Hey, it's
Tim!
Director, Business Strategy, Canada, Virtuoso
How have you been coping during the last few months and how have you been keeping busy?
Ups, downs, arounds, in-betweens; the last few months have been a mixed bag of everything. However, most importantly, the people I care about most are healthy, so in the big picture I can’t complain one bit.
Keeping busy has not been an issue! My days are filled with helping our member agencies and partners navigate both crisis and opportunity. My evenings and weekends are for cooking, reading and, very thankfully, spending as much time as possible physically distanced outdoors with friends as being cooped up inside meant my online shopping bill was embarrassingly high.
What do you miss most about travelling? Are you doing any domestic trips?
I would say I miss the food and wine, but those seem to be in no short supply; hello, COVID love handles!
I love and miss every part of the travel experience – airport, airplane, destination, people – however much like we know our members’ clients are reliving old memories and dreaming of new ones, I am doing much of the same.
It’s been a great time to explore my own back yard, throughout Toronto and Ontario. This is a beautiful province with a lot to offer, especially in these warm summer months.
“More than ever before, a travel advisor is the trusted source for valuable and knowledgeable human connection as we navigate towards a more touchless/automated world.”
Tim Morgan
Director, Business Strategy, Canada, Virtuoso
Where’s the first place you want to go and why?
Two places, actually, and the lifting of quarantine restrictions will determine which comes first. Winnipeg to visit my family or London (England) to visit my partner, Fraser’s, family. Two very different places, but equally important to our lives.
Is there anything agents should know about Virtuoso?
We’re working hard doing everything we can to help them and their businesses. Our first priority has and continues to be helping our members and their advisors keep their lights on. We continue to work closely with our members and ACTA as we advocate for further government-funded assistance.
Our second priority is helping their businesses recover wherever possible. For this, we are helping members shift to a greater domestic/Caribbean travel focus for the remainder of 2020 and helping their clients dream of a future lifetime of travel using our interactive Wanderlist tool.
Our third priority is helping members reinvent their businesses so that they’re in an opportune place to take advantage of what the future of travel will be and, in some cases, needs to be. Areas of opportunity here include consistency in service or professional fees, shifting to higher margin products, and cleaning up marketing databases to better communicate and secure client bookings.
There’s been a lot of talk about the industry coming out better on the other side of COVID-19. What are your hopes?
Like at any challenging point for the industry, it is a time to reflect not just on how to survive, but how we can come out of this stronger than we were going in. Government regulations, supplier agreements, business models, product focus, and sustainability will all be important conversations and contain important actions that will need to take place, many with the assistance of groups such as ACTA. Travel will return and we must set and be ready for the expectations of a new world where health and safety are at the forefront for travellers, backed by a more sustainable business model for travel agencies.
Do you have anything to add?
I would tell travel advisors to hang in there – they are amazing and they can get through this. Times are tough, but it’s more important than ever that they remain connected with their clients. Check in on them, listen to them, and they’ll say when they’re ready to travel again – and they will. More than ever before, a travel advisor is the trusted source for valuable and knowledgeable human connection as we navigate towards a more touchless/automated world.
