It’s been a wild ride these past two weeks for anyone involved in the travel industry.
When this situation first started to unfold, we were honestly preparing ourselves for the worst – an overwhelming number of phone calls and emails from panicked clients needing instant answers about their travel plans.
To be sure, it has been very busy, and we expect it to be so for a while yet. However the tone of people’s communication with us has been far from panicked. The overwhelming majority of our clients have not only been extremely patient, but have also expressed their genuine concern for how we’re coping through this madness.
You cannot possibly imagine how meaningful this is for us. Many times, a simple message of encouragement has ‘made’ our day.
In contrast, many of our less fortunate travel agent colleagues have described scenarios even worse than our initial fears. It shows that we have a very special group of clients.
Another pleasant surprise is that amongst our clients, over 90% who were scheduled to travel in March and April (who ended up having their plans cancelled by the cruise line), are choosing to simply postpone their trip. It seems our people have an underlying calm about the whole situation and understand that this craziness will pass.
An equally high number of clients travelling in May and June are very much in “wait and see” mode. They want to take their trips – and they are ready to see what happens in the next few weeks before making any decisions. They are not in denial, or being naïve, they are just keeping things in perspective.
It certainly helps that the cruise lines are making it easy for guests to ‘wait and see’. They’ve provided relaxed cancellation policies, and also rewarded guests who hang in there. Guests are being treated more than fairly.
We respect such a rational approach by clients to a situation that is necessarily highly emotive.
I’m not sure what “magic lever” we pulled to end up surrounded by this extraordinary group of people, but we sure feel lucky.
We got a little preview of this special community when we hosted a cruise on Seabourn in Alaska last summer, and several of our clients were on board. We don’t often get a chance to meet our clients in person, so you can imagine how delighted we were when it turned out that OUR CLIENTS were the ones we enjoyed spending time with the most on that trip!
For many of us, the decision to cruise is a leisure choice, one we are privileged to make. For many cruise line employees that we interface with on the ship: your room steward, the waiter, the bartender or the tour guide – these circumstances are far more consequential. Almost all of these people, who do such a good job of taking care of us, come from emerging economies and they rely on their salaries, and the tips we provide them, to send money back home to their families. The tourism industry is far from perfect, but it does redistribute wealth from the rich countries like ours to others that are developing.
So, thank you for being part of this special community of travellers. Bob and I want you to know that we genuinely appreciate you and never take you for granted.
It is said that people’s true nature is exposed in times of crisis. This situation certainly qualifies as a crisis, and the response we have seen from all of you is a glowing testament to the quality of this community.
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I look forward to hearing from you.
Sue Bradley
Sue Bradley
