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From one extreme to the other: This is how the development in the travel industry can be described. Travel agencies are almost overrun after two years of almost nothing going on. For example, the travel agency Geo Tours.
After two years of the corona pandemic, people have been gripped by travel fever again. Jasmine Rüfenacht finds out. She manages the Geo Tours branch in Wabern near Bern. “There is definitely a certain amount of catching up to do.” And so people are drawn out into the wide world.
Various destinations in demand
“There are certain destinations that are really extreme, like Greece, Spain, North America. But I experience here that we actually have everything across the board.” City breaks, beach holidays, on the other side of the globe or in a neighboring country: Bookings are coming in all the time. Accordingly, the 15-strong team has its hands full, says Paul Gosteli, the business owner of Geo Tours.
«The employees work really hard. That can well be from eight in the morning to eight in the evening.” This in order to be able to cope with the many bookings. He himself is also fully engaged from morning to night. After two years of crisis, this is good news, says Gosteli.
Legend:
Paul Gosteli and Jasmine Rüfenacht in Wabern, in one of the four Geo Tours branches.
SRF
And so things are running smoothly again economically – as well as in the peak years immediately before the pandemic. “The bookings roughly show the status of 2018 and 2019. My business is financially secure. It’s also a pleasure to work again.” In August 2020 the situation was very different. “Internationally everything has collapsed, 100 percent. From mid-October, early November, we really have practically no more bookings, »said Gosteli at the time.
Short-time work was the rescue
The financial prospects were correspondingly bleak. “We’re not making any money at the moment,” he said during the 2020 visit. Now, after the pandemic, his travel agency is still there. But only because of the public sector: “We had short-time work, but also hardship compensation. These two tools really got us through the crisis.”
It’s a pleasure to be back at work.
It was precisely the short-time work that ensured the survival of his company. “Without it, I would have had to reduce operations to two people. That’s a fact.” Thanks to the relief measures, there has now been no major clear-cutting. In the first year of the pandemic, the industry assumed that out of 1,300 travel agencies at the time, several hundred would not survive the crisis. Today an estimated 1200 still exist.
There is a lack of staff
At Geo Tours, business is now going so well that new challenges arise. «I need two new employees. It’s very difficult to find people.” Because a number of specialists turned their backs on the industry during the pandemic. However, there is a general lack of staff in the travel industry, especially in aviation.
“Flight schedule changes are of course a topic right now,” says Gosteli. «We experience daily that flights are canceled and we have to rebook. That means the uncertainty is there. We also get a lot of calls from customers asking if their flight is flying. If not, we can usually offer them good solutions.”
During the pandemic, travel agents and travelers have had to learn that for better or for worse, last-minute changes in holiday plans are part of the equation. And this skill is now in demand again.