Travel agencies hoping for sunnier days ahead

Travel agents spent the last few months dealing with cancelled and rescheduled vacations.

“The biggest hit came when we lost the end of spring break,” said Janelle Throne, Throne Travel owner.

And travel agencies have been struggling ever since.

“I can’t paint a real rosey picture of the number of vacations we’ve cancelled is tremendous,” said Teresa Gonzalez, manager for Gulliver’s Travel Duck Creek.

But they have hope for the future and say there are good deals for the winter and 2021.

“It’s been a little bit slowly definitely of booking of 2021 season, but we’re confident that it’s going to come back and we’re confident that you know we’re going to be busy again and we’re going to make it through this,” Throne said.

If you do travel right now, it may look different.

“Restaurants aren’t open, maybe the entertainment’s not what the entertainment’s been,” Throne said. “You just need to realize that everything’s not the way that it was before we got in to this situation.”

Most travel agents don’t get paid until customers return from their trips. So whenever it becomes safer for people to travel, local travel agents say they will be ready.

“I’m crossing my fingers and toes for November because it’s probably the biggest November we’ve ever had because we had to move so many people and they’re all hoping that they get to go, if not, we’ll be here to move them to something else,” Gonzalez said.