Jamie Biesiada
Most travel advisors are beginning what they forecast will be a solid year in 2020. At the same time, the travel agency community as a whole continues to turn to training, ensuring its newest members are properly educated to avoid unintended costs.
According to Travel Leaders Group's (TLG) 2019-2020 travel trends survey, which was taken by more than 400 TLG advisors, 80.49% of advisors have an optimistic outlook for their business for 2020. Another 17.16% have an outlook that is neither optimistic nor pessimistic and 2.26% have a pessimistic outlook.
TLG posed a similar question on its survey last year, but the method by which advisors answered was a little different. They could choose one of five options: very positive (41.5%); positive (48.59%); neutral (9.42%); negative (0.43%); or very negative (0.11%).
Stephen McGillivray, TLG's chief marketing and communications officer, said there isn't a significant difference between the numbers, because the question was asked a different way each year.
That likely bodes well for the next 12 months, as many reported 2019 being their best year.
McGillivray pointed to some additional data from advisors: 57% reported their clients plan to spend more or significantly more money on travel this year. And, from a consumer survey, TLG found 95% of around 2,000 respondents plan to travel in 2020. The majority, 52%, plan to spend more on travel in 2020 than in 2019.
"We expect demand for travel to continue in 2020 at about the same pace as 2019," McGillivray said. "We expect our advisors will continue to focus on revenue and sales growth targeting the luxury and specialty travel markets, growing the cruise market, building corporate travel business and enticing more travelers to use the services of a travel advisor."
Meanwhile, the Travel Institute reported continued growth with its new-to-the-industry educational products, helping to tackle an industrywide challenge to ensure new travel advisors are properly trained.
According to the Institute's president, Diane Petras, new talent has entered the industry in recent years, but novice agents come with unintended costs like lower productivity levels, liability for mistakes and eroded consumer trust.
"The good news is that these unintended costs have led to a renewed appreciation for the value of agent education and a real opportunity for our industry to continuously ensure agents have the foundation they need for ongoing consumer success," she said in a statement.
In 2015, the Travel Institute saw 32% year-over-year growth in revenue from its new-to-the-industry products, like textbook sales to the college market and its TripKit introductory program.
Every year since then, that figure has increased; the Institute estimates it will have increased by 20% in 2019 based on numbers in mid-December.
The Institute is encouraging further training with its New Year New Career campaign. During the first quarter of 2020, members and nonmembers can watch complimentary training webinars, like "Preparing for a Travel Career." The Travel Institute also offers a weekly newsletter with business ideas.