Agent perspectives: Riding the rollercoaster

Some days over the past year I’ve struggled to get my positive pants on while dealing with rebookings, chasing up refunds and getting through to tour operators. But there are definitely positives on the horizon, and I’d like to thank the SPAA – the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association – which has been fabulous at campaigning for us.

Its Wednesday morning coffee chat – or a “blether” as it’s known up here – has been extremely productive with agents from leisure and business as well as sales managers all joining in. We have 10 minutes of business chat and then it can be anything from puppies and babies to exercising and parcel deliveries! Of course, we often revert to travel matters as well.

A few recent events have also helped get me back into positive mode again, the first of which was rebooking a Venice trip for the fifth time for clients the other day!

I also organised an online Africa event. I sent clients an invite to come and enjoy “sundowners on safari”, posting them a miniature bottle of Amarula to enjoy on our “game drive” round Sabi Sands, Cape Town and Victoria Falls. I had more than 30 clients online at 4pm on a Tuesday afternoon, and a week later I had a £27,000 Botswana booking in the bag along with two extensive South Africa itineraries.

I then held a Silversea event for 14 people, producing two fabulous bookings for Japan and Singapore/Hong Kong, with the clients paying in full a few days later to take advantage of the early-booking discount even though travel is late 2022 and January 2023.

So hang in there everyone – we’ll be back under a pile of confirmations soon!