TORONTO — For so many travel advisors, their profession is a dream job.
But not for all, and after 22 years as a travel advisor, Lise Archambault says she’s leaving the industry – and sharing with Travelweek her reasons why.
The veteran advisor of Ottawa-based Algonquin Travel & Cruise Centre – TravelPlus tells Travelweek she’s overworked and exhausted. She made the decision to retire this November and she’s not looking back.
As retail travel grapples with a labour shortage, fuelled in part by the retirement of experienced – and often burned out – travel advisors, Archambault’s imminent departure is a cautionary tale for the industry.
In front of the Château de Fontainebleau, France in 1983
She tells Travelweek that she’s tired of having to fix things for clients, whether that means dealing with flight cancellations or flight delays or cruise port changes, all of which are common occurrences in a post-Covid world.
It wasn’t always like this, says Archambault, recalling her start in the industry at the age of 17, working in the sales department at a major hotel in downtown Ottawa. In 1979, she was then hired as a clerk in the cargo department of a major airline, eventually working her way up to the law branch in Montreal. She returned to Ottawa to become a travel and tourism instructor at a private college and, in the early aughts, she made the leap to become a full-time independent travel advisor, spending the last 18 years at her current agency.
Over the course of two decades, she’s accumulated countless cherished memories, including her very first Caribbean cruise, of which she loved every second.
“We enjoyed a travel era when it was slick in style but still affordable. People in the industry were well paid – I had a Gold Amex card at 23 years old – and used discretionary income on sublime trips in a variety of destinations,” says Archambault. “I’m glad I did all those magical trips when I had the chance.”
Archambault says she noticed a drastic change in the industry around 2010, when she started to see travel services taking a downhill turn. Meanwhile client complaints were up – and so were her stress levels. The logistical headaches got so bad that by 2017 she was no longer booking wedding groups, or air only.
“I had to book wedding groups far in advance, way before schedules were confirmed, and inevitably they did change. ITC rates often plummeted once they were posted online, sometimes by hundreds of dollars, and hotels would offer wedding perks like resort credits and upgrades that clients never received. So of course people got angry and frustrated. Even with high-end cruise lines, I saw frequent port changes. And if the client booked specifically because of those ports, they cancelled because everything was refundable prior to final payment,” she says.
Archambault says she also started referring any client who wanted to purchase an air only ticket directly to her office as she was unwilling to spend any more time dealing with refunds whenever an airline changed its flight schedule.
“All that time spent reconfirming changes and doing ticket exchanges, some even five or six on one ticket, was too much. All that research and work I put in, plus the time spent refunding the ticket, was for nothing. Airline computers rarely took into account the add-ons from cities like Ottawa. There was never any help – a call to an airline could leave you on hold for eight hours,” recalls Archambault.
And then, the pandemic arrived in March 2020, putting a global stop to travel and, as it turns out, giving Archambault a much-needed reprieve. Living in Ottawa, she was able to secure two eight-month government contracts that paid well.
By 2022 more borders around the world were reopening. As the industry knows, the unprecedented demand led to flight cancellations and delays, long airport lines, passport hold ups, luggage mishaps, long call centre wait times and more. No matter the problem, “clients started yelling at me in frustration for something that was beyond my control,” says Archambault.
And two years later, it’s the schedule changes, cancellations and more that have her saying, “I just can’t take the complaints anymore.”
NEXT STEPS
As Archambault packs up for a new career, she has some advice for new-to-industry travel advisors who may already be grappling with the long hours, the unpredictable demands from clients, and unprotected commissions: “I would tell them to carefully research the salary and demands of the position, especially when targets are involved.”
Though she may be retiring from her travel agency, she has every intention of continuing to work, namely as a research specialist with a certification in adult education. And though she may be leaving the industry, she tells Travelweek that she would do it all over again.
“It was an exhilarating ride,” she says. “The experiences of operating in several fields – at the airline, freelancing in my own business, teaching at a private college, working as a travel advisor and becoming an influencer and writer – have led to an unimaginable lifestyle and a lifetime of voyages and adventure.”
