‘It will have a very different face’: Northampton travel agent on how the industry will look after pandemic

A local travel agent who is currently dealing with a lot of refunds and rebookings believes the travel industry will recover after the coronavirus pandemic.

Donna Cody, who owns Northampton-based BenandCo with business partner Rosella Bennett, thinks the industry will be completely different when it can take off once again.

BenandCo, which is a franchise of Not Just Travel, was set up at the start of last year so was just starting to see a pay off when the pandemic hit.

Donna said: “Business was going great and we’d built up a good client base. We’d worked hard and it was all about to pay off.

“As soon as China was really hit, we started slowing down and anybody going on a cruise or going to the Far East was getting concerned.

“We really did see it a lot earlier than the UK shut down.”

When the lockdown was announced and the Government advised against travel, Donna and Rosella had to make sure any of their clients that were on holiday could get home, which they did by booking them new flights.

Since the announcement, Donna says almost all bookings until the end of the June have been cancelled.

She added: “All we have been doing is cancelling customer’s holidays and making sure they do get their refunds, which is not easy in the travel world at the moment.

“We have managed to get the refunds, which is one of the benefits of using a travel agent. Those who booked online are finding it really difficult.

“This summer’s holiday in July and August, I think are too risky, I wouldn’t advise clients to book those yet.

“The earliest we are really seeing are October and November bookings.

“It is challenging but it’s not all doom and gloom.”

Donna is sure that the travel industry will recover from the pandemic, but believes it might not be until next year and that there will be some huge changes.

“It will bounce back next year and it will have a very different face,” she said.

“It won’t be as easy to travel everywhere and I think social distancing will carry on to an extent.

“There is a fear that there will be a shortage. There will probably be fewer planes flying and more people wanting to go on holiday.

“Most people who have lost their holiday this year are rebooking for next year, plus there’s the people thinking ‘what a horrendous year - I want to go away’.

“So cheap holidays are not going to be the case.

“Also people who book flights and then hotels, I think the days of that sort of travel may be over and I think we’ll see a lot more villa bookings rather than hotels.

“But people will always want to travel and it will bounce back. I think people who want to book for next year should not be afraid.

“There are low deposits on offer and flexibility with bookings, but I’d advise people to make sure they get that in writing.”

Donna is also confident that her's and Rosella's hard work will pay off and their independent business will survive.

“I’m positive because we are dealing with our customers quite well and in a professional way so I think that has secured us future custom from them,” she added.

“They’ve also referred friends to us who we are helping along the way, so it’s good for our reputation.”

In the meantime, the pair are also involved in running Business Nation Northampton, which is a support network for small businesses to help them get through this crisis, information of which can be found on its Facebook page.

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