While seeing “light at the end of the tunnel,” executives of Travel Leaders Network (TLN), speaking at a virtual press conference, said the pandemic-caused crisis for travel advisors is not yet over. Roger Block, president of TLN, said government help from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) “has literally saved the industry,” noting that if not for that aid, as many as 90 percent of advisors might have gone out of business.

Block said TLN organized letter-writing campaigns to politicians, worked closely with ASTA and even hired its own lobbying group as part of the effort to get government help. Saying that another cash infusion was necessary, Block added, “We’re not out of the woods yet.”

Executives of TLN were generally upbeat about the outlook for business in the coming months as they look to a return of cruise ships and international travel, and a general lessening of COVID-19 restrictions. They also saw positives coming out of the crisis and hoped that some changes over the last year would remain.

Since the beginning of the year, TLN, a network of about 5,700 travel agency locations across the US and Canada, has added 64 new agencies. Lindsey Pearlman, senior vice president, international leisure, attributed the increase to the consortium “not telling people how to do business,” but by “offering them a suite of services they can use.”

The past 13 months have been a “nightmare,” said Block, as anyone associated with the travel industry saw sales fall off a cliff. He said TLN has been busier than ever focusing on the needs of members. The network has held many town hall meetings and even webinars with psychologists on how to cope with the crisis. From early on, said Block, TLN offered practical advice like cutting expenses, even painful choices like furloughing employees who may have been with an agency for many years. He said 22,000 advisors have signed up to attend webinars, and over 500 registered for a TLN specialist program.

With a coming surge in “vaxication” travel, said Block, people have the feeling that they can get out into the world and are “looking at their bucket lists.” Customers realize, he said, that they have lost the opportunity to travel this year and want to make up for it. Throughout the pandemic, said Block, TLN has done marketing targeted at people dreaming about tomorrow. Now, he said, “ we have moved from the dreaming to the booking stage.”

John Lovell, president of the Travel Leaders Group , of which TLN is a division, said that he is looking to a more equitable cash flow coming out of the pandemic, as has been the case during the past year. He explained that advisors should get their commission as customers pay deposits and subsequent payments – rather than waiting a year or more for their commissions.

On the cruise front, Lovell said “we need to get ships in the water, even if it’s a handful.” He said it would take time for the cruise lines to repatriate crew, provision ships and so forth. He said he hopes that 50 percent of cruise inventory would be back sailing by the end of the year.

Stephen McGillivray, chief marketing and communications officer for Travel Leaders Group, said that demand is building “and I think we will see an explosion of it.” He said two health and safety programs will help facilitate that demand by providing advisors and travels with confidence. One program is Book with Confidence, currently a 57-page book of information that is constantly evolving and growing. McGillivray said the book is updated continuously as suppliers and governments change rules and regulations. TLN members can use the Book with Confidence trademark as validation for their clients.

The other program is a partnership with Forbes Travel Guides that verifies hotels as complying with health and safety protocols. Those properties can deploy a Verified trademark, and so far 640 properties have done so.

Travelers now value travel advisors more than before the pandemic, said Block, “as they seek not just advice and trip details but problem solving.” He said a survey shows that about half of travelers are now more likely to use advisors while very few said less likely.

McGillivray said that leads emerging from organic traffic (Google searches) are now back to 2019 levels. More, that traffic is back to being done predominantly on mobile devices after a year when most of it was on desktops as people searched from home.

Executives said advisors have been creative in reaching out to customers throughout the crisis. Block said virtual cruise nights have often produced lucrative sales. And McGillivray said some advisors have been very successful at creating YouTube videos and posting them on social media channels.