WILTON, CT — There’s nothing like a champagne toast to get you in a festive mood.
To celebrate its 850th trip since resuming operations last January, Tauck treated guests sailing on its Antarctica cruise last week to a surprise champagne toast at the company’s featured pre-cruise hotel in Buenos Aires. The 13-day journey concludes this week in Ushuaia, Argentina.
“We’re celebrating not only our 8505h departure but also the fact that we’ve successfully operated 96 different journeys in 36 countries on five continents around the world,” said Tauck CEO Dan Mahar. “It’s easy to forget that less than a year ago, 100% of our tours and cruises were still paused due to Covid, and that it wasn’t until January and February of this year that we resumed operations with our first departures of a single itinerary, our ‘Wonderland: Yellowstone in Winter’ trip.”
Mahar also noted that Tauck’s 2021 restart spanned much of the company’s global portfolio, including land programs across North America, South America, Europe and Africa, river cruises on the Rhine, Danube, Seine, Rhone, Douro and Nile, and small ship ocean cruises in Greece, Iceland, the Mediterranean, the Dalmatian Coast, the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica.
Adding that despite Covid-related challenges this year, Mahar said that Tauck was still able to provide guests with travel experiences that lived up to the company’s high standards.
“We track our guest satisfaction metrics with extraordinary care, and overall our 2021 scores have been on par with our 2019 results. And in many areas, including our European land tours and river cruises, our small ship ocean cruises and our journeys to exotic destinations, our 2021 scores actually exceeded 2019,” said Mahar.
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2022
Following the success of Tauck’s 2021 operations, Mahar is optimistic for the new year.
“The experience we gained this year positions us perfectly to continue our robust recovery in 2022, which will not only serve Tauck well but also our guests, our travel advisor partners and our supplier-partners around the world.”
Tauck has also been busy hiring in its Reservation Sales Center, added Mahar, bringing on additional staff to bring the call center close to 100% of its 2019 staffing level. Tauck has also added substantial space in key regions for 2022, including Switzerland, Italy, Canada and the U.S. National Parks. Nonetheless, he cautioned that “a wave is coming” and he’s encouraging guests and travel advisors to “plan ahead and act soon to secure their preferred Tauck trips and departure dates.”
A BIG THANK YOU TO AGENTS AND PARTNERS
Mahar praised travel advisors and supplier partners for the critical role they played in not only the company’s restart but also the travel industry’s recovery.
“I’m tremendously proud of how we all came together to restart our industry. Collectively, we demonstrated resilience and adaptability and we worked together in new and creative ways to serve our guests and resume our purpose of making the world a better place,” he said.
“Success in our business comes down to people and I’m deeply grateful and inspired by the collective care and commitment shown not only by Tauck’s own team, but also by our travel advisor partners and our global network of supplier-partners. Their collective efforts have enabled our successful restart and have positioned our industry for continued growth in 2022,” added Mahar.
