We live in convulsive times, I always say unexplored, uncertain and unpredictable, although these days the news of the viability of the arrival of the vaccine is lighting our path, full of darkness during this year 2020, opening our sector to the hope that it has suffered so much in recent months. The tourism industry has suffered the inexplicable, has lost over 100,000 million euros in Spain, and has led to the ERTE, if not ERE's, to thousands of people to whom it is appropriate to show our full solidarity and support.
Travel agencies, according to the latest studies, will decrease their presence from 9,500 points of sale to approximately 6,000 when the pandemic is over, registering a net loss of more than 30% of their capillarity, a trend that was already announced before the COVID and which the crisis has only accelerated. Although this fact is not debatable, it will cause a major earthquake in the sector, given thattravellers will not stop travelling and there will probably be a rebound in travel in the coming months.
After all, the days of the travel agency model with high costs and narrow margins, and therefore meagre profitability, were numbered. The crisis will provide an opportunity for travel agencies to transform themselves and adapt to new times, consumers will behave differently, with new consumption patterns where the personalisation of services, the use of technology and personal advice will take precedence.
Some travel agencies and travel agents we have recently interviewed think and hope that "everything will go back to the way it was", but nothing could be further from the truth, in fact nothing will go back to the way it was, the "old normality" will not arrive, but we will mutate into a "future normality".
normality" will not arrive, but we will mutate to a "future normality". Agencies will have to transform their shops, migrating towards larger, more accessible and comfortable spaces, where clients will ask for help and advice through visits by appointment, the environment will be digital and both clients and agents will rely on technology to access quality information and content:
There will be digital elements that can recreate travel such as augmented reality, with fully integrated information and purchasing processes and contactless procedures as the situation demands and as will be fundamental in a future where people will be essential to add value to generate a sublime experience.
completely dominated by technology, but where people will be essential to add value to generate a sublime experience. According to the BRAINTRUST Tourism Barometer , Spaniards are keen to travel, and if the restrictions are lifted with the arrival of the vaccine, domestic travel would fall from 82% in 2020 to 66% in 2021, travel to Europe would rise from 14% this year to 22% next year, and long-haul traffic would increase from 4% this year to 12% in 2021, so we could expect a change in trend that we would see materialise depending on the evolution of the pandemic and its consequent economic crisis.
In fact, travellers say that as a result of COVID 19, they will change their travel habits, 53% will change their destinations, 42% their type of travel, 40% their means of transport, and 39% their type of accommodation, There is even talk of the arrival of regenerative tourism that aims to leave the place better than the tourist found it, and all destinations, to a greater or lesser extent, are promoting strategic plans seeking sustainability, supported and subsidised by governments with an eye on the 2030 agenda.
And on this path towards sustainable tourism, travel agencies are the main bastions of this objective. Data from our BRAINTRUST Barometer show that, for the 20% of travellers who will change their habits after COVID 19, the face-to-face travel agency channel will increase its share from 10% today to 29%, and online agencies from 19% to 26%. That's what I call green shoots, but they will not grow without proper watering.
Some travel agencies and travel agents we have recently interviewed think and hope that "everything will go back to the way it was", but nothing could be further from the truth, in fact nothing will go back to the way it was, the "old normality" will not arrive, but we will mutate into a "future normality".
normality" will not arrive, but we will mutate to a "future normality".
Agencies will have to transform their shops, migrating towards larger, more accessible and comfortable spaces, where customers will ask for help and advice through visits by appointment, the environment will be digital and both customers and agents will rely on technology to access quality information and content: there will be digital elements that can recreate trips, such as augmented reality, with fully integrated information and purchasing processes and with fully integrated information and purchasing procedures.
technology to access quality information and content: there will be digital elements that can recreate journeys such as augmented reality, with fully integrated information and shopping processes and with contactless procedures as the situation requires and as
contactless procedures as the situation requires and as will be fundamental in a future completely dominated by technology, but where people will be essential to add value to generate a sublime experience.
Additionally, the use of data through business intelligence will serve to personalise the value proposition for each customer, anticipating travellers' consumption patterns thanks to artificial intelligence, surprising them with new, innovative products that are aligned with this new vision of more sustainable tourism.
Agencies are heading towards a promising future, but it will not be without difficulties and with much homework to be done.
Who said fear?
Travel agents have so far shown that they have been able to emerge from crises, to take advantage of them to transform themselves, and now will be no exception.
Never before have travel agencies had the opportunity to reinvent themselves as they have now, and BRAINTRUST is working to make it happen.
The distribution of travel wholesalers will also change, replacing inefficient face-to-face visits for salespeople and agents with effective pre-planned telematic meetings, with digital training not only on the product but also on sales skills, social network management, the use of IT tools, shop window design and sales techniques, persuasion and how to overcome consumer objections.
product but also on sales skills, social media management, use of IT tools, shop window design or sales techniques, persuasion and how to rebut consumer objections. The industry as a whole must change the way it operates by reinventing the model and emulating other more advanced sectors, fully immersing itself in the dawn of a new era, where the digital will overtake the physical in a society of digital natives and digital natives.
I always remember my mother, Maruja, a tireless worker, a butcher, and ahead of her time, saying to me, "the customer is the one who pays us and feeds us, but they will not buy from us because it is us, but because every day we offer them the best meat at the best price, and the best food for their families reaches their homes. We have no choice but to innovate and be better than the others, who will have no choice but to copy us".
On this path to the future, agencies must then address the necessary steps to reach the new renaissance:
1. Ensure survival through aid to the sector, wherever it comes from, from ministries, communities or town councils, managing its liquidity on the basis of its income and expenditure.
2. Study the market and the changes that are taking place in the consumer, without ignoring them, while they are going through a historic crisis.
3. Inspire travellers, adapt and innovate your products and services to a new customer who will look for sustainable values in travel that they will buy at affordable prices.
4. Digitise your processes, so that they are integrated and automated with a customer-friendly contactless approach that increases productivity.
5. Evolve its offer, orienting it more towards experiences and not so much towards products, towards living and not spending.
6. Design the Customer Experience they want to offer their users in the future, adapting the channels to the needs of each consumer.
7. Ensure full omni-channeling in a market that is becoming more digital than physical.
8. Train your employees not only in destinations and products, which they already know a lot about, but in digital selling skills, and in tools to add value and increase your customer base.
In my last conferences as a coach and consultant I have been appealing to the acceptance of reality as the only salvation to remain resilient, taking care of what is in our power to do, and not worrying about what is not in our control.
under our control. In this unpredictable context in which we find ourselves, we cannot change the external reality, but we can change the internal reality.
As a staunch advocate of positive psychology, I maintain that travel agencies have it in their hands today to prepare for a new cycle full of opportunities, without making excuses waiting for the manna to return, nothing is free, and neither will it be free to make this opportunity a reality, it is time to get down to work supporting each other in these times when the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be visible.
As Heraclitus said, change is the only constant in life, nothing is forever, neither good nor bad. Being prepared for when the pandemic ends is key for the agency sector. From BRAINTRUST we help in that task. It is time to build a different industry.
