A few weeks ago, one of our partners asked us what our “Recession Playbook” looked like. It was the middle of summer: unemployment was at a 50-year low, the Fed just cut interest rates, the Euro was trading favorably, and consumer sentiment was positive. However, news of the U.S’s trade war tactics and political uncertainly heading into an presidential election year gave her pause as she noticed an August slowdown in bookings. ATA is no stranger to recessions; in our nearly 70-year history, we have weathered many economic downturns and external events. Here are a few of our thoughts on how to prepare. What indicators does ATA rely on to try to predict a recession and take action? The most common indicators we look at include: Unemployment: Low unemployment signals fewer available workers for each job opening. This creates demand for skilled workers at higher wages. However, unemployment that drops too low poses inflation risks. Consumer Confidence Index: This index measures U.S. consumers’ degree of optimism in the economy as expressed in consumer spending. Housing Starts: While the rate of home building may not seem related to travel, the construction industry represents nearly 20% of GDP and is seen as a leading indicator of the economy. Why? Home builders will not break ground on new homes if they don’t think the next 12 months will be stable enough to first build, then sell, a new home. US Citizen Air Traffic Overseas: A core responsibility of the Office of Travel & Tourism, located within the Department of Commerce, is to collect, analyze, and disseminate international travel and tourism statistics for the United States. Growth in outbound travel often signals business and consumer confidence. What usually happens to consumer travel behavior in a recession? For affinity travel brands, booking patterns change, particularly if the stock market is volatile. Travelers often book trips closer to departure when they sense economic uncertainty. They may postpone some travel if multiple trips are planned, but not delay or cancel all travel. In addition, we often see bookings slowdown in a presidential election year. What steps can travel planners take now? Strengthen Your Brand Communicate your brand’s unique benefits frequently so your customers really know what you stand for. Create urgency to book travel soon with compelling “calls to action.” “Cast” Your Trips Carefully Trip leadership is often a brand’s most compelling value proposition. Choose and “cast” your faculty, study leader, or expert carefully. Make sure they value their role of “host” as much as “expert.” Focus on Quality Now more than ever, word of mouth referrals are very important. Ensure each element of your customers’ trip experiences is executed flawlessly, from your courteous first phone call to the inquisitive trip survey you send when they return. Keep Marketing Brands that market aggressively though economic downturns come out ahead in retaining customers. Avoid Becoming a Commodity at All Costs It is challenging to compete on price in a recession. Instead, focus on making your trips “unshoppable” in the marketplace by reflecting your organization’s unique culture and values. Diversify Make sure you offer a wide variety of destinations and trip types to appeal to many types of travelers. How has ATA prepared for, and weathered so many recessions? We conserve in the present, but invest for the future. To maintain or improve its performance, a business must sell more or spend less; it’s that simple. When we don’t see sales growth on the horizon, we get very disciplined and creative in how we cut non-essential spending. However, we never sacrifice our investment in the future, and prioritize new program research and development. What We Learned From Past Recessions The Gulf War Era Recession (1990-91) We learned that timing of bookings matter! Travelers who were already booked on trips when the economy softened tended to stay booked, so cancellations were not rampant. Instead, a lack of new bookings weakened tour enrollments during this period. Post 9/11 Economic Shock and 2nd Gulf War Recession (2003) The real effect of September 11th hit the travel industry in 2003 instead of 2002, since many travelers had trips booked in 2002. We learned that relaxing cancellation terms for a period of time to encourage travelers to book travel in an uncertain time was a useful strategy. However, several overleveraged travel companies could not survive the 9/11 shock and the marketplace consolidated into fewer companies. Housing Crisis and the Great Recession (2008-2009) The downturn in travel occurred quickly and precipitously. Starting in the fall of 2008, bookings fell approximately 40% in one season. We learned that we needed to act quickly to cut overhead and reduce expenses. Despite a few lean years, it was a time of unusual creativity and experimentation for ATA that set us up for growth when the economy improved. President Obama’s surprise announcement allowing people-to-people travel to Cuba in 2011 was a serendipitous “game changer” that brought full economic recovery to the educational travel community. We’d love to hear how you’re preparing! Please drop me a note at [email protected].
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At Your Beck and Call
A Day in the Life of Our Reservations Team It’s 5:30 pm and John Scaggs is just getting off a call with a customer. It’s a surprisingly busy afternoon for late August, but the assistant manager of reservations is unfazed. “We get a lot of a last-minute reservations for fall trips at this time of year,” he says. After five and a half years working the call centers and processing reservations for ATA’s client organizations, John can pinpoint when his team can expect an influx of calls. October and February, for instance, are busy booking months, and just before 5 pm on Fridays, the phones seem to ring off the hook. If you’re picturing circuit boards lit up with customers on hold, or frustrated future travelers caught in a tangle of automated voices and choices, you’d be wrong. “Our phone tree is short,” says John. “Ideally within seconds, you have a human being picking up who won’t transfer you out to another department.” They’ll create or consult the traveler record, answer questions, give out their extension, and follow up. “Continuity is there.” When we operate your call center, we become you. Learn More John’s team handles all manner of situations and questions, everything from “Do I need a visa?” to “Do the beds in my hotel face East?” He points out that his team rarely has to sell an itinerary: “marketing does its job,” he says, and callers tend to know want they want. “They need us to clear the hurdles and make it happen.” To run a call center, the reservations specialists need to be fully versed in all the travel programs the client organization offers, including the destinations and hotels featured and the study leader or expert who lead the trips. When they pick up the phone, they are representatives of the brand: they introduce themselves with the organization’s name, and they send emails from its domain. So how do you train to become your client? “It takes time,” says John. It also takes comprehensive briefings that cover the client’s website, database, and reservation protocol as well as each travel program’s itinerary and potential clientele. “We learn the most from the guests themselves—by talking to them we get to know the personality of the brand.” “Within seconds, you have a human being picking up who won’t transfer you out to another department.” -John Scaggs, Assistant Manager of Reservations It makes a difference. “There have been many times when I’ve been able to say, ‘Here’s what we’re offering for this price: what’s included, what you’ll see and do. And here’s what makes it different: our expert, the educational aspect. You can’t do this on your own.’” It’s gratifying to be able to bring a caller from lukewarm to “Yes, I’m going to sign up.” Traditionally, after the reservation team handles inquiries and reservations, they hand off the new booking to the guest services department. They speed-date, goes the office joke, while the guest services staff courts the traveler until departure. But the reservation team’s responsibilities don’t end there. They manage inventory for all clients, coordinate with a client’s other tour operators to maintain brand consistency, and maintain a range of client databases to make sure traveler records are up to date. And while the team is in charge of acting as a call center for a number of our U.S.-based client organizations, it also represents the call center for some international travel brands. Life on the reservations team is fast-paced and dynamic, and while multi-tasking and great oral and written communications skills are critical for doing the job, a sense of humor keeps you going. The rewards often come when talking to travelers. John remembers a World War II veteran who tried to book a D-Day trip on the 70th anniversary but was 30 down on the wait list. When a spot miraculously opened up, John got to make the call and confirm his reservation. And occasionally a couple will call to book an anniversary trip, and they’re so excited they’re talking over each other. The enthusiasm can be contagious. After all, “these are life-changing experiences,” says John, “We’re playing a part in this transformation.”
Overtourism: Save the Date
You’re invited! Come hear ATA’s President, Kate Simpson, speak on the implications of “overtourism” and how to avoid becoming a part of the problem when traveling. This insightful evening program is being put on by Smithsonian Associates on Wednesday, August 21st at 6:45 PM. Get Tickets Read more about the event, as described by Smithsonian Associates: “It happens to even the most adventurous travelers: You get to your destination only to find the lines are long, the crowds are pushy, and the whole experience is disappointing and exhausting. From Machu Picchu to Prague to Reykjavik, popular destinations everywhere are being overrun by hordes of tourists, turning a trip into a nightmare for many. But the problem isn’t just an inconvenience for the traveler. There are real and severe implications for the destination in terms of safety, sustainability, economics, and protection of environmental and cultural resources. Happily, there are steps informed travelers can take to ensure their trip isn’t ruined by overtourism–and to avoid becoming part of the problem. Join Washington Post travel writer Andrea Sachs, Martha Honey of the Center for Responsible Travel, and Kate Simpson of Academic Travel Abroad, as they discuss destinations to avoid, places to visit instead, and how to become a more responsible traveler today.”
Babson Connect: Worldwide
Babson Connect: Worldwide Babson College operates Babson Connect: Worldwide (BCW), an annual global entrepreneurship summit for the Babson community and global business leaders. BCW is a large, high-stakes event that plays a key role in Babson’s efforts to foster loyalty and engagement with their global alumni, encourage philanthropy, and build relationships with key stakeholders. Babson worked with ATA in 2017 as event planners and travel partners and asked us to operate the 2018 conference in Madrid, Spain. An event of this size and importance requires a full throttled, top-to-bottom delivery of services. With 400+ attendees, we managed a pre-conference Babson trustee trip to Portugal, configured and implemented the conference tech platform and app, coordinated two hotel room blocks, supported keynote speakers and panel sessions, hired and managed a production company for lighting and staging, rented venues (like the Madrid Casino), planned and implemented off-site excursions, and created both print and digital marketing materials. “Very well organized event. From an attendee’s perspective, the logistics, the content, the location, the social elements, were all perfect!” But most importantly, we proactively and regularly communicated and worked with the many personnel at Babson who had skin in the conference organizing game. In this way, we were able to appropriately set and manage expectations across multiple in-house decision-makers, thereby alleviating much of the stress that managing an event of this magnitude can cause. The event was seamless. In the words of one participant, “Very well organized event. From an attendee’s perspective, the logistics, the content, the location, the social elements, were all perfect!” We also earned kudos from CVENT, the makers of the technology application we employed for the conference. CVENT instructed us that we needed 10 weeks of lead time to launch the application. We were able expedite the process in record time (6 weeks!), matching Babson’s schedule. Relying on us to manage these logistics gave Babson exactly what it needed: the chance to focus their energy on building relationships with key attendees and donors, and laying the foundation for the 2019 conference that would celebrate the college’s centennial.
Smithsonian’s Oxford Seminar
Smithsonian’s Oxford Seminar In the 1970s, David Parry, ATA’s then President, traveled to Oxford with the idea of creating a “college” experience at one of the great British universities. A few years later, the Oxford Seminar was born, an academically rigorous program for life-long learners. Travelers choose course topics such as archeology, medieval history, garden design, or Churchill. They live at an historic Oxford college, eat at High Table with their tutors, and enjoy learning in an international university setting. This program has operated almost every year since 1979 with at least one partner. To ensure its continued success, past Oxford travelers are involved in course selection and tutors are selected for their ability to engage adult audiences. 0 years since our first Oxford program
D-Day Crossing: London and Normandy via the English Channel
D-Day Crossing:London and Normandy via the English Channel Crossing the English Channel as the Allied Forces did on June 6, 1944 is on the bucket list of many family members of the Greatest Generation. For this reason, we have operated D-Day programs for over 30 years. Each 5th commemorative year, the experience takes on added poignancy, and is now the jewel in the crown of ATA’s military history-themed programs. Participants visit key Churchill sights in London, like the War Room itself, and learn about the Enigma Machine at Bletchley Park that deciphered the German’s encoded messages. During anniversary years, they also attend official D-Day ceremonies alongside of British, French and American dignitaries. In many cases, family members of D-Day veterans return home from this trip understanding for the first time the true nature of their loved one’s wartime experience. Previous Next This program highlights how ATA can take a well-told story and skillfully weave it throughout an itinerary. The places we visit are carefully curated and showcase the destination through the lens of history. It also demonstrates the seasoned organizational skills required to manage a myriad of details, including securing official invitations for travelers to attend the official D-Day ceremonies. Our planning for the 75th anniversary began two years in advance, allowing us to secure prime hotel space and add departures as space filled up. After travelers were booked, we also communicated extensively with them to set expectation vis-à-vis traffic logistics, security concerns, and Brexit! In the end, all nine groups had very memorable experiences.
