TORONTO — Booking trends, travel trends and lots and lots of data: Valerie Styger sees it all in her work with Expedia TAAP, Expedia’s Travel Agent Affiliate Program.

As well-versed as Styger is in the booking patterns in this market, even she was surprised by one of the findings in Expedia Group’s recent ‘Decoding the travel advisor client’ report, surveying travellers who have used a travel advisor in the past 18 months.

The line of inquiry was simple enough: top reasons to use a travel advisor.

Expert advice was #1 (53%), followed closely by time savings (52%) and access to exclusive deals (50%). Personalized services came in at 43%.

Meanwhile just over one-third (36%) cited ‘ability to handle travel emergencies for me.’

As Styger tells Travelweek: “Given the challenges experienced during the early days of the pandemic, I was surprised to see that only 36% of travellers called out using a travel advisor to handle emergencies on their behalf. I would have expected this figure to be higher. The positive aspect here is that Canadians have regained their trust in travelling.”

Travelweek also asked Styger, who is Senior Country Manager for Expedia TAAP Canada, for her take on the report’s stand-out best news for Canadian travel advisors, out of all the Canadian-specific findings.

“It was incredibly encouraging to see data showing that Canadian customers are loyal,” says Styger. “The fact that more than 50% have used the same travel advisor for more than five years and that this statistic was at least 3% higher than the other countries surveyed speaks volumes about the high quality of travel advisors in Canada.”

“PRICE AND QUALITY OF SERVICE MATTER TO CANADIANS”

Expedia’s report, as reported last week, gathered findings from 10 countries: Canada, the U.S., the UK, Brazil, Australia, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico and Spain.

Looking at travellers’ preferences, values and planning habits, the report has insights for travel advisors looking to maximize their effectiveness and value proposition with clients.

The survey showed that special offers are a key deciding factor when Canadians choose a travel advisor, ranking higher than the global average.

Canadian travellers are also more likely to book flight tickets through their travel advisor than the average global traveller.

And this finding will come as no surprise to Canada’s highly effective agents: “Exceptional customer service and strong communication are the primary reasons Canadian travellers remain loyal to their travel advisors.”

Canada is a growth market for Expedia TAAP, says Styger.

Based on the survey results, Travelweek asked Styger for her message for Canadian travel advisors.

“The key message here is that price and quality of service matters to Canadians.  The competitive pricing that Expedia TAAP offers coupled with the outstanding quality of our Canadian agents makes for a winning team. It’s an age-old message, ‘Treat customers well and they’ll come back for more.’”

‘Decoding the Travel Advisor Client’ can be accessed here.