With 2022 set to be the year the travel industry rebounds in Australia, it’s more important than ever for key players to reconnect.
Since the global pandemic came along and tipped the industry onto its head, the traditional model of how agents and industry partners communicate is no longer possible for many people.
Anna Shannon of Travel Agent Finder has come up with a solution; Travel Trade Connect.
Shannon’s core business, Travel Agent Finder, is one of the largest collections of proactive travel agents still open and operating, with 450 Australian agents having joined over the last few months.
“Ninety per cent of these agents are independent, home-based or mobile agents. Many are working multiple jobs to keep the doors open,” she said
“Agents are time poor and in a recent agent survey, 100 per cent of respondents expressed a need to easily find contacts for companies who support travel agents to help streamline their business and make their jobs easier.
“Many companies had to downsize their sales team and, naturally, people and processes have changed. Some companies are no longer with us at all.”
Shannon said trade partners are in a similar pickle. Pre-pandemic contact lists are now outdated and it’s no longer as easy as heading to a brick and mortar store at your local shopping centre to network with agents.
“It is difficult to determine who is still operating and how to contact them with the decimation of our industry,” she said.
Travel Trade Connect aims to bridge this gap between trade partners and agents and is helping to support the recovery of the industry.
The directory is located inside the member-only section of Travel Agent Finder and allows trade partners to list their business and market their products to travel agents via a company profile page.
All members (agents and trade partners) will have access to the directory and agents can search by category or keyword to find what they need and connect with the right person quickly and gain access to valuable resources such as the company’s trade portals, media asset libraries, incentive and loyalty programs, specialist training platforms, company updates, partner events and more.
“After the hardest period our industry has ever seen, it’s time to reconnect, rebuild our industry and get Australians travelling again,” Shannon concluded.
