Jamie Biesiada
Like many others in the travel industry recently, Roy Gal, owner of Memories Forever Travel Group in Fair Lawn, N.J., found himself with more time than usual.
As the coronavirus spread throughout the world, eventually reaching pandemic status, Gal's customers steadily canceled or rebooked trips, an all-too-familiar problem for most travel advisors.
Gal has been in the travel industry for some 20 years. His first 10 were in corporate travel, then he shifted into the leisure space. About six or seven years ago, he became an affiliate of Travel Planners International. Today, he works with about 12 independent contractors.
When bookings increasingly dried up, Gal turned to a Facebook page he's been operating for the past two years: Travel Agents Helping Each Other.
The group has been a place for agents to ask each other questions in a closed environment. People have to request to join, and Gal vets entrants to try to ensure that all 3,700-plus members are agents, not suppliers.
But as the coronavirus crisis has progressed, Gal noticed advisors were asking the same questions.
There was a "huge influx" of people requesting to join the group, he said (the group is continuing to accept new members), and most had questions about air cancellations and dealing with chargebacks.
"We started doing Facebook Live sessions," he said. "I gathered a few of my friends and we started doing panels, helping travel agents in cruises, in air, best practices, insurance."
The group members were interested. In fact, they were so interested that Gal started going live daily. He's been arranging for others to join him, ranging from fellow agents to suppliers like cruise line or insurance representatives.
"It gives people the opportunity to ask questions and get answers from, I would say, experts," he said. "Everyone has some expertise in their field."
When suppliers join Gal's Facebook Live videos, they're not giving the typical product updates advisors are used to hearing on webinars. Instead, they're giving business updates and forging connections with group members.
Especially now, when some host agencies have had to reduce their in-house workforce that typically supports agents, Gal feels his Facebook page and videos are filling a void.
It takes time to schedule guests and record the videos, so he's not sure how long he'll keep it up once things return to normal, "but I think we have a good thing going," he said. "I will definitely try to continue with it and take it to the next level."