At a time when expertise, experience, time-tested skills and resilience are vital, the travel industry cannot afford a skills gap. But it’s travel consultants with experience, hard skills and industry know-how who are leaving the industry.
A senior travel consultant, who chose to remain anonymous, told Travel News that after 35 years in an industry she is passionate about, she won’t be returning. “I was retrenched at the onset of COVID-19 and had to find other ways to support myself. I have four different online skill-sets involving training and teaching and they have turned out to be financially viable and a lot less stressful than travel. I also have flexible hours and can dictate my own terms. I will never go back to travel.” She added that she knew of other seniors who have had the sense to move to other industries that are less stressful and require far fewer working hours.
Vanya Lessing, CEO of the Sure Travel Group, said as the travel and tourism industry started the post-pandemic recovery process, the full extent of the damage caused by the COVID wave was rushing at the travel trade in South Africa and had yet to be assessed. “The cost of survival for organisations still in business has been exceptionally painful,” said Lessing. “Financial recovery will happen as demand increases. The biggest challenge is the departure of many experts who found work in other sectors or chose to leave the industry due to the stress and uncertainty of life in an ‘always on’ and extremely volatile industry. The skills gap was already a problem pre-COVID. Risk has increased, with policies and processes becoming much more complex.
“A positive outcome is that many travellers now appreciate the expertise and support of a skilled travel professional. Leaders and training institutions will have to collaborate urgently to address this very real crisis.”
Marco Ciocchetti, CEO of XL Travel, said despite a very difficult environment he believed that the casualties had been surprisingly low in the travel industry during the past two years. “It is true that there have been retrenchments, sadly many of whom were senior consultants with years of expertise but who, even pre-COVID, were not able to justify their salaries. Our industry has not yet evolved from one of travel agents dependent on supplier remuneration – which is dwindling – to that of professional advisers being paid by customers.
“Generally, our industry has standard fees for different transactions, which are not set according to the seniority of the consultant and, as a result, those consultants are not charging for their ‘expertise’. I believe seniors are performing operations that can and should be automated, but they should use their expertise to upsell, to justify their expense to the company. Those seniors who have evolved and have been able to build a strong and trusted relationship with their clients, charge for their advice and are today, operating as independent travel advisers.”
Tracey van den Berg, Communications, Events and Facilities Manager for Tourvest Travel Services, told Travel News that although this was a major concern in the industry currently, TTS had not lost many senior experienced staff. “We have re-employed some of our retrenched staff over the last few months and as business continues to grow, so will our numbers of re-employed, experienced staff.”
