The pandemic has been a disaster for most travel agents. But it could also be a long-term boon as customers feel the need for more expertise and services.

A sweeping new report on travel trends written by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada and Vancouver-based Twenty31 Consulting lays out 21 crucial trends that are taking place in the industry today. Among them is a section entitled “Travel Agent Value Surge.”

“The mass chaos and confusion caused by COVID-19 has strengthened the travel manager’s resolve to significantly reduce, if not prohibit, unmanaged travel; with travellers less likely to leave home without one, travel professionals will grow their influence exponentially,” the report says.

The study goes on to lay out important issues for travellers, operators and destinations.

Key takeaways for destinations: with travel professionals (re)emerging as strategic business partners, new mechanisms for communicating key information will need to be built into destination marketing sales funnels.

Key takeaways for operators: cultivating relationships with travel managers will become an essential component of every business plan and budget.

Key takeaways for travellers: the cost of working with an agent will need to be factored into a travel experience, but the investment will help to ensure a seamless, enjoyable trip.

Greg Klassen, a Twenty31 partner, told TravelPulse Canada that some of the biggest trends we’ll see in the future are ones that were happening prior to the pandemic.

“I think we saw a bit of that shift with agents prior to COVID, and I think it will be accelerated,” said Klassen, former President and CEO of Destination Canada. “I think people are tired of DYI tourism planning. There are something like 30 owebsites that people will go to in planning a trip, planning activities, planning a hotel, planning flights.

“Trip Advisor used to count the people going back and forth. They go onto Trip Advisor and then they go off to a bunch of other sites and then go back to Trip Advisor to validate their assumptions.”

That’s fine, but “with one phone call and maybe a couple of emails to their travel counselor you can eliminate the hours and hours and hours of travel planning and trip planning."

“The travel counsellor really does know,” Klassen said. “They’ve got the experience.”

One thing helping the trend toward agents is that they are increasingly specialists in a particular area. Another issue, he said, is that agents are much easier to find given the world wide web.

“Your agent doesn’t need to be in the mall in your home town. Your Croatia specialist could be in the UK or somewhere else. One thing COVID has given us is the idea that we really can communicate with people all around the world so, your agent specialist could be almost anywhere. It really depends on their skills and their google search terms to make sure they pop up in the top ten.”

Other highlights of the TIAC/Twenty31 report include:

The Rise of Rural: Search data is already showing that nearly 90% of overall searches are for trips to rural areas; cabin rentals are expected to be especially popular, accounting for 33% of total accommodation searches in 2020, a drastic +143% increase from 2019.

Younger Travellers: On the heels of a pandemic that posed the greatest threat to seniors and baby boomers, the average age of travellers has dropped precipitously across all categories; as age and generational
demographics of travellers shift to Gen X, it's likely that other consumer travel trends—such as
experiences on offer, popular destinations, preferred accommodations and amenities—will follow suit.

Cruise Control: The cruise industry has suffered losses in the billions from a catastrophic year; although the companies have developed stringent hygiene concepts, whether the cruise industry can truly recover in 2021 will depend, above all, on the effectiveness of vaccination.

Destination Asia: As borders gradually open and more people are planning to travel in 2021, destinations within Asia are the most searched for international travel as revealed by the 2021 Expedia Travel Trends Report; with all the positive global media coverage around Asia's early handling of the pandemic, it's no surprise that many are looking east for a glimpse of recovery.

Hygiene Over Fees: Travel decisions will be dramatically influenced by cleanliness standards; with increased scrutiny on hygiene due to COVID-19, search data cites that 45% of travelers included enhanced cleaning within their top three decision-making factors.

Digital Transformation: COVID-19 accelerated the digitization of every industry, including tourism; the capacity for tourism businesses of all sizes to evolve their business models, adopt digital technologies to effectively participate in global value ecosystems, and take up new ways of data-driven working will shape productivity, social and economic wellbeing in the future