Riviera Travel sales development manager Paul Mellon recently completed his first agent visit in four months. He tells CTN how the experience has changed.

The weekend before lockdown I attended a holiday show in Bournemouth. There were a lot of emails and Facebook posts from operators wondering if the show would go ahead, but it did.

As expected, numbers were a little disappointing. Back then, we as sales representatives were still hugging when we saw each other, as we always do at events, and were all hoping that Covid-19 would soon be a thing of the past.

Fellow reps, agents and customers were all asking, ‘will Boris Johnson put us in lockdown?’ The answer was yes, of course, and what followed was an unprecedented time. I never thought it would be four months until I got to see a travel agent in their branch.

Fast forward to late July and I finally got out to see my agents again. The landscape has changed with some companies going out of business and several staff sadly made redundant, but our job is to promote our product to our agents. I, like many, was furloughed for three months but now it is a case of looking to the future.

A positive visit

Visiting agents has changed. At Riviera Travel, we have a Covid-19 policy in place to protect all our staff in their various roles and we are liaising with our agent partners.

High street agents have screens on their desks, social distancing markers on the floor and several hand sanitisers in the offices. Masks are worn when visiting and appointments have been made to meet with the staff.

Many shops are running on minimum numbers and many also have a closed-door policy, but agents have been doing their job for a long time and therefore know what format of shop opening is best suited for their clients.

We are working hard to get our first cruises running very soon. Despite wading through credit notes or ABTA applications for failed businesses, staff want to do what they do best –sell clients their dream holidays.

In these early days of visits the old saying of ‘it’s good to talk’ rings true. We are not leaving brochures or flyers but instead asking agents what help they need from us to get their clients cruising and touring with Riviera Travel again.

The feedback from my first day back was positive, with agents appreciating seeing a friendly face. They also felt it was uplifting to have someone come in on a positive note and not asking to rebook or refund a cancelled booking.

Times are still tough but we felt this was the right time to get back out and engage with our trade partners and help our industry on the road to recovery.