
services in place. We had that before but we’ve extended it and lots of people have drawn on that. “Lots of people have also drawn
on support from each other. [The pandemic] has been a huge test of emotional resilience and there’s nothing wrong with needing support. We’ve just encouraged people to shout if they need that help. The things we put in place are continuing. They will be there for as long as they’re needed, which may be forever. “But, at a macro level, the trend
now is one of recovery. The debate is not one of ‘will it recover?’ but ‘how
It’s in everyone’s interest if the industry can
say it’s got an unequivocal scheme of financial protection for a customer when they book
quickly will it recover?’ It’s also about the quality of the relationships you’re able to create – you want to find a customer and keep them. The general sentiment I’m trying to get across is one of assurance and hope. The industry now should be hopeful and positive about that recovery.”
Financial protection “You can see the direction of travel is to move towards a combination of trusts and bonds to provide a financial guarantee to customers – and that is to be encouraged. The extent to which it’s implemented has an impact on individual companies’ working capital. So we were fortunate, along with a few others,
that we weren’t using customer money to fund our working capital before the pandemic. “It’s in everyone’s interest if
the industry can say it’s got an unequivocal scheme of financial protection for a customer when they book, no matter how they book, whether direct or through an intermediary, and we all have to do what we can to support that. It’s powerful to be able to say you’re part of something where the customer’s money is financially protected and the company is so financially secure, it’s not using your money to run its business. If I was an agency owner, or travel consultant, I would want to be part of a business that can say that.”
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