by CRAIG COLEY
After working remotely for most of the pandemic, the three agents at Travel Leaders eagerly returned to their office on June 1. āWe were so excited to be with each other again because we could bounce ideas off each other and have conversations,ā says Debbie Isom, leisure and corporate travel specialist at Travel Leaders.
Then the June 18, 2021, flood deposited 7 feet of water in the basement of their building at 814 S. Walnut. āIt destroyed our furnace, ripped the water heater from the pipes, ruined all of the telephone and internet communications,ā Isom says.
The agents went back to remote work while the building was repaired. In their absence, someone broke the large window that faces Walnut Street.
It has been that kind of year-and-a-half for Travel Leaders, and they arenāt alone in their industry. When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, travel ground to a halt. Agents spent months canceling trips and fighting to get peopleās money back. āWe all thought this would be brief, and so a lot of it was rebooking peopleās trips for months in the future,ā Isom says. āAnd then, of course, it went on and on.ā
Then, it seemed as if people stopped planning trips altogether.
Payments from the federal Paycheck Protection Program kept Travel Leadersā agents employed, but on reduced hours. An administrative assistant was let go and later hired in a regional role.
On the plus side, Isom says, the pandemicās travel challenges have steered more first-time clients to the agency. Some of them experienced frustration trying to get refunds for travel they booked themselves online. Others want an agent to help navigate the pandemic-related travel restrictionsātesting requirements, quarantine periodsāthat vary from place to place and change constantly.
But just as business started to pick up, the Delta variant has created additional uncertainty. āWeāre going back into a fearful time,ā Isom says, ājust when we started to make a little bit of money.ā
For more information, visit travelleaders.com.
