Richard Turen
A quick look at the travel industry, the hospitality industry and the restaurant industry points to some vital differences in our long-term outlook.
In the past 24 months, the restaurant industry has furloughed or laid off 8 million workers and lost an estimated $280 billion in sales. Hotels and resorts are reporting staff shortages in areas like maintenance, housekeeping and on-site restaurant staff that are averaging around 40%.
You have seen stories of reduced services in these sectors, ordering "by tablet" in restaurants and few willing to work long hours for very little pay.
I've written about the prognosis for the hotel sector. Robots to clean rooms (if you are lucky), the end of room service and entire sections of properties that must be closed due to lack of staff.
The sad fact is that there are no short-term practical or political solutions. The work economy is changing, and there is not much hope in many more affluent portions of our country that job-seekers, servers and housekeepers will suddenly appear.
So this holiday season, let's count some of our blessings. Many of us are thriving, and six-figure-earning independent contractors are a real thing. The travel sector is no longer reliant on physical presence. Unlike the other two comparable industries, our employees can work from home. In fact, they can work out of a hotel or a restaurant if they care to.
And think about this: While the restaurant and hospitality sectors are trying to educate their customers to lower expectations going forward, the travel industry is inviting our clients to continually raise their expectations.
The fact is that our clients have stuck with us, and they have told their friends about the services we provide in ways that an ad never can replicate. Many are becoming aware of the "rebate revolt," as consumers finally begin to figure out that suppliers are charging them for advisor services when no advisor was involved. Average trips are longer, and the percentage of our guests who want to fly in the front of the plane has dramatically increased, as have average-spend statistics across the board.
Our stores can be anywhere. One agent I know sails the world from an office on cruise ships. Others continually travel, staying at top-tier properties with top-tier WiFi.
The stuff we stock on our shelves is endless. Want a real estate pro to show you a few apartments in the hottest neighborhood in Lyon? Want to get into the best fashion salons in Milan after hours? How about a tour of the best chili crab emporiums in Singapore? It's all there -- but unlike restaurants or hotels, we do not need to physically stock anything at all. We sell the world, and it sits at our fingertips wherever our keyboard may reside. We can fit our office in our Tumi carry-on. Are we lucky or what?
So I suppose my holiday message is that we all pause for a moment to be thankful for all that we've been given. We have, quietly and respectfully, been made ambassadors of this planet we inhabit.
This holiday, more than others, I hope to spend some time thinking about how damn lucky we are to spend our years helping our clients live out many of the finest, most memorable times of their lives.
And finally, to each of you who has shared some special portions of your time with me in this space, please know I will be thinking of you as well this holiday season.
See you just after Christmas as we ponder what might lie ahead in the years to follow in our Dec. 26 Preview issue.