It looks like the happiest of new years is headed our way in 2024—but despite the ringing phones and constant emails (or maybe because of them!) travel advisors seem determined this year to have a little fun, to set sail for far-flung destinations, or to take their parents and kids to somewhere they have never been.
After two good years, it seems, the travel industry is ready to travel.
Lisa Cool, for example, is headed for Kenya and Tanzania. Teri Hurley is going to Lapland and Kenya. Brenda Vavricek is doing two bucket-list trips: Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands. Gail Woloz is traveling with her family.
For Mark Hennigan, the two trends—busy office and bucket-list traveling—will coincide. He’s taking a trip to the Maldives that he won. Not a happy long-distance traveler, he is biting the bullet though, and taking off 12 days or so, the longest break ever, to make it happen.
Taking the Customers Along
Not all travel advisors are going solo, of course. After 20 years in the business, Melissa Shanks of Cruise Planners-The Zeneri Team will be traveling twice this year with her new luxury travel club, The Explorer Society. The group was supposed to meet for the first time this month—but before it did, the first trip Shanks had planned sold out completely. So off she will go with a group of 31 to Europe for 13 days, starting with a brand-new itinerary from CIE in Italy and ending with a Railbookers trip that includes Milan, Lucerne, and Zurich.
“Typically, when you do a land tour you get on a bus and travel across a region; you ride in the bus and stay in a hotel and tour, then the next day you ride in the bus and stay in a hotel and tour, and then you do it again and again,” she says. “But on this new itinerary in Italy, we stay in the same resort the whole week and do day trips from there.”
With her travel club meeting quarterly in 2024, Shanks plans to kick off the February meeting by introducing two trips, a British Isles cruise in 2024 and an Azamara cruise to Iceland and the fjords in early 2025.
“I hope to keep the club small enough so we can travel together and vary the destinations, some land and some sea, so the members will want to go on every trip,” she says.
Janet Harris and her husband are going a step or two farther. Owners of Dream Vacations MJ Harris and Crew, in Indianapolis for 14 years, will finally get to Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific Islands, Singapore and South Africa—and all in one trip. They’ll be sailing on a half-world cruise, 79 nights on Oceania Nautica from Papaete to Cape Town.
“This is my true dream vacation,” Harris says—and after being based in Puerto Vallarta for each of the past three Januarys, she is confident she can keep her customers happy while she works remotely.
The longest trip Harris ever took before was 12 nights—but “I feel confident we can do this, even though this time we will be in the Tasmanian Sea,” she says. “The number-one reason is we have very loyal clients and they will grant us some patience if need be. They like the fact that we travel, it gives them confidence. Reason number two is that our niche is luxury, and we have very strong working relationships with suppliers like Europe Express, Kensington and Viking. So, I have agents I work with there who will be very supportive of anything I need. Number three, we have two sales agents who can cover for us. And number four is the professionalism and support of Dream Vacations headquarters. We know if we have any needs, they will back us up while we are traveling.”
One of the biggest difficulties, she thinks, will be the time difference. But she did a visual voicemail, she will set up her email system to get a transcript of every call, and her phone is set to allow alerts. She will give clients contact information for her two associates.
“In the past when a client tried to book, and I couldn’t handle it, I have given the sale to Mark, he’s been with us for seven years,” she says. “We’re happy to do it and he does a great job.”
While the trip is the most expensive she has ever taken, she got a discount by booking it while sailing on Oceania in the Baltic—and believes “this is still the most economical way to see all those destinations.”
She sails February 15, but is going a few days early; the ship will return May 9, but they will stay in South Africa until May 20.
She’s ready, she says; “I’m not nervous, I’m more excited.” And she’s packing light. “The main thing I learned on long trips in the past was to do laundry on board rather than try to pack everything.”
Colleen Renner, meanwhile, is doing her traveling close to her home in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. In 2024 she plans to focus on golf vacation packages—and so she plans to visit all the golf courses and resorts on the Riveria Maya.
Working from distant places will be the norm for partners Shane Smartt and Trapper Martin, though; you can reach them—hopefully—on their Antarctic cruise in February; their transatlantic crossing in March; their Dream Vacations Circle of Excellence trip for top sellers, a nine-day cruise down the Danube; their five days in Romania; or their two weeks in Thailand—a total of 60 days on the road.
Wherever you are headed in 2024, TRO wishes you sunny skies and smooth sailing. Happy New Year everyone!
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.
