Comment: Pandemic has shown we’re stronger together

Alastair Campbell, G Touring’s managing director, hails the support of retail partners during the crisis

Early 2020 feels like a lifetime ago.

So many of us lost loved ones and the resulting redundancy of so many talented friends and colleagues across the industry hit hard as we all went into survival mode.

For G Touring, the pandemic could not have come at a worse time. It was just three years after the acquisition of Travelsphere and Just You.

We had built an incredible senior leadership team, created huge confidence in our brands and we had launched our first TV and radio campaigns.

The Just You and Travelsphere propositions had been completely renewed with the customer experience and service at the heart of every holiday.

Our trade sales team was the strongest it had ever been, having doubled our trade sales in three years.

Our retail partners had embraced the changes, and we were seeing record sales performance.

Life was good and we were excited for the inevitable growth in 2020.

These foundations and the hard-earned confidence of customers and trade partners gave us determination to fight our way through the darkest days.

We acted quickly and we were able to demonstrate wholeheartedly that we would do the right thing by our customers and retail partners.

More: More travellers seeking expert advice rather than booking online, G Adventures reports

G Adventures sees ‘seismic shift’ in travellers’ habits

Being one of the only tour operators to use a trust model, we were able to refund customers much faster, accepting that the sheer volumes involved created some inevitable delays contrary to our best endeavours.

Customers knowing that their money was 100% protected certainly helped ease concerns.

We will forever appreciate the support of our retail partners during this time when you were all experiencing the same challenges.

Customer service has always been at the heart of our business, but throughout the pandemic it became even more critical.

Like all travel businesses, our number one priority was to ensure our customers were retained through delivering even higher service levels where possible.

We used the opportunity to learn from our customers and partners – getting feedback about holidays we had operated and our new range too.

This feedback saw our product team move quickly to create a great range of new UK holidays.

These have proved to be incredibly successful and popular with our Just You customers, who had been so eager to get travelling again.

All dates sold out, even after extra dates were added.

Our 2022 portfolio includes even more new trips – so watch this space!

Our plan has always been to deliver the fastest possible recovery, to support our partners and get our colleagues back into the industry they love.

Thankfully we managed to retain key skills, knowledge and expertise to enable this.

Our customers and partners were so important in shaping our focus as we recovered.

We’ve overhauled almost every area of the business to ensure our service levels are even higher.

We have used Sherpa, the online-travel tool, to help agents quickly inform customers about travel restrictions, launched the most flexible booking policy in the market and restructured our approach to supporting our retail partners to meet their needs.

As we see the pandemic clouds receding (for good we hope!), we know that we’ve used the time wisely.

We’re come back leaner, better and stronger than ever.

Our trade partner relationships are stronger than ever, as is our commitment to rebuild together.