How travel agents can plan to ride out a crisis
The recent increase in tension in the Red Sea area is another reminder of travel’s unique vulnerability to factors over which those who work in the sector have no control. As much as it can be remembered by the spectacular events and once-in-a-lifetime experiences offered, any conversation looking back on a career in travel will be pockmarked by crises navigated. For every ‘I once stayed in this amazing six-star place in X’, there’s a ‘Do you remember that time when [insert name of volcanic eruption / extreme weather event / conflict / international disaster / technology fail / pandemic / business collapse here] happened?’. When ‘it’ inevitably hits the fan, days of effort are put in to ensuring every stakeholder in the transaction is treated fairly, and – most importantly – the customer is looked after.
That you must be prepared for anything and everything in travel is an understatement. Travel marketers, and agents who have marketing as one of their responsibilities, are as subject to that truism as everyone else in the industry. Many is the lovingly crafted marketing campaign or agency sales promotion that has had to be shelved at short notice because of an unforeseen crisis – Houthi rebels taking pot shots at shipping in the Bab Al Mandab strait and scuttling Red Sea cruise bookings in to 2025, being just the latest. Marketers and agents must learn early on to build adaptability and flex in to any plan they have to be promoting a destination or itinerary. But in the absence of a crystal ball how can they, and travel agents, be prepared for the unknown?
Stay informed
The nature of travel means it doesn’t – can’t – exist in a bubble. An event thousands of miles away that doesn’t even make the news here can still impact your brand’s operations and sales, and disrupt your customers’ holiday. Technology makes it easy now for marketers and agents to keep abreast of news in key destinations, and it behoves everyone in travel’s delicate supply chain to maintain open, two-way communications to keep on top of developments in-resort. Agents in particular must be able to speak to their suppliers quickly and easily – it’s the latter’s operations teams who will be the first to know when things are kicking off, and can flag that a campaign might need a rethink or a destination be taken off sale and alternatives offered. They’ll also be attuned to the advice of the FCDO, which remains (for better or worse) the ultimate arbiter of a destination’s safety and should never be ignored.
Know who’s responsible
Crises can result from a slow build-up of events, or drop from the clear blue sky – but in any scenario, everyone needs to know their responsibility. Who knows it’s their job to cancel any scheduled social media posts or emails relevant to the destination or partner brand that’s involved? Whose task is it to ensure your shop’s window displays or pop-ups are removed? Who’s responsible for making sure that banner advert campaign you’ve just launched is taken down?
Build good relationships
Printers, media owners, specialist support agencies, and co-op partners are just a few of the entities from which a marketer and agent may need some flexibility at short notice when a crisis strikes. Owners of those relationships needed to have invested time, and built trust, in to ensuring rapid action can be taken if need be – ideally without penalties. Got some direct marketing planned for a destination that is now in the eye of a geopolitical storm? A well maintained and mutually trusting customer-supplier relationship will ease negotiations with the printer about cancelling it – or at the very least flexing the artwork deadline so you can change its focus.
Plan ahead for better times
No crisis lasts forever, and a skill every travel marketer needs is to know how – and when - they can resurrect their suspended campaign once the situation has normalised. Is the restart of flights the first sign, or do you wait until your competitors become visible once more? Or is your decision driven by customer demand for the destination showing signs of returning to normal? Regardless, carefully consider your brand’s reputation before hitting the ‘go live’ button. Too soon and you can look foolish at best, and irresponsible at worst. But getting the timing right will help rebuild customer confidence, and deepen their long-term trust in your brand.
What this boils down to at an agent level is that failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Travel is an uncertain industry operating in an uncertain world. Its unpredictability is part of its charm (right?) but we can lay the foundations of how to respond when things go south. To paraphrase an advertising strapline for an insurance company in the 1980s, a crisis doesn’t need to be a drama if you keep a flexible mindset, communicate honestly, and always put your customers first.