The ITT conference in Istanbul was told that Gold medal management had to cut off some travel agent calls because they weren't respecting their staff.
Simon Applebaum, managing director of Gold Medal Travel Group, criticized the industry for anordinate amount of finger pointing during the Covid epidemic.
Applebaum, who took a short break from travel to work in the health sector, called for the industry to understand the strains everyone is under and to work together.
Travel needs to learn how to speak itself up as a career.
The agency boss called for an end to the abuse.
He thinks that we have been more divided.
Applebaum said that they are not just competing for customers, but for staff as well.
This is a B2B business and I am having to cut off customers because they are not respecting my staff.
They are not able to conduct themselves in the way you would expect them to. We have to think about that for a second.
They are part of the community. It hurts everyone when we scare people off. The thing to do is self-destructive.
Applebaum said that the sector has to be honest and accept that it is a less attractive place to work in.
Finding the right people to work in the sector is more difficult than it used to be.
He said that everyone would have to get used to doing work with less experienced people.
I have to take three experienced people off the phone to train my new hires. Some strains cause us problems.
Applebaum said using technology to ease pressures on staff is a huge opportunity and called on the sector to work on common standards.
Developing standards beyond individual businesses is something we need to focus on.
Over the last two years, Gold medal has taken 433,000 calls and dealt with 788,000 customer service inquiries.
More than a quarter of a million refunds have been processed by the firm.
The business rationalised and merged Travel 2 and Gold Medal, which resulted in the closing of the T2 office in Glasgow.
He said that the team was not built to handle it.
Travel needs to learn how to speak itself up as a career.
The agency boss called for an end to the abuse.
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