As travel agents' roles in advising clients grow in importance, consortia heads speaking at a Wednesday session of ASTA Global Live stressed the importance of advisors understanding the "nuts and bolts" of health and safety.
"We pride ourselves on both getting people excited about destinations and educating them about destinations, but [now] health and safety are going to be at the forefront," said Alex Sharpe, president and CEO of Signature Travel Network.
Advisors will have to be more transparent with clients, ultimately letting them decide what they're comfortable with, Sharpe added, and supplier partners will both have to be more creative in their offerings and share detailed health and safety information.
David Harris, CEO of Ensemble Travel Group, said advisors' value has never been as strong as it is today, and it will remain strong going forward.
"They are the ones who own the relationships, and it's our role as consortia partners to provide them with the tools and programs that will facilitate strengthening those relationships in the longer term," Harris said.
Business travel, in particular, will undergo a sea change, Travel Leaders Network president Roger Block predicted .
Block said he believed travel for internal meetings will be elimintated or "dramatically reduced." That segment has typically represented about 30% to 40% of all business travel.
He also said that, before business travel returns to meaningful volumes, corporations will need some kind of liability protection in case one of their employees contracts Covid-19 while on a company trip. When travel does resume, duty of care will be more important than ever.
Travelers' risk tolerance is "all over the map," Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch said.
He used a variation of the common sales adage, "don't sell out of your own pocketbook," to make a point about risk tolerance: "Don't sell out of your own personal risk tolerance." He encouraged advisors to help their customers become as educated as possible, then make their own, informed choices.
The comments were made during a panel on what the future of travel will look like in light of the coronavirus pandemic