While the outbreak of COVID-19 saw a drastic drop in travel, South Africa’s travel agents are demonstrating an extraordinary willingness to help their competitors, despite vying for their slice of a much smaller pie.
Tracy Teichmann, manager of Sure Adcocks Travel, says in the past, agents tended to only rub shoulders with consultants they didn’t know if they were at a workshop, but they have come together during this crisis.
David van den Heever-Liebenberg, travel director of Marmalade Toast Bespoke Travel and Destination Management, says while the travel trade has never truly been collaborative, COVID-19 and the global travel shutdown have changed this.
“For the first time in my career in travel, information is being shared freely – from travel restrictions to suppliers not playing ball, GDS tips and tricks, accessible routes and everything in between.” He adds: “Agents in South Africa, and the rest of the world, are very often left to pick up the pieces of passengers’ cancelled trips and we need to work together to try and ensure our survival in a post-pandemic world.”
David says with consumer trust in the greater travel industry at an all-time low, sharing information helps lessen the burden on other agents who might be dealing with an angry or frustrated client. “Platforms like OpenJaw have provided a channel for this. A place to ask questions, no matter how absurd or silly the question may be, and to very often hear first-hand from a peer or colleague how they solved a similar problem.”
Tracy says the collaboration that started on OpenJaw has spilled out on to other platforms. She likens the way that agents are collaborating across these platforms to a virtual office.
“Now, we have these WhatsApp and Telegram groups and there are no holds barred. Everybody is helping everybody. You have people that have been in the industry for five minutes and people that have been in the industry for 100 years and they are helping each other out.” She adds that the learning is being shared between junior consultants and senior consultants. “They’re swapping notes,” she says. She adds that people don’t get attacked for asking ‘silly’ questions.
Linda Rautenbach, owner of W Travel Group, has found the help from other agents invaluable after starting her own travel agency when the company where she worked was closed as result of COVID-19. Through OpenJaw, she was able to get help using a suite of accounting software.
She says, while in the past agents weren’t commenting to help each other, now when you post a question, some agents will even send you detailed help through Facebook Messenger.
