Swampscott resident Amy Grishman refused to buckle when COVID-19 slammed the economy in March because she knew people shared the passion that motivated her to open Charm & Awe Travel Company.
“Most people I book for are itching to travel,” she said.
The Lynn native loves traveling so much she jumped at the chance to book family trips. Grishman combined her wanderlust with a marketing background to open Charm & Awe four years ago and she was steadily building her business when COVID-19 hit.
“The pandemic had a huge impact on my business. Bookings came to a halt,” she said.
With health worries at the forefront and social distancing paramount, airlines saw business crash land in March and the travel industry suffered collateral damage as conventions, trips, tours, cruises and vacations got canceled.
Grishman’s counterparts in Lynn area travel agents felt the same pain she endured. Some are less optimistic about the industry’s prospects for a rebound. Others, including 25-year industry veteran Yakov Tseitlin who owns Free Wind Travel in Lynn, are ready to call it quits.
“I’ve seen zero business and I can’t wait until it bounces back in a couple of years,” said Tseitlin.
He is preparing to convert part of his Central Square office into a showroom for high-end espresso machines and he is ready to sign a sales deal with an Italian company.
Tseitlin fondly recalls pre-Internet times when going somewhere meant calling a travel agent. Airlines paid agents commissions to combine flight routes with tour and vacation packages.
Periwinkle Travels’ Leighan Hennigan lost all but three of her clients to COVID-19 cancellations. She fell back on her nursing experience and went to work at Salem Hospital treating COVID-19 patients even as she struggled to keep her travel agency alive.
“People called to book trips for 2021 but, as a nurse, I could see where it was going and decided not to book trips,” Hennigan said.
She shares former Marblehead travel agent Joel Abramson’s outlook on travel returning to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, not earlier. In the meantime, Hennigan predicts the travel industry will see a transformation that will drive other small agents out of the business.
“I have very little overhead, so I will continue until things recover,” she said.
Abramson said travel bookings for conventions and group trips will skip 2021 and get scheduled for 2022 at the earliest. The Swampscott resident said hotels and travel destination sites like convention centers will undergo major transformations, including ventilation upgrades, intended to ease fearful travelers.
The Internet was reshaping the travel industry even before COVID-19 hit and Tseitlin said online bookings are a double-edged sword for travelers. Less experienced ones will be drawn by deals without realizing they are sacrificing the hassle-free experience agents are experts at providing.
Lynnfield resident Kathy Lucey operated her travel agency in Saugus for 40 years before relocating it this year to her home. She is optimistic the travel industry will recover from COVID-19. Her customers are booking trips two years from now.
“People want something to feel good about,” Lucey said.
Grishman agreed.
“My clients are starting to book again,” she said.
