Travel Advisors Scramble as Coronavirus Rattles Clients
Skift Take
As the coronavirus spreads, so are concerns among travelers. Travel advisors are feeling the effects, coping with cancellations, and providing reassurance to nervous clients.
As the fast-spreading coronavirus stokes fears and shakes up travel plans to Asia and beyond, travel advisors are scrambling to handle cancellations and rerouting, reassure jittery clients, and get answers and support from suppliers.
For travel agencies like Travel Design USA that do a lot of leisure business to Asia, the situation is especially vexing.
“The coronavirus has impacted us tremendously in regards to our clients’ travel plans,” said Craig Hsu, vice president of the Los Angeles-based agency. “They are canceling their trips to China, and some are looking at more local destinations such as Hawaii or Alaska. We have a large group that canceled their trip entirely.”
It isn’t only travel plans to China that are in jeopardy, said Dan Ilves, vice president of leisure for TravelStore, also headquartered in Los Angeles.
“Travelers are quite fearful and are canceling travel plans to Asia, not just China,” he said. “We even had one client express fears abo
