Industry unites in bid to limit the impact of coronavirus
Travel agent consortia, industry bodies and travel trade media are joining forces to persuade consumers to keep on travelling.
Advantage Travel Partnership has joined forces with rival agency consortium Global Travel Group and other industry bodies to launch a social media campaign to encourage people to keep travelling despite the spread of coronavirus.
The campaign, #KeepCalmTravelOn, is also being supported by the Facebook travel agent forum Travel Gossip.
Meanwhile, TravelMole is today launching its own campaign, GoodtoGo, also designed to help the industry show a united front in this unprecedented time.
A regular special edition of TravelMole’s newswire will showcase special deals, discounts, changes to cancellation and refund policies, events or tours which are still going ahead, or added value offers which agents can share with their customers.
Developed with creative agency partners, Designate, TravelMole hopes the GoodtoGo campaign will become part of a clarion call to keep calm and carry on travelling, and help the trade steer a clear pathway until good times return.
Alongside dedicated newswires, the campaign will also be widely shared on social media, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The Advantage-led campaign will focus on an Instagram account with ‘inspiring and intriguing visual’ content and consumer messages.
It will also allow agents to show late travel deals, share their top travel tips, and FCO and ABTA travel advice.
"We are asking our friends across the industry to join us in our new campaign by sharing with us their recent travel images or videos using the #KeepCalmTravelOn hashtag," said Julia Lo Bue-Said, CEO of Advantage Travel Partnership.
"Global Travel Group, Travel Gossip and CLIA have committed to collaborate and we are also speaking to other industry colleagues. We hope to show through the sharing of positive and exciting imagery, alongside advice and amazing travel deals, that exploration of the world can still be enjoyed.
"COVID-19 presents a rare and difficult situation for the travel industry but we believe that through collaboration with members, suppliers, partners, travel industry professionals and media friends we can visually show there are still lots of ways to safely travel and enjoy many destinations throughout the world."
Participants in the campaign are asked to share their social content on their own Instagram account featuring #KeepCalmTravelOn as well as tagging of the account handle KeepTheWorldTravelling.
The Travel Network Group has launched its own campaign to urge consumers to ‘keep calm and carry on’.
It is encouraging its agent members to push out messages of reassurance, telling consumers to ‘wait and see’ before making a decision over their holidays and advising them to book with an agent that offers financial protection.
TTNG is also putting pressure on its suppliers to push back their balance due dates to persuade customers not to cancel.
The united efforts come as a survey showed that 68% of British consumers will carry on booking if they know they will not be charged to change their plans.
More flexible booking conditions are being introduced by some companies to give customers peace of mind.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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