Author: thestampsinmypassport

A professional serving the travel industry for 25 years. Expertise and knowledge in sales, customer care and knowledge of the world. Sharing my knowledge, travel stories and tales from around the world in an engaging way.

Tales from the front line – crisis management

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As I mentioned in my post a few days ago, I have been battling a lot of anxiety. I want to be open and honest about it, as I am heading to the office today for, if all things go well, the last time for a while. It is 100% the right thing to be doing and I said to friends on Sunday, that by Wednesday I knew it would be the time.

While I know we, in the travel industry are not ‘front line’ essential workers but the societal definition, if you ask anyone in the travel industry, WE have been on the front line for a long time now in this global event called Corona-virus or Covid-19.

Our Asia division has been working through this for a few months now. In January as my Europe team was in FULL on booking and planning mode with our clients, planning honeymoons, anniversary trips, birthday celebrations to Europe our team across the floor was being crushed. All flights to Asia stopped, countries in lock down, cancellation after cancellation. We listened as co-workers, hugging and lending a compassionate ear. All the while, we were in our glory, bookings and quotes and requests for glorious holidays to Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and beyond.

A few short weeks ago, we started to get information that a hot zone arrived in small towns outside Milan, Italy. Concern started to grow as those areas self isolated. Then a week or so later, it was out of control.

For those who may not know, Italy is one of our top selling countries in Europe. If you have been, I do not need to explain. The phone calls started, and at first, it was not a panic. Our ‘travel season’ really starts in the spring, so April travel mostly is where it begins. This is February…lots of time, we should be okay, right?

Think again. We are now, as we all know in a global pandemic. Italy is closed. Now country by country the world is shutting down. If you haven’t been listening, it is the only way to ‘flatten the curve’.

The calls for travel requests have stopped. Now the calls are for cancellations, and changes and helping people work through their own panic and fear, as I said the other day, balancing and working through our own fears.

We are here, still working, helping clients who are STILL, I mean still not back in Canada as of yet. Yesterday one of my team mates was jumping back and forth between two computers trying desperately to get her clients out of Malaga back to North America. It is becoming harder and harder and after this weekend, if you are not home in North America, it will be too late. Wherever you are, you will need to stay for a while.

People still want to travel, but they don’t know when it will be okay to do so. I know that my trip in May to London and Dublin is rapidly falling away. I am too busy helping other people work out their plans to think about my own, but I know that in the coming weeks I will need to make my decision to cancel my ticket and put my trip on hold.

Travel is not just something I “do” for work. I have been doing it for thirty years. It is a part of who I am. Just ask some of the people I have been messaging the past week or so. A friend of my parents who spends the winter in Mexico, she is thankfully back on Canadian soil now, but had her trip scheduled to return at the end of the month. A friend who works for one of our airlines, engaged me for some personal assistance with her parents trip yesterday. I was concerned about the amazing lady I met last summer who is recovering from Cancer and was on a family holiday trip to Hawaii and followed her journey and all the comments of people advising her to come home.

The tourism industry is being beaten up in a way that has never been seen before. When the battle is over and the dust clears it is clear that not all will be left standing. It is too soon to say what cruise line, what hotels, what airlines will look like in a couple of months. But one thing is FOR SURE, the industry has proven time and time again that like the Phoenix, we will rise again. People are already asking about changing their trips for the fall, and I feel that we will be able to look ahead and I would put money on the fact that 2021 will be a rocking year as all of world will be looking for tourism to come back.

I will go to the office today and continue to help people from there until I can work from home. Once I am home, I will need time to rest. While I will still be working, it will be time to slow down, self isolate and self care.

We all need some self care right now. I used the word madness in a status update on Facebook last week and it is. We all need to take a pause.

I am going to keep writing as I work through this. There are so many stories I want to share with you all. I really appreciate you as come along with my on my journey.

Stay inside, wash your hands and make sure you reach out to someone today, they need it, more than you know.

Lisa

The Battlefield of the Unknown

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It is hard to actually communicate what I am feeling, and what I think so many people around us are feeling. It is such a fast moving storm people really don’t know where to go and hide from it….or do they? Home is where you hide from it. If it were only that simple.

A week ago I went to work on Monday morning and who would have thought that the events that happened over the course the next five days could ever happen? Not me.

As a travel professional

As I mentioned in my post last week, I have seen and survived many global crisis in my career and this by far is the worst crisis I have ever experienced.

Imagine in the course of five days every single cruise line stopping all sailings for two months, all coach tour companies, all river cruise companies, all buffet restaurants in Vegas, all international flights from Europe to the US, countries closing their borders, locking people in and keeping people out. Even the happiness place on earth has closed of its theme parks. It is unprecedented and has brought the global travel industry to its knees. Other than a time like 9/11 where the plans just stopped for that time period. We are almost there. An airline full stop globally, could that even happen?

It’s so much more than just the travel. It is every aspect of life as we know it. Schools, Gyms, libraries, and more.  Most cities have banned large gatherings of people which of course turns the lights off on Broadway, and Toronto, and many other US cities. All concerts, all sporting events ranging from NBA, NHL, MBA, Soccer, golf, NASCAR, figure skating, March Madness and so much more. All but the Olympics have been cancelled at this point, although I feel that this will happen very soon.

I work for one company selling a unique product now. That product is Europe and of course Europe, like the rest of the globe is under siege. My livelihood has gone from being exciting, robust and fulfilling to full stop, anxiety-ridden daily discoveries of what is to come next. I have been very aware of other friends in the industry that work with selling the south and all the people planning to travel south for March break.

I appreciate the travellers frustration. Your trip has been cancelled, or you chose to cancel or change your date. There is no refund only future travel credits. You are upset. But you have to look at it as if they gave every person their money back instead of future credits, the entire industry would cease to exist.

I bought myself a birthday present last month. For those of you who know my ‘slight’ obsession with #LondonCalling and my great desire to make a bucket list dream finally come true – well it is supposed to come true on May 22nd. Happy birthday to me – London and Dublin.

I advise my clients on a daily basis, “May is a long time away from now, this will look a lot different by then”. I have now been saying this for several weeks now. Yes, it is looking different and not in the way that I hope for. May is still a long way away, but I am going to be hopeful and I am not cancelling my plans, yet. I have purchased insurance that does include CFAR (Cancel for any reason) and even though the coverage is not a 100% refund I can exercise the right to cancel at any time and not go on the trip.

It is Sunday night and for the first time in a very long time I have a case of the Sunday Anxieties. I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that the government both provincial and federal have some very tough strong decisions that are going to come down this week. Our landscape is going to look a lot different by the end of the week is my feeling.

Until then, I will go to the office and help as many people as I can work through their own anxiety while internally battle my own.

If you know someone in not just the travel industry, but in any service industry, check in on them. They are not okay.

I am sure I will be in touch during the week,

Stay healthy, wash your hands and keep your distance!

Lisa

 

Memories bring back memories

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For those of you who know me well, you know that I have a good memory. I can remember dates, times and places. I remember movies and tv shows and I remember phone numbers. It is a blessing and a curse at time to remember so many little details.

Memories bring back…..

That this week thirty years ago, yes you read correctly thirty years ago I go my first job in travel at the Last Minute Club. I have shared the story many times, but my aunt and uncle were best friends with the owners of the company. I graduated high school in January 1990 and wouldn’t be starting school until the fall. My uncle had already gotten his nephew a job there, and he son was working there as well, he asked me, what do you plan on doing until university. I didn’t have any plans, so a travel agent I was born.

Memories bring back….

The days before computers. Big white boards all over the walls in the call centre, shared cubicles and smoke. Lots of smoke. It was allowed thirty years ago. We had to call in to confirm space and make bookings. Once the space was sold out we told the product manager who went up to the boards and erased the product.

Those early days were fun days. My first day on the job my uncle told me I had to get a passport. He said, “if you get asked to go on a FAM trip to Cuba, and you don’t have a passport, you will miss out”. I guess that was the birth of the love for stamps in my passport.

Memories bring back….

Times of crisis that I have been through in thirty years of this life. The coronavirus is far from my first crisis rodeo – I lived through Zika, Sars, H1N1, airline bankruptcies, supplier bankruptcies, economy downfall of 2008, and of course the event that shifted time forever, 9/11.

I remember the days and weeks after that day in 2001 when the world stopped. Phones stopped. People did not travel. It was about two months of quiet. People were scared. They were afraid. They didn’t know what leaving home would be like in the new world.

And then it was November. The first snow fall was almost like seeing the buds bloom in springtime. People woke up and realized that they haven’t been living, planning, preparing for their winter vacations. The phones started to ring again, and they didn’t stop for a long time.

That is what I have to keep reminding myself the past few weeks. As I woke up this morning to hear that all of Italy is on lock down, and this afternoon to hear that Air Canada cancelled all flights until May 1st. That is a long time, considering that Italy is our top selling destination the Europe department.

I have said that May is probably the time that people will wake up. Wake up to wanting to travel again, that the virus has slowed down progression due to the temperature rising.

I know people are scared of the unknown. I am as well. I told my mother tonight that she couldn’t go to bulk candy store to buy her dried fruit, because let’s be honest, people do put their hands in the bins.

I hope that it doesn’t take until May for those of you who are planning summer holidays to actually book something. We all want to think that prices will be low due to the industry having taken such a beating, but I am not sure. I feel that you will be able to get a great deal on a cruise come summer and fall, but our top selling destinations in Europe will be back on track and as popular as ever.

As I look back on all that I have accomplished in my career as a travel professional I feel that there is one word that comes to mind – resilient.  I have been knocked down more times than I am willing to admit, and yet here I am, still standing through it all.

My current role as a European Destination Specialist has given me a sense of excitement and interest I hadn’t had in the industry in a very long time. I always thought of myself as an educator of travel. I now consider myself a travel artist. Every client request is a blank canvas. A canvas that requires me as the artist to customize and paint the picture of the most amazing European Adventure of your dreams.

Memories bring back….

The days before this global scare – just a short few weeks ago. When I was busy creating perfect paintings of European experiences. I hope they come back soon.

Until then, live your best life and please wash your hands,

Lisa