In a week in which the Canadian travel industry returned in force with hundreds of members of the trade turning out for Transat and WestJet road shows, Discover America Day, and multiple destination events, about 330 agents convened in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre Wednesday for the first in-person ACTA Summit since the pandemic. The mission: to assess their place in a world changed forever by the events of the past two and half years.
Part town hall, info session, gripe fest, love-in, and pep rally, the gathering was universally acclaimed as a return to normalcy – a least a new normal.
“This conference is about getting together again,” said ACTA president Wendy Paradis, while keynote speaker Bruce Poon Tip, founder of G Adventures, joked, “This could turn out to be a super spreader event, I don’t care. I’ll get a little COVID just to be here.”
Poon Tip’s sentiment, however, was not without merit, as Paradis (who missed this summer’s association golf tournament with COVID), noted that several of the event’s scheduled panellists had called in sick.
She further stated that the upcoming flu season and worrying modelling has ACTA “concerned” about the fall, and that the association’s “No. 1 priority” is working to ensure that Canada’s borders are not closed again or pandemic measures such a mandatory testing and quarantines re-introduced if “the worst” should happen and another deadly variant emerges.
Paradis noted that advocacy on such issues, and in general on behalf of travel agents, is the association’s prime purpose, along with education, and attracting people to the travel industry. Multiple panels and break-out sessions at the Summit dedicated to the latter subjects.
Attendees heard how colleagues survived and thrived during the pandemic and received tips and tactics on how to thrive in the future (such as specialization); that the current tourism industry labour shortage is just the beginning of what is expected to be a decade-long crisis (“it can feel daunting, and gloomy, and frightening, and it should…”); and how in two years, travel industry technology will be radically different (and better) than today as millions are being invested in the sector.
Keynote speaker Poon Tip presented a passionate argument that travel should not simply aim to return to a pre-pandemic normal and challenged agents to not simply be part of the commoditization of the travel experience, which he maintains should be used as a “force for change” that is meaningful to travellers and the communities in which they travel alike.
“We should be fighting back to be better because I don’t think (pre-pandemic) normal was great,” he said.
Showing a slide of a go-cart track on a cruise ship in the middle of a spectacular Alaskan fjord to demonstrate his point, he mused, “I for one find that ridiculous!”
“Let’s not waste a good pandemic (to reinvent travel),” he urged.
Another positive side effect, stated Gary Sadler of Sandals and Beaches Resorts, is the elevated importance of travel agents.
“There is no question, none at all,” he boomed in his deep Jamaican baritone, “that one silver lining coming out of the pandemic is the increased consumer awareness of the travel advisor… The days of do-it-yourself travel are over for the consumer. Now more than ever before, consumers know that they need the expertise of a travel advisor to navigate the ever-changing landscape (of travel).”
And with travel surging again, the man known as “the preacher” declared, “The sun always shines after the rain. (And) I’m here to tell you: The sun is now shining; we’ve turned the corner! We’ve closed a chapter on some of the toughest times our industry has ever seen. And we are moving into a bright and prosperous future together!”
Beyond speakers, panels and educational sessions, attendees also had the opportunity to attend a trade show to network and learn the latest news from close to 50 suppliers, as well the chance to win prizes, courtesy of Summit sponsors, which included Air Canada (which also issued bonus Aeroplan points to all attendees), Manulife, Globus family of brands, and Portugal.
The afternoon concluded with the announcement of ACTA’s annual awards and a cocktail reception and party.
2022 leadership award winners included:
• Leisure Travel Agent – Angela Harrison-Mowbray, CTC, Travel Escapes Vacations, Revelstoke, BC
• Corporate Travel Agent – Monica Voigt, Marlin Travel (Richmond Rd.), Ottawa
• Tomorrow’s Leader – Shari Tucker, Love the Way You Travel, Halifax
• Ches Chard Education Award – Patricia Marques, CAA North and East
• Gerald Heifetz Advocacy Award – Shalene Dudley, Latitude Concierge Travel Ltd., Burlington, Ont.
Additional Summits – free for agents (non-members are asked to donate to ACTA’s advocacy fund) – will be held in Richmond, BC, on Sept. 20 and Sept. 28 in Laval, Que.