You would have thought that after everything we have been through, and survived, travel agents would have a full understanding of the circumstances we now find ourselves in.
It is quite clear service levels are suffering hugely, and we can debate the reasons for that until the cows come home. But it is what it is for now, and I – included – have my own issues delivering our award-winning customer care.
Why is it, therefore, that some agents feel it is acceptable to be abusive and aggressive towards those people employed by our tour operator partners who are simply trying to do their job in very difficult situations?
Do they not realise tour operators are training new people and then struggling to keep them because of the abuse they are receiving? It is this short-sighted and unacceptable behaviour that is only fuelling the fire in recruiting and keeping people in this amazing industry.
Can we not find it within ourselves to be more tolerant in the belief things will improve? The longer we continue to be aggressive on the phones, the longer it will take to fix the problem.
I think the tour operators could do better communicating their position to the travel agent community, and how they are moving forward to resolve the current crisis with their service levels.
We have all done incredibly well and shown resilience above and beyond throughout the pandemic, we must all pull together now before this fracture becomes a canyon.
But above all, we must be kind – how short are our memories?
Phil Nuttall is managing director of Blackpool-based family-run agency The Travel Village Group, and was awarded the TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies 2022 Contribution to Travel award.
