A new survey of travel advisors looks at long-term recovery and future challenges to help provide guidance on how destinations can develop constructive solutions and create tailored opportunities for travel advisors.
Development Counsellors International (DCI) surveyed 362 travel advisors from Canada and the United States in May 2020 as a follow-up to the same survey conducted in March 2020.
Key findings in the survey show that the pandemic has made people much more cautious. This has led to a prolonged recovery and means that a return to normalcy will take longer.
The research found that most travel advisors (38 percent) expect to resume travel marketing initiatives in their home markets in September to December this year, while some (21 percent) anticipate next year or beyond. Contrary to what was seen last time, U.S. travel advisors are slightly more wary about an earlier return within their home markets for both domestic travel marketing initiatives and fam trips.
Fam trips to international destinations are off the table for most travel advisors until 2021. Almost half of travel advisors
(43 percent) report a willingness to conduct fam trips beginning in the first quarter of 2021.
For travel advisors considering destinations for events, destinations that had opportunities for outdoor venues had a slight edge over those that did not.
DCI's survey found that, when asked about single versus multi-destination events, advisors showed general indifference (71 percent) with a slightly greater share preferring single-destination events (20 percent) than multidestination events. Most advisors (58 percent) also showed indifference toward whether or not events were indoors or outdoors, however, a greater share (37 percent) prefer outdoor.
Travel advisors were asked, "when is the earliest month you anticipate being willing to participate in travel marketing events in your home market?"
In March, 28 percent of travel advisors answered May. In the most recent survey, just 4 percent said May. Twenty-nine percent said that they would participate in travel marketing events in June when surveyed in March, that number is now just 8 percent.
In the May survey, 17 percent saw themselves engaging in travel marketing in July. Twelve percent said August and 21 percent said September, which was the highest month. Eleven percent said October, 4 percent said November and just 2 percent said December.
Compared to the March survey, the most recent study finds that fewer travel advisors reporting cancellations of existing bookings and declines in future bookings by around 14-18 percent. But very few, just 3 percent, say that things are business as usual.
Travel agents are spending most of their time rescheduling client bookings, according to the May survey. However, an increased number are also spending time on continuing education. This number has doubled compared to March 2020, according to DCI. A greater share (34 percent) are also spending time on researching destinations.
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