What crisis could possibly be thrown at the travel industry next?
Just when everyone was happily looking forward to a swine-flu and recession-free summer – a volcano thousands of miles away in Iceland erupts, dumping a giant cloud of ash over European skies, causing a blanket shut down of European airports for six days and complete and utter chaos for millions of stranded travellers everywhere.
For the passengers left stranded by the six-day flight ban, it must have been a complete nightmare. But if there was one good thing to come out of all this chaos it’s that travel agents got to show what they’re made of.
After all, if you’re stuck in a foreign country, with no idea when or how you might be getting on a flight home – the one person you should be able to rely on is your travel agent.
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Travel agents I spoke to during the crisis told me their priority had been to make sure all their clients affected by the situation had been contacted directly, booked into hotels, and re-booked onto the first possible flight home - all the while being kept informed and up to date about the changing situation.
In our interview with Mishal Kanoo this month, he summed it all up when he said the volcano chaos illustrated perfectly why people needed travel agents: “If tomorrow I have an issue or problem with my ticket – like currently with this situation in Europe - what do I do? Who do I contact? What a travel agent does is act as an intermediary for the best benefit of the customer, that’s the whole purpose of having a travel agent. That’s what they’re supposed to do.”
So while the volcano might have been the worst crisis ever to have hit the travel industry, at least it gave travel agents a chance to ‘do what they’re supposed to do’ and show their dedication to their customers. I guess every [ash] cloud has a silver lining..
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