Pippa Jacks: 'Destinations need trusted travel advisors to put clients' minds at ease'

The past few weeks have seen various travel firms and tourism bodies lay out new protocols to reassure travellers all necessary precautions are being taken, so the industry can get up and running as soon as it is viable.

And reassure them we must, because for every confident traveller, there’ll be another, more cautious customer who is going to take more convincing.

As destinations grapple with adapting their products and marketing messages, they will no doubt realise in this new, uncertain landscape that having trusted, knowledgeable travel advisors who can put clients’ minds at ease is going to be crucial to their recovery.

With that in mind, we’re excited this week to bring you TTG’s first Digital Destinations Festival, in association with WTM London, which brings together 13 tourist boards who have already realised just that.

The festival begins this morning (Monday 11 May) with a seminar discussing how, when and where the UK market is likely to recover first, and looks for patterns in recent new bookings to consider how consumer behaviour is shifting.

You’ll be able to meet and learn from all 13 destination partners in a speed networking session on Friday, and attend masterclasses online throughout the week.

There’s even a yoga session, coming all the way from Queensland, and a pub quiz on Thursday where we invite you to grab a beer and flex your Queensland know-how.

We know you’re all itching to travel again, and some of you have told us exactly where.

But for this week, we hope our Destinations Festival will enable you to learn, connect, and be inspired, so when the market begins to pick up in earnest, your product knowledge is as squeaky clean as all those hotel lifts and doorknobs.