INDUSTRY EXPERTS


Roadmap to Recovery Travel Weekly webcasts: Our latest guests spoke about agents being p MSC’S GIANNI ONORATO


Jackie


Steadman, TravelTime World


Travel


Weekly’s Lucy


Huxley


Sunvil’s Chris Wright


Gianni Onorato


Alan Cross, Jet2holidays


J


‘Agents need to be able to get back to selling holidays again’ MSC confident Brits Anybody who thinks they’ve


et2holidays’ head of trade sales says agents have been forced by the Covid-19 pandemic to turn from being salespeople to administrators


and must be allowed to get back to what they do best. Alan Cross said agents needed to be


proactive and engage their customers to come back to the high street, adding that Jet2holidays was playing its role to help its partners. “Our TV advert mentions independent travel


agents. It’s giving the customer the choice to walk down the high street and go into an agency, and is encouraging them to do so,” he said. “Come September, we’ll have introduced


our ‘high street independent travel agent finder’ to our direct website, and no mainstream tour operator that I know has done that before.” Cross said a concerted effort was needed by


local government, councils and agents themselves to breathe life into the high street post-Covid. He said: “Maybe offer free parking for three


or six months? Maybe encourage more al fresco possibilities? Why can’t a travel agent put up a couple of tables and chairs outside their shop?” Jackie Steadman, owner of agency


TravelTime World, said: “We’re fortunate we have a tiny patio at the front of the office, and


10 13 AUGUST 2020


got a right for customers to walk through their door is wrong


[staff] got the table and chairs out and the flags and banners, and they were really positive, talking to people about travel. Everybody wants to travel. It’s just when and where to.” She added: “We’ve also been very proactive


over the last 10-15 years, going out into the market. We take a market stall, we’ve got our own gazebo, we do sports events, we sponsor golf competitions, we sponsor cricket clubs. So we’re always out there. “You cannot sit back and wait for somebody


to keep walking into your office or your shop.” Cross, who said Tui’s decision to close


166 high street shops was an opportunity for independents, said: “We’ve been preaching that to travel agents for years and it’s great to hear somebody that’s experienced it. Anybody who sits back in any shop, in any industry, and thinks they’ve got a right for the customer to walk through the door is wrong. You’ve got to be proactive, whether on the high street, whether you’re homeworker, regardless of where you are.”


rits will begin to book MSC Cruises once they see other nations boarding ships, according to the Italian cruise line’s chief executive.


UK visitors will not be able to sail on MSC Cruises’


restart sailings this week, but Gianni Onorato believes seeing ships operating again will “drive an acceleration of bookings” in the UK for winter and beyond. Explaining only those in Europe’s Schengen area,


plus Switzerland, will be joining the restart cruises, Onorato said: “If people don’t see that cruises are in operation, they don’t have the last push to book.” Onorato said MSC’s recent announcement of


its new health and safety protocols would also give consumers more confidence. “We have made some investigations with our best friends, the travel agents, and we have found huge enthusiasm. And these measures, like the swab test for all, the shore excursion procedures etc, they’ve all very been very positive and right. Customers will appreciate that.” Onorato said that, while not disastrous, winter


bookings needed a boost. “The situation is still far away from where it should be. Starting from spring [2021], things are doing very well.” But he said: “Summer 2021 is showing very good numbers.” He added that 2021 bookings were high because


once they see ships B


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