Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Crabill
Elizabeth Crabill was recently appointed CEO of CIE Tours following Brian Stack, who retired after leading the company for 26 years. A graduate of Smith College, Crabill earned an MBA at Harvard before joining the travel industry. She previously served as vice president of sales and marketing for Lindblad Expeditions and later as president of Travel Bound and vice president of sales for GTA Americas. CIE Tours is a specialist in tours to Ireland and Britain.
TravelPulse: What kind of effect are you seeing from Brexit?
Elizabeth Crabill: It's still very early to tell. For all U.S. tour operators who sell anything into Britain, there is clearly some effect on both sides of the Atlantic. We have the effect on the ground, which is positive. The short-term drop in Sterling is very good for any of our travelers who are on the ground and on any spending they do there. So that is clearly a positive. But then on the sales and marketing side, the entire industry has seen that Europe is very challenging this year for a lot of reasons.
Brexit is just one of them, because it is uncertainty. The U.S. market, the travel market and markets in general don't like uncertainty very much. We've been in a very fortunate spot because as a specialist to Ireland and Britain, we can take advantage of both sides of the benefits.
TP: Is the speculation of higher air fare based on the probability of increased regulations between countries?
EC: Exactly. That and many other reasons. Where they travel to will dictate what negotiations they will have to do that may have previously been covered by EU regulations. If they have to do individual carrier agreements with different countries and borders and airports that could affect them. But again, we have to give it some time to see what happens.
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