Travel counsellors will go the extra mile
Published Saturday June 27th, 2009
If you've got the travel bug, why not leave the details to a pro?
Not a website - a real travel counsellor.
Lubyca Gyuk is the manager at the Regent Mall branch of Maritime Travel, and she's been planning people's vacations for 26 years.
Gyuk's customer base is 80 per cent leisure travellers, 20 per cent corporate travellers.
"I still deal with corporate clients who started with me," says Gyuk. "The people I've been dealing with for a long time wouldn't go anywhere else."
"Travelling isn't just booking a ticket," says Bill Comeau, owner of Blaine Thomas Travel Agency. "If you run into a problem, you need someone to resort to. You're with a travel counsellor. Arranging a vacation isn't something that we just do once a year."
Comeau is another veteran of the local travel scene. He's been counselling travellers for more than 40 years.
He and Gyuk spend a lot of time ensuring that their customers' journeys are glitch-free.
"We build people's dreams," says Gyuk. "People create memories when they travel. We want things to go right."
To make that happen, travel counsellors do more than arrange flights and book hotels.
"Sometimes documents are required," says Comeau. "People don't necessarily know the restrictions for entry. Sometimes people need visas. What happens if you're denied board? An agent can help."
Travel agents also have access to specialized reservations software.
Gyuk uses the Apollo reservation system, which provides snapshots of every conceivable vacation package, the best airline fares, special hotel rates, car rental deals, cruise specials, e-blasts from vacation providers and anything else that might benefit prospective travellers.
Remember that Russian volcano that recently threw a wrench into a number of transpacific flights? Agents get up-to-the-minute travel advisories, too.
Vacations are easier to arrange with all that information at an agent's disposal.
"Let's say I have a customer who's going to a conference in Rome," says Gyuk. "I can give him a range of flights from the least expensive to something more expensive but with fewer connections.
"I'll check to see if he wants to leave a day in advance or come home a day later. Thanks to the technology, I'm able to give him a variety of options."
"If I were going to Europe or the Caribbean, I'd go to an agent - there's so much involved," says Tom McGinn of Tom McGinn Tours. "I'd rather sit face-to-face and have the agent do the work."
Gyuk says that one misconception about travel counsellors is that booking personally on the web will get people a better deal.
A web booking means a full credit card purchase at time of booking. Major agencies require only a deposit and offer a more generous final payment date.
"A lot of people think that things are less expensive on the Internet, that there's some sort of consultant's fee when you work with an agent. However, now that major players like Transat, Sunquest, Sunwing and Air Canada Vacations have a non-discounting policy, everything's the same price," says Gyuk.
One exception is airline tickets. Travel counsellors charge a small commission for processing airline fares. Airlines don't pay commissions to agents.
Another is marriage packages, which involve specialized knowledge about regulations and documentation requirements in foreign countries.
"Getting married away is a big trend," says Gyuk. "If you're planning to get married someplace else, that's a lot of work."
Otherwise, a travel counsellor's customer benefits from experience and the agent's access to just about every travel deal out there.
"Quite often, we're less expensive," says Gyuk. "A number of early booking promotions are available to travel agents, but don't make it to the Internet."
Orchestrating customers' vacations makes for busy days.
Gyuk gets to work early, and starts checking her email, which Gyuk likes for its clarity and for verification of dates.
Then the phone starts ringing.
"A lot of our business is still by phone," says Gyuk. "People are out there looking for the best deal."
Today's customers are also more savvy.
"People these days are smarter and more well-travelled," says Gyuk. "They don't need as much consulting."
"Only 10 per cent of people don't know where they want to go. That's more difficult. I don't necessarily know what they like. I might like a small resort, I might like to read books. Other people are more adventurous and don't like sitting around."
It's Gyuk's job to find the perfect fit.
And then there are kids.
"A lot of people travel with their children. If they do, you have to make sure that the kids don't get bored," says Gyuk.
In between phone calls and emails, Maritime Travel gets a fair bit of traffic at its Regent Mall location.
"We get a lot of walk-ins in the winter," says Gyuk. "Summers are slower."
For that reason, Maritime Travel maintains three full-time employees in the winter, but only two in the summer.
Like most travel agents, Gyuk works on salary, not commission.
She also does an occasional gig as tour director.
Gyuk has shepherded groups to see the Rolling Stones in Boston and Moncton's Country Rocks The Hill, with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
"It's just another side of being a travel agent," says Gyuk. "It's not a vacation, though. It's hard work."
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