Travelers Eager to Hear From Advisors For Vacation Help

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to plague the planet during these final months of 2020, but travelers are consoling themselves by planning and even booking trips well into the future.

What’s more, the findings of a new study from Global Travel Collection (GTC)—Internova Travel Group's premium and luxury business division—suggest that those who’re planning travel are eager to hear from travel advisors.

On Monday, during GTC’s virtual conference entitled “Elevate the Journey”, the division’s president Angie Licea remarked, "There is a huge opportunity for all of us out there; however, we must stay vigilant and communicate as much as possible," reported Travel Weekly.

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She explained that GTC had surveyed more than 1,000 of its clients and discovered that 64 percent are dreaming of traveling, while 34 percent have started planning or have already booked their next trip. Only 15 percent of respondents said that they’re not currently planning any travel at all.

To the travel advisors in virtual attendance, Licea emphasized, "Most importantly, they want to hear from you."

Seventy-two percent of those polled said they’d welcome receiving destination information from their travel advisors, including promotional material (63 percent) and tips on health and safety (61 percent). Sixty-six percent of survey-takers said they want to receive insider travel information, which translates to, "they want to know what it's like to travel now," Licea said.

In total, just 10 percent of those surveyed said they plan to travel this year, while 41 percent are planning getaways in 2021 or 2022. Forty-three percent of the survey group said they’d like to plan travel, but are waiting on the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Among those who are currently planning trips, 14 percent responded that they’d be traveling during this year’s holiday season, 27 percent intend to travel during the first half of next year and 52 percent said they were waiting until the second half of 2021.

With so many 2020 travel plans having been thwarted, people may be putting those funds toward future trips. Licea said that money did not seem to be a barrier to traveling among the survey group. Twelve percent of respondents reported that they plan to spend more on travel in the next year than they’d done in the past, while 56 percent plan on spending the same amount as before.

Seventy-nine percent said they’d be traveling by airplane, 40 percent via automobile, 12 percent on an ocean cruise and eight percent on a river cruise. Since survey-takers could choose more than one mode of transportation, an ambitious nine percent responded that they’d take all of the above.

Among prospective cruise-goers, 29 percent said they would consider sailing the ocean aboard a small luxury vessel, 13 percent would consider large-ship ocean cruising, 27 percent would consider river cruising and eight percent would consider expedition voyages.

The U.S. travelers’ preferences tended toward open space, with survey-takers demonstrating the most interest in national parks, Hawaii, California and Alaska, and 24 percent saying their plans might take them "anywhere uncrowded". When it came to international destinations, Europe emerged as the clear favorite.