Our industry is certainly seeing its challenges, whether it’s the prolonged debate that rages around the recent referendum; the impact this has had on the value of the pound; the shootings in Florida; the atrocities in Nice; the attempted coup in Turkey or the demise of Lowcosttravelgroup. All of these factors are an inevitable dent to consumer confidence.

Against a backdrop of potential uncertainty though, it is important not to forget the value of a good independent travel agent, who is able to not only provide consumers with products and services that are fully financially protected, but is there to offer professional support should something go wrong.

Now more than ever, travel agents should be reiterating to their customers the following key services that they provide:

• The confidence in knowing that their travel arrangements are fully protected and secure.
• The holiday and travel services offered are right for them, are properly managed and competitively priced.
• The agent is always there for them personally, in the unlikely event that circumstances change.

These core benefits apply to both leisure and business travel agents.

Being realistic rather than pessimistic, it is likely that we will face a world of uncertainty for some time to come. Which means that it is critically important as a community that we embark upon an education process with customers on why booking through a travel agent can provide them with the security and comfort that so many clients are looking for.

At Advantage, we have already started this process by taking our message to the national media as well as both the leisure and business travel sectors, and have produced press releases for our members to use in their own business markets.

We are backing this up with advertisement templates and point of sales material for our leisure members to reiterate these values. In order to make the impact needed, we require everyone, including our business partners, to adopt a common approach to the issue.

Clearly, this education process will not be completed overnight and will require regular and consistent reinforcement. However, we have already laid out our vision for the future with the protection of our members’ interests and the promotion of the independent travel ethos being key components of that business vision. We very much see this as an extension of the plan that is already under way.

As I said at the start, we live in challenging times, and undoubtedly we must be braced for future disruption. But armed with a spirit of independent determination and optimism, we can turn this to our advantage – and to the advantage of the customers we are proud to service.