BRENTWOOD, Mo. — Joe Delmore's cruise to Alaska was canceled last summer. Delmore, a St. Louis area resident, was devastated. But his travel agents got his money back, and, just last month, he and his wife locked in a 2022 do-over.
"We didn't have to sweat the details," he said.
That was Pat Blassie's job.
Lately, the owner of Altair Travel and Cruises in Brentwood has been fielding calls from people seeking a pandemic redo or to finally make good on a dream vacation — to places like Iceland, Switzerland and Cambodia. After more than a year at home, everyone has the wanderlust, it seems.
"People are leaning toward adventure and the outdoors. There's an appreciation of just being able to go," said Blassie. "I expect next year to be big."
In the past couple months, the turbulence of the pandemic has started to calm for the travel industry. More and more people are vaccinated. Travel guidelines have loosened. Delayed vacations are finally looking like a sure thing, and globetrotters are locking in plans earlier than usual, up to two years in advance.
But travel agents say it will take years, not months, to recover their equilibrium. Agencies lost almost all of their business, overnight. As the crisis wore on, they spent their days tracking down refunds and rebooking trips only to see them canceled again. No trips didn't mean no work, just no pay — commissions don't come in until vacationers have disembarked. Revenue plummeted by 75% or more at most agencies, staff were laid off, and morale sank.
Altair scaled back its 35 employees to three days a week. Blassie, who has been in the industry for four decades, has successfully navigated changing reimbursement models, the rise of internet agencies like Expedia, recession slowdowns and post-Sept. 11 skittishness.
None of that prepared her for a pandemic.
"Anyone that was providing travel services — it just went dead," said Blassie. "It was a massacre."
The travel industry lost $492 billion from March to December of last year. The trips that people did take were closer to home: camping in state parks or holing up at private beach condos. They didn't require the wheel-greasing of travel agents, who compare prices, set up side tours, schedule transportation and offer advice.
But with the world opening up, agents anticipate a greater appreciation for their trouble-shooting capabilities and stores of knowledge, especially when it comes to changing COVID-19 regulations.
River cruises, all-inclusive resorts, Disney excursions and other elaborate trips in which travel agents specialize can involve dozens of vendors, each with their own set of cancellation rules. Most travel insurance didn't cover a pandemic.
"I'm sure many people got burned if they booked on their own," Blassie said. She spent months straightening out jumbled arrangements. "We had to hammer hard and go back not once, not twice, but many, many times."
Trish Hinds, owner of Travel Gals in Lake Saint Louis, got calls from would-be vacationers looking for help, even though they hadn't booked with her.
Hinds opened her agency a decade ago, but she's been in the industry twice that long. She has never worked as hard as she did during the past year. Chasing refunds meant hours sitting on the phone.
"We were doing it for no compensation," she said. She started substitute teaching to make up the hit to her salary.
People are getting more comfortable, though, and Hinds has seen an uptick in interest in the past month, especially for domestic destinations, like California, New York and Las Vegas.
Mike Schellhase, owner of Travel Haus in south St. Louis County, built his business on establishing relationships; many of his clients have been with him since he took over the agency in 1993. One woman who booked a destination wedding through Travel Haus returned to arrange her second and third walks down the aisle. Weddings and honeymoons were Schellhase's niche.
"I thought that was going to be recession-proof, bomb-proof," he said.
It wasn't COVID-proof. Travel Haus brought in less than a quarter of the revenue in 2020 than it did the previous year. Schellhase had to lay off five of his seven employees.
But, finally, business is returning. Demand for cruises — its fans are diehards, he said — has already gone through the roof. Resorts are filling up. And new clients are flooding in. Before the pandemic, about 40% of his clients were first-timers. That has more than doubled.
Frustration is what drives people to try a travel agent, Schellhase said: "People start doing their own research, but it's overwhelming. They've been on the internet for hours, and they want to get something settled."
Richard Faulstich of South County had a trip to Europe planned for last summer. He hasn't rescheduled it — things there are still too unsettled — but he felt secure booking a retreat to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.
"I use an agent for a few reasons," Faulstich said. "It doesn't cost anything extra, and if you have a problem, it just goes away."
Stephanie Turner of Brentwood Travel compares the experience of using a local agent to patronizing a corner store vs. shopping at Amazon.
"There's something about the human touch, and that's why travel agents are still in business," she said.
Her parents started Brentwood Travel in 1957. She took over in the 1970s, relocating to Chesterfield and then Creve Coeur, but holding onto the name. Now her daughter works with her.
They lost 85% of their business last year, and laid off two-thirds of their staff. It will take a while to rebound, Turner thinks, but the bounce could be higher.
"There is a pent-up desire and a pent-up demand," she said.
More than the destinations, people are craving the exploration, the discoveries, the people.
"You might not remember what we got for our birthdays or the holidays," Turner said, "but you'll remember every trip you took."
