December news
Another interesting month with a lot of changes in the UK/Europe landscape and travel market. The consensus is that we seem to have turned a corner with Covid 19 mainly due to the three vaccines (so far) that are being rolled out all over Europe. There is a strong air of positivity even faced with numbers increasing in many areas/countries.
Scandinavia is having a very tough time with Denmark going into a strong lock-down and Sweden also being forced to increase their measures to reduce the spread. Even the King is unhappy about the situation https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55347021
Germany and Holland are also in lockdown until next year, so it is a tough festive season over there
Australia made the news for fires on Fraser Island and then floods in NSW but neither of these are likely to reduce the massive pent-up demand for travel to Australia as soon as it is allowed. I have spoken to a lot of agents this month with all of them saying that there are still a lot of customers wanting to travel but border restrictions are obviously the key issue. Just getting a date for entry being allowed for Australia and/or New Zealand would see a huge influx of bookings but we will have to wait until the vaccines start to show their effectiveness and faster testing prior to, during and after travel.
The new travel corridor for the UK to Dubai kicked off a mini boom in bookings/travel and the Maldives has also seen high numbers from UK and Scandinavia this month. Neither of these have managed to lead to staff returning from furlough schemes but it is good to hear positive news and bookings. Most agents are still working from home and many offices are being closed or reduced in size. It is great to hear comments like ‘The vaccine has boosted the ever-optimistic UK consumer’ and ‘things are on the up now’ and ‘it's looking more positive’ and ‘Confidence is coming back and demand is definitely there, customers are desperate to go’. All these comments from UK/Scandi product teams with one of them even taking on a new staff member!
Trailfinders launched their youth programme on Monday this week, great to see investment in this sector and expansion rather than reduction https://www.trailfinders.com/holiday-styles/gap-year-and-student-travel. The ‘official’ launch will be Dec 29th
I was also being positive on a New Zealand podcast late in November which was great fun and can be heard here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4wpC17phPb99qvoYuSCQ0v?si=437bwvXuTm2EEj0gQtpw9Q
or
My Training Guru is loading up suppliers who are forward thinking and want to get their products out there in front of all the trade https://mytraining.guru/. There is no denying that on-line product training for travel agents is needed right now. Products and regions need to be prepared for travel in the future before it happens, and it is too late.
I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Years and much more than that, I hope we all get to travel and see each other in person in 2021
keith@tailormaderepresentation.com or phone +44 77699 71217
Keith Marsh
Tailor Made Representation – Helping you connect