RETAIL

Although travel advisors continue to go through cycles of booking, canceling and rebooking, they’ve had ample opportunity to prove their worth to clients, unraveling the complicated ins and outs of Future Cruise Credits and border crossings and vetting cruise lines, tour operators and resorts based on their protocols and sanitation levels.

A new piece of jargon entered the industry in 2021 that reflected the churn and uncertainty in booking travel: Trip-stacking. It’s the practice of booking multiple options (Plan A, Plan B, Plan C) in case circumstances change between the time of booking and the commencement of a trip.

But with many travelers still hesitant to begin trip-planning in earnest, advisors saw a 19% dip in their customer base this year, according to Travel Weekly’s Travel Industry Survey.

Nonetheless, advisors also saw their overall sales in the first half of 2021 increase 18% over the same period in 2020.

Travel advisors also saw a modest 3% gain in first-time clients. Dealing with new clients isn’t always easy, with advisors having to separate tire-kickers from those serious about booking. As a result, successful advisors — some even reporting that 2021 was a great year -— took a good, hard look at their client base, reworking their business plans and in some cases “firing” clients who didn’t fit their new model.

Almost all travel product categories saw increases in sales in 2021 vs. 2020, but none can compare to the leap travel insurance saw. Almost 80% of agencies reported seeing a rise in insurance sales, with an average increase in actual sales of 35%. 

That’s likely, in part, because the major travel insurance providers offered more comprehensive Covid-related coverage. Insurers also offered more flexibility, enabling travelers to shift their policies forward to cover a trip that had to be rescheduled.

Approximately 70% of advisors saw car rentals, vacation rentals, air and theme parks sales rise; increases in cruises, river cruises and tours hovered in the 59%-to-64% range.

There was a marked shift in the ways advisors communicated with clients. Email and paid online ads lost favor, while free social media — Facebook and Instagram in particular -— gained in popularity. Two channels that may be forever linked with the pandemic — videoconferencing and TikTok — emerged as vehicles advisors reported using to reach existing and potential clients.

Advisors recognized the advocacy of organizations that have worked on their behalf during the pandemic. ASTA seems to have finally shaken off any remaining residue of the reputational hit it took two decades ago when it was unable to stop airline commission cuts. This year, there was a surge in appreciation, and the number of respondents to the Travel Industry Survey who rated the organization “effective” or “very effective” jumped from 35% to 72%.

How many agencies survived through 2021? It’s anyone’s guess, but it’s likely the ranks have been thinned. Pessimists at the USTOA conference earlier this month put the loss of agents at 30% to 40%, but even they felt the ones who departed were “at the margins” as regards profitability, pre-pandemic. Other USTOA attendees reported significant growth among home agents and young people looking for a change in careers.

Faith in long-term prospects were reinforced by significant investment in the agency distribution channel. A slew of new strategic and institutional investors — Zoom Video Communications, Sabre, Apollo Strategic Growth Capital and funds managed by private equity group Ares Management Corp. and investment adviser HG Vora — joined previous investors American Express Co., Expedia Group and Certares as shareholders in Global Business Group (formerly American Express Global Business Travel) as it prepared to go public.

In November, Certares, the most prominent investment firm in travel, announced it had become a shareholder in the host agency Avoya.

And in February, EagleTree Capital, which owns Travel Weekly’s parent company, Northstar Travel Media, made an investment in Frosch, No. 13 on Travel Weekly’s 2021 Power List, to enable the travel management company to continue its investments in infrastructure, technology, workforce and acquisitions of companies in the technology and agency space. Three months later, Frosch acquired No. 35 Power Lister Valerie Wilson Travel; five months after that, No. 45 Conlin Travel.