Travel agents have been urged to get ‘match fit’ and work with industry partners to help ensure 2024 is the best year yet for travel.
Celebrity Cruises vice-president and managing director EMEA Giles Hawke told delegates at the Fred Oslen Travel conference in Chesham, near London, not to rest on their laurels in an analogy with athletes such as Sir Steve Redgrave having to push through pain to achieve sporting greatness.
He said: “It might be difficult, it might be painful, it might test every fibre of our being, but it’s in those moments we need to dig our deepest, to summon our strength, our resilience, to find another gear and keep pushing forwards.”
He added: “It is time for us to get match fit, to grab our spikes, hone our craft, energise our spirts and drive everything forwards, to keep persevering, keep widening our goals and targets, and really push the boundaries in all ways to make 2024 the best year yet.
“And if we have learnt anything over the past few years, we are stronger when we come together, more impactful when we collaborate and more powerful when we engage in real partnership driving towards a common goal.”
He said travel had come from ‘rock bottom’ during the Covid pandemic in 2020 to be back on the ‘curve of recovery’ last year, adding: “If predictions are correct [we will] deliver the most successful year the industry has ever seen by the end of 2024 – that’s quite the zero to hero story.”
He cited the positive signs of recovery, from airlines returning to profitability to more investment in ports and cruise ships delivering more new ships.
“Bookings across the travel industry are strong even as we look ahead to 2025,” he said. “The future is exciting, but it’s only what we make it. After a number of years of struggle, the tailwinds are finally with us, but it’s up to us, up to all of us, to sharpen our focus, lay the groundwork, dig in deep and keep on pushing the boundaries to secure greater achievement, more revenue, more profit, more satisfaction and ultimately better success.”