Tanya Murphy Is Our Destination Director. Who’s Yours?

Tanya Murphy, Destination Director, Cruise Planners®

“If there’s any silver lining to this [the pandemic], I now know there are some people who will never, ever, ever even think about planning a trip again without talking to me first.” Tanya Murphy, a Cruise Planners independent Destination Director, and her clients had quite the journey together during the travel industry’s crushing 2020.

During those dark days, she wasn’t sure if her franchise would even survive. She describes it this way, “It was a really rough, awful time. At the beginning, I just had to watch my business be completely annihilated. And one of the more horrible parts was I couldn’t just walk away. I still had to work through the cancellations and the rebookings, working through helping people figure things out.” Travel credits, refunds, when to expect them, it all had to be determined and explained and followed up.

“I had to be there for my clients and help them navigate this. And when everybody in the whole world has to cancel all their travel at the same time, you can’t call anybody. You can’t get through to anybody. It was the biggest mess,” said Tanya.

How did she survive? How is it that April 2021 was the best sales month in her franchise’s history? How does it feel to be on the other side?

To answer the first question, Tanya felt the fear and did it anyway. There was at least one moment when she said, “I just don’t want to do this anymore,” but realized, “I couldn’t not do it if I wanted to have a business to come back to.”

She began to hear “horror stories” from fellow travel agents that clients were threatening to sue them. Luckily for Tanya, her clients understood none of what was happening was her fault nor was she the one holding on to their money.

Tanya thinks it’s because she, “did a good job proactively communicating and talking people off the ledge a little bit.” She explained to them “what was going on from a worldwide perspective.” “While it’s really hard to wait 90 days or four months for your refund or your credit, you have to realize that it’s literally millions, if not billions, of transactions that the travel industry has to work through” she explained to her clients. “They will get to you,” she assured them.

While some issues still need sorting out in the travel sector—like finding enough people to meet staffing needs—things are picking up in a big way. Tanya calls it a “rush” and believes it’s a function of people finally getting their shots: “Anybody who wants one has had the ability to get it, for the most part.” The mindset now is, “OK, I’ve got my vaccination. I’m ready to go. Let’s plan something,” she said.

Another reason for the surge in travel? People are ready to spend. Many of them had jobs and incomes which weren’t affected by COVID-19 and, according to Tanya, “they also didn’t spend any money all year because we couldn’t do anything or go anywhere. We didn’t even go out to dinner.” Add to this reserve the stimulus checks and now, she says, “we’re seeing a bunch of spending happen.”

Tanya, herself, feels the difference. She described a recent night out with husband and friends that she didn’t want to end. “I couldn’t believe how happy I was. I experienced it with so much more joy and gratitude than I probably ever have in the past because I wasn’t able to do that for a year,” Tanya said.

She adds, “It’s good to feel like we’re coming out the other side. You can just kind of feel the energy shifting. And, boy, it was a rough ride.” Tanya is working so many hours these days and is “loving every second of it.”

Tanya and her clients have a valuable lesson to teach based on their 2020 experiences. The smart ones among us will pay attention. Never was it more clear that opting for personalized travel assistance versus online was and remains the wise choice. Travel planners receive their commissions from the suppliers, not the clients. Having a Destination Director like Tanya during the pandemic meant they had a human connection to help them make sense out of the confusion. Someone who understood their frustration and served as their personal advocate. People who booked online had, well, a website address.

Let’s stress that lesson again. Clients pay agents nothing; the planners receive their commissions from the destination spots and suppliers. For all those who don’t like to spend hours doing and/or being overwhelmed with vacation research, why not get free personal attention and let someone else do the details? Even better and more importantly, if things go wrong, and we now understand they can in a really big way, clients know immediately who their point person is. A problem-solver for free.

Notes to Readers:

(1) If you or someone you know is interested in opening a Cruise Planners franchise, Tanya Murphy has this to share:

“If anybody is looking to get into the travel industry, I would definitely highly recommend Cruise Planners as a host agency because they do a wonderful job. They really are one of the best in the business. When we go to conferences and meet the heads of cruise lines or airlines, they’re always telling us that Cruise Planners is one of the best host agencies to be with.”

(2) When Tanya was asked what type of mini vacation she’d recommend for small business owners, she said, “What I’d recommend is that we have a 30-minute phone call so I can understand what it is that they really need out of the trip.” Spoken like a Destination Director who has her clients’ best vacations at heart.

(3) Don’t let the name “Cruise Planners” fool you. Tanya coordinates cruise and land travel.