Some ways the travel industry is being impacted

“At EYOS, we see clients waiting on what border restrictions individual Arctic countries will impose by June. We have worked out contingency plans for each of the yachts and we are still fielding enquiries, but on the assumption of flexible cancellation terms. We are still seeing strong interest from our clients and bookings over the last week for Antarctica this winter. The private nature of yacht charters and Antarctica’s remote appeal seems to be a refuge for those wondering where and how it will be safe to travel in 8 months.”

Ben Lyons, CEO, EYOS Expeditions Ltd.

“Our distillery is a travel destination in the beautiful Texas Hill Country, and we are of course disappointed that we must limit the number of guests we can host. However, we understand that this temporary change is for a greater public good. Mostly, we are heartbroken for our hospitality friends – bartenders, sommeliers, restaurant managers, and other hourly staff who depend on restaurants being open and vibrant. But if there are any lessons I learned from working in the hospitality industry in downtown NYC during 9/11, its that ultimately communities will survive and reemerge with a renewed fervor. This will happen in spite of the tremendous fear many are feeling. But we carry on: bluebonnets will still bloom, we will take care of each other, and whiskey will flow from our stills every day as it has since we opened.”

Heather Greene, CEO, Milam & Greene Whiskey

“Firstly, we should make it clear that this is not the first time the industry and indeed Centara are facing challenges. We have detailed responses to each situation including a pandemic outbreak. SARS had a major impact on our performance in 2003 but in 2004, our revenues were close to 20% higher than in 2002 on a like-for-like basis – so there is hope. At this time, the health and safety of our guests and our employees continue to be our top priority. To that end, we have implemented additional disease prevention and training enhancements to ensure employees follow World Health Organisation guidelines on health, safety and hygiene to prevent coronavirus infection. Sanitation levels are at their highest across all properties. With regards to the business, whilst the WHO has not recommended any restrictions on travel to any of the countries in which we operate, we are offering free booking modifications and cancellations to guests travelling from affected areas. At the same time we are doubling our marketing efforts to replace the lost business primarily from FIT segments in our domestic, ASEAN, European, and Australasian markets, amongst others.”

Markland Blaiklock, Deputy CEO, Centara Hotels & Resorts

“The travel industry has weathered numerous crises in the past from 9/11 to erupting volcanoes, the bombings in Sri Lanka and the SARS crisis but COVID-19 is the toughest challenge I’ve seen in over 40 years in the business. However, the British public are a resilient lot and once we are through this and the FCO lifts travel restrictions they will start to travel again. Our biggest challenge right now and, for the foreseeable future, is to ensure we can retain as many forward bookings as possible using everything in the toolbox to persuade clients to defer their holidays. We are currently planning for a 20% downturn in our European Mediterranean sales and our long haul sales are around 10% down. However, the Closer to Home domestic programme is currently running 27% ahead of last year. While this is very pleasing, we are not naive enough to think it will off-set losses in other parts of the business. In the short term we are encouraging people to book for later this year and for 2021. We are also planning for when the world starts flying again as we anticipate a lot of pent up demand.”

David Skillicorn, Commercial Director, Prestige Holidays

“We are dealing with all our clients case by case, initially to make sure we could get guests who had travelled out on 14 March home and then moving on to future bookings, where they can, asking people to claim on their insurance now the FCO has advised against all travel. On a positive note, many of our regular clients are asking if they can to defer to 2021 which we would be delighted to help them do. We are willing to take options on ski holidays (apartment bookings of all sizes) for 2020-2021 ski season with very low, or no deposits to help skiers out and get them back to the Alps next winter.”

Jane Bolton, Managing Director, Erna Low Ski Holidays

“The travel industry is the canary in the mine and many tour operators are having difficulty breathing. The Package Travel Regulations (PTRs) are our biggest hindrance at the moment – effectively making us a lender of last resort. The travel industry needs the government to suspend the PTRs asap. Without this support, many will face imminent bankruptcy despite being perfectly viable under normal circumstances. The result will be the needless loss of tens of thousands of jobs.”

Justin Wateridge, Managing Director, Steppes Travel

“COVID-19 has impacted the yacht charter industry the hardest. This is directly due to the uncertain ability to travel and duration of time the world will be dealing with the awful virus. Worth has had 90% of the booked/optioned charters scheduled through April cancelled or an agreed reschedule at a future date. Both owners and charterers have been understanding not to enforce contract penalties but to come to an amicable agreement. We are hopeful that as soon as this situation passes, clients will be ready to get back on the water and go yachting.”

Brian Tansey, Managing Owner, Worth Avenue Yachts

“We had very high expectations for wellbeing travel as a category this year and were ready to deliver new and enriching experiences, kicking off the season with our largely anticipated first wellbeing retreat in Sicily this April. The immediate impact was a 100% cancellation rate of all retreats scheduled until summer. We are confident that once this passes, the approach that Balance Holidays has been advocating for since its inception will be embraced on a wider scale. Such as returning to the basics, enjoying the simple things in life that a lot of us have forgotten along the way or considered as a given. In the meantime, we are making it our mission to deliver meaningful content to help make it through the storm.”

Livia Manca Di Villahermos, Founder, Balance Holidays

“The travel industry is going through a very tough time; the scale of this crisis is unprecedented and companies are finding it difficult to cope with the fast changing environment. At Elegant Resorts, we are first and foremost looking after those customers affected and who are still abroad to ensure safe returns where necessary and have created a dedicated crisis team who are working through all our customers bookings. We are in a good position with financially secure owners. We are prioritising and reorganizing all our work so customers and agents are at the forefront. The vast majority of our customers are working with us to amend their holidays to later in the year when hopefully we will all be able to travel again. A lot of our suppliers are offering the flexibility to change dates and give credits to minimise losses for everyone. We believe getting pricing and dates locked in now is the safest option for the very best price for our customers. The travel sector is resilient and companies that survived the previous crises have come out even stronger than ever and I expect that we will see the same thing happening again.”

Lisa Fitzell, Managing Director, Elegant Resorts

“As suppliers to travel businesses, we are seeing a huge impact from the outbreak. Inevitably as bookings stop and refunds are requested businesses look at cost-cutting measures. Unfortunately marketing is often viewed as expendable and as a result we have seen a huge drop in clients who are trying to save their own business in this unprecedented scenario. We have close relationships with all our clients and want to do our best to help and support them whilst also doing what’s needed to stay afloat ourselves. We’ve offered to carry out the same amount of work for clients for half the price to do our utmost to help them get through this challenging time and still allowing them to capitalise on the opportunity which always appears in these times. For those that can survive and afford to continue marketing there is a huge opportunity. The majority of the market has stopped investing, so it is a time when you can make a real difference if you do the right things. To try and help those who can still invest to we’re also offering our Content Strategy Analysis for half the usual price, as content capacity is one silver lining that is likely to appear as the phone stops ringing and there are no trips to be run. Likewise I’m available to chat for anyone struggling in this period to try and help guide them on what they can do to keep things ticking over until we see the light at the end of the tunnel. Those that can hang on and make the most of this time will undoubtedly be the ones who flourish when we come out the other side.”

Tom Mcloughlin, Director, SEO Travel