“But I do know our members are in a great place to cope with whatever happens,” he added.
His optimism matches the positivity prevalent across the travel industry currently. Agents I met at the cruise conference spoke of strong sales for 2018, and a similar confidence was evident at the Advantage Conference earlier in the month.
It’s not just travel agents feeling buoyant – the cruise industry is set to welcome more than 40 new ships over the next decade, and last week Tui Group boss Fritz Joussen hinted at a new build for Marella Cruises. Such extra capacity is only being added due to increasing demand from consumers, and this week Carnival UK’s new president Josh Weinstein revealed grand ambitions for P&O Cruises to become the UK’s number one holiday company within five years. Given the rising popularity of cruise (and his determination), it feels achievable.
Such resilience in the sector is not surprising, but it is reassuring given the number of regulatory changes affecting the industry in 2018. On Friday, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force – and TTG’s Facebook Live discussion this week shows there remains much confusion among agents. Yet even here there are reasons to be positive – GDPR gives businesses the opportunity to clear databases clogged up with former clients who haven’t booked in years, and to demonstrate they take data protection seriously.
The geopolitical – and economic – landscape might be uncertain, with gathering regulatory clouds on the horizon, but the industry’s strong start to the year, despite the challenges of the Payment Services Directive 2 and Brexit, is evidence agents are more than braced to weather the storm.
