Last week, I came across an article on MSN.com with the headline, "7 Dangerous Reasons Americans Are Being Warned Against Traveling to Europe Right Now".
I said to myself, dangerous? I never thought of Europe as a dangerous part of the world. Maybe there are certain neighborhoods in larger cities locally known as unsafe, but to label an entire continent as dangerous seemed extreme to me as someone who has visited Europe many times and never felt in danger.
In that article, here are the "7 dangerous reasons."
- Security threats and travel warnings
- Pickpockets and theft targeting tourists
- Overcrowding and congestion affecting health
- Terrorism and public safety incidents
- Climate risks and record-breaking heatwaves
- Cultural differences
- Laws regarding public behavior, along with being unaware of local regulations even rules on photography.
I don't know of any travel advisor who would advise against traveling to Europe based on these reasons. I am quite certain any professional knows how to address these factors in counseling a client and able to advise what precautions to take to travel safely and stay healthy while conveying that there are always risks.
To understand why this matters, I thought about how people get their news nowadays and obtain information. Pre-internet, the main news sources were the three giant networks, CBS, NBC, and ABC, along with CNN. Fox News came into existence in the '90s.
This is no longer the case. Social media is where news and information are consumed. Now, to be a professional, a travel advisor must add the ability to decipher headlines, sort through the myths, and dispel misperceptions. Not because your job is to talk someone into traveling to a place despite their fears, but your clients do travel to places that make the news with negative headlines. Or perhaps friends or family are telling them don't go there. There is trouble there. Or saying, I went there and didn't like it.
When I was a travel advisor, I remember saying to clients, "Just because your sister and brother-in-law didn't enjoy their trip, doesn't mean you won't enjoy it. This destination has all the elements you described as looking for in a great vacation.
To be successful today as a travel advisor you have to be more passionate about what you do for clients, incorporate more study into the trips you help plan. Read multiple news and information sources. Rely on your suppliers, tourist boards, and DMCs as trusted sources of information. Know your geography, maps, distances, terrain, and environment. Gather facts. Set aside your own biases if not truly relevant. Put things into perspective. Give context to situations.
While a travel advisor can't go everywhere, personal experience is golden. I remember during Covid, when destinations started opening up such as Mexico, Dominican Republic, and slowly but eventually other places too, travel advisors traveled. They used their personal experiences to help their clients travel safely too. Travel advisors helped clients navigate all the requirements and protocols to go away and come back home.
In post-Covid times today, the same is evident in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa's catastrophic damage to Jamaica. Or the death of a leader of a drug cartel in Mexico.
In all these tragic episodes which seem to be a weekly occurrence in the life of a travel advisor, travel professionals have been instrumental in helping destinations get back on their feet, stay in business, support communities and protect the livelihoods of the tourism and hospitality industries while protecting their own livelihoods.
Of course, there are other considerations that must be taken into account while working with your clients. Assessing risk tolerance, State Department warnings, Duty of Care and Duty to Warn responsibilities. Let's save these matters for a future article in Industry Voices inside TravelPulse.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
