In doing so, they are likely to open up opportunities for new entrants into the market, or those looking to return to travel and get their careers and businesses back on track.

"A lot of people are beginning to say, ’this worked three years ago, it doesn’t work now, I need to look at a better way of doing business’," said Alan Bowen, legal advisor to the Association to Atol Companies (AAC).

"Having a niche, and knowing more about it than anybody else, has been great in the past, but you can find yourself with nothing to sell. I think some people are looking at expanding the product they sell, or changing destinations. If you stick with just one and it goes off sale, you’ve got nothing to sell."

Bowen’s comments came during the pre-record for the seminar’s opening session, which will explore some of trends the travel industry should prepare for in 2022.

The seminar, exclusive to TTG+ members, will get under way at 2pm on Tuesday (14 December) with the panelists set to take live questions during a Q&A.

Register now for Get Set for 2022

Conversely, Daniel Landen, managing director of Protected Trust Services, said he believed travel would become more specialised with more niche operators emerging as the industry seeks to move on and rebuild from Covid-19.

Landen said people who may have lost roles with specialists when furlough ended, or perhaps left travel altogether in the early stages of the pandemic, could be tempted back by the prospect of putting their specialist knowledge to use again. "You might find lots of small, niche operators starting up again," he said.

Deloitte Travel partner Farina Azam remarked on how many travel companies has successfully pivoted to selling UK holidays during the pandemic, highlighting agility as a vital attribute. "That’s just how you have to be now," she said.

"You have to be agile, you have to be responsive to what’s going on, you have to be prepared to pivot, diversify and change the way you operate. That’s unfortunately how travel is going to be, I would say, for another one or two years."

Bowen agreed, stating this process was already well under way. "One of our operators realised the US was going to be closed for a long time and expanded into the Caribbean and Indian Ocean," he said.

"By all means know more about somewhere than anywhere else, but don’t leave it to one place because it’s just not feasible in the current environment. Some operators have effectively gone into hiatus, they’ve let everyone go on the premise they will get as many of them back as possible in the hope they can open again in six to 12 months’ time, but it’s never that easy."

Bowen, though, acknowledged some would take a contrary view, and stressed he didn’t want to see travel lose the vibrancy provided by the UK’s specialist and niche tour operator sector.

"A lot of specialists, who have done very well in the past because they are specialists, are questioning whether this is the way forward," he said. "They have been able to sell something unique and their USP was you can’t find it anywhere else, you can’t find it on the internet, you’ve got to come to me – it will be terrible if we were to lose those businesses."

’More profitable’

Landen added he believed the greater inherent profitability of being a specialist would win out in the long-term. "Specialists need to operate to be more profitable," he said.

"It’s cheaper to market as you can target specific customers. You’re providing a niche service, people aren’t coming to you because of the flight or hotel, it’s because you package everything up a particular way – and they want security in that product.

"People will pay more for that, so margins tend to be higher. Economically, when we come out of Covid, you will see niche tour operators coming back into play again purely because they are more profitable, I think that time will come.

"At the moment, they are having to diversify because they’re having to pay their bills. Historically, though, they’ve specialised in one thing because it’s more profitable, and they will come back to that field."

TTG Seminar: Get Set for 2022 will also explore some of the marketing and legal challenges set to coincide with peaks and extend into next year. You can find out more about the seminar and how to register here.