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| Vice President—Content/Editorial Director, Ruthanne Terrero |
In the wake of the disasters spurred by Hurricane Sandy came stories lauding the use of real-life travel agents. Larry Olmstead, who had written a series about why consumers should use an agent over the summer, was back at it again on Forbes.com, praising the fact that he could have been sitting in the Charlotte airport just prior to the hurricane instead of sitting snugly at his home desk. The most valuable aspect of his agent, this time around, was that she could get into the system to change his flight when he, even as a high-tier airline customer, was unable to.
“When things go bad, you need someone in your corner to advocate for you, someone with both knowledge and access to the reservation systems, and you certainly cannot count on the airlines—even if you are a loyal, longtime regular customer,” said Olmstead.
USA Today as well was looking for expert advice and compiled tips from travel agents on traveling during stormy weather, which included buying travel insurance and having all the contacts possible when you are traveling—your agent, your tour operator, your hotel, everyone. For the entire list of our tips, see our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TravelAgentMagazine.
It’s no secret that agents have become popular in the consumer press and I can vouch firsthand that many of the writers for the big outlets, such as The New York Times, USA Today and Forbes.com, have made it a matter of practice to research the agent sector when world events impact travel. I credit the consortia for being smart enough to invite consumer press to their annual meetings so the reporters can see the very professional travel agent industry en masse talking about travel, getting supplier updates and learning new selling skills. It’s dizzying to most on the outside of the industry who have no idea what travel agents actually do to hone their skills.
Another thing I’ve learned to appreciate during this storm and its aftermath is how travel agents have to buckle down during a bad event. Even though they may not personally be affected, their workload quadruples as they struggle to get clients out of places they are not supposed to be in. On Facebook, I could see the advisors that I’m friends with report that they were working remotely. Some, stuck in transit, checked into hotels and checked right into their business centers where they could operate their agency businesses, others reported they could not make it to their offices and so were working from home. Some had power in the office but not at home, many had employees who could not make it to work, either because their homes were devastated or they could not purchase gas for their cars.
Some in the New York area reported they were taking some nice business in while others said business was all but dead. Going forward, this is going to be an issue for advisors. I can report that the densely populated tri-state area of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut is now a populace of haves and have-nots. One hundred thousand homes were destroyed in the area. Others are facing daunting repair work before they can get back into their houses. Many did not have flood insurance. Needless to say, they will not be taking a vacation for some time.
On the other hand, many were unscathed and did not even lose power. For them, when the mass transit trains come back on line, commuting to work will again be easy and their lives will continue as normal; in fact, they will likely be looking to get away. It’s a mixed dichotomy here in the Northeast right now and we’ll be seeing the negative impact for years to come.