Tales From the Front Lines – Laurie Keith, Romantic Planet Vacations

TravelPulse Canada is proud to support Travel Advisors around the globe. Our “Tales From The Front Lines” series is designed to give consultants a voice during the COVID crisis and bring professionals together. Enjoy today’s submission.

“I have been a travel agency owner in Canada for over 25 years and have survived so many challenges including the introduction of the internet, epidemics, supplier bankruptcies and much more but nothing could have prepared me for COVID 19. I have never seen anything like this in my career, ever.

Coming into 2020, forecasts showed that my boutique host travel agency, Romantic Planet Vacations, was heading towards being the best year in our 16 years in business. Life was good. Bookings were flowing. Reservations, accounting, and lead management software was invested in. I had just joined some highly regarded leadership organizations to help me excel in my business. We had begun organizing our large database of clients into travel segments to update and retarget. We started venturing into other markets like river cruising, luxury and adventure. I was growing our team of already highly trained, motivated, and strong selling niche travel experts. Brand new and highly effective marketing campaigns were launched. By February we were celebrating our largest attended live destination wedding and honeymoon expo events across Canada from Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. I had just returned back from a glorious family holiday to Hotel Xcaret on March 8th. Then it all hit. For as long as I live, I will never forget the day the world closed.