Codie’s Corner: Creating Travel Templates

As a travel advisor, part of the job is creating individualized vacations for travelers. Not much compares to consulting with a potential traveler, designing a personalized itinerary and hearing rave reviews about how amazing the trip was upon the return. It’s rewarding.

However, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact the travel industry, many people are revisiting the idea of travel in a hesitant way. Although individualized attention is important, travelers will want to know they are safe during their travels, which may mean they are up for something a bit more mainstream.

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Travel agents continue to lead the way in the road to recovery with their own trips, and it’s important to use your travels to your advantage. This might mean creating a few go-to templates depending on the outcome of your recent trips.

When your clients become comfortable traveling again, they are more than likely going to be 100 percent looking to your advice. Instead of searching for something unique and different, they’ll prefer that you create an itinerary that is safe and straightforward.

Use the extra time right now to create a few go-to sample itineraries for your clients. They can always be personalized depending on the client, but having a few templates in your back pocket will ensure you’re prepared when bookings start to pick up again.

If things went well during your recent trip, mold an itinerary around that. Your clients will feel even safer knowing that you just took the same vacation they are about to embark on.

For example, tourism in Cancun is doing exceptionally well right now. The destination has been successfully open since June, and several travel agents have had a chance to visit some of their favorite hotels and resorts in this area.

If you felt comfortable with your recent trip, create a template with a specific flight schedule, resort, transfer service and maybe even an excursion or spa treatment. Use this as a starting point for your clients letting them know how impressed you were with these companies during your experience.

Or maybe you took a short weekend road trip to a nearby town. Put together a three- or four-day itinerary which includes a hotel, rental car service and a few local activities. The commission on a trip like this may not be as much as you are used to, but you can always charge a fee as well.

A lot of travel advisors are also using this time to expand their education by taking webinars and classes. Some specialist courses included in the Travel Agent Academy program not only provide destination knowledge to bring you up to speed, but also sample itineraries to present to your clients. This is a great way to have a go-to template for a destination you haven’t had a chance to visit yet.

Working as a travel advisor doesn’t always have to be about reinventing the wheel, but rather using the tools you have at your fingertips.