It’s been a record-breaking year in the travel industry—but as 2023 nears an end, travel advisors who sell the Middle East are wondering about the possible fallout of the Israel/Hamas War. Some already are feeling the pinch as suppliers shift itineraries, customers try unsuccessfully to cancel—and travel advisors and their commissions are caught in the middle. Again.
“I have been fighting with Regent since they announced my clients would not be going to Israel and Egypt—which was the whole reason for their trip—and put Greece in its place,” says Samantha Hamilton at Ultimate Vacations. “My clients have already been to Greece and have no desire to go back, plus they just don’t feel safe being over in that area right now. But Regent is offering zero refund or FCC because they said clients are in 100% penalty, and with the insurance my clients purchased from Regent, apparently war isn’t a covered reason for reimbursement. I’ve begged my BDM to have some grace here; my clients still want to cruise but do not feel safe going over there (cruise leaves Istanbul and returns to Dubai). I am so sad for everyone involved, as no one is in a good situation, but my clients are going to be out $40,000 and I’m just trying to get them a cruise credit. I’m waiting to hear back from ASTA and Ensemble as I don’t know what else to do right now. I’m waiting to cancel their cruise until the day before they are scheduled to depart in case something changes.”
And she is not alone. Tracee Williams’ clients at Destinations are about to lose $2,776 each on a January Uniworld cruise to Jordan and Egypt; she asked for an FCC and was told no. “Uniworld says it’s safe and they’ve added extra security,” she says. “This is bad business.” And Ken Heit at Frosch Travel has “a lot of pissed-off customers” on Oceania, which offered FCCs at first and then stopped offering any compensation at all.
“I have an AMA charter on an Egypt itinerary leaving in 11 days, and many of my clients are freaking out about going and are highly upset that AMA won’t give them FCCs,” said another, requesting anonymity. “And the fact that they aren’t able to file a claim with their travel insurance has my clients doubly upset; they are feeling forced into something they will be too nervous to enjoy. Most of them have resigned to go ahead and travel, rather than lose a considerable amount of money.”
At Paloma White Travel, White just took a $5,000 hit on her personal Thanksgiving trip through the UAE and Qatar. And Sherrie Thomas of Global Gifts Travel figures she is out about $11,000 in commission on what started out as a group of 28 to Egypt next week that is now down to 8. “I’ve exhausted every measure to postpone or change destinations, to no avail,” she says, noting that “this has made me reconsider working with tour operators on the hotel portion. If I had booked direct, I would have had more flexibility with the cancellation policy.”
At Berman Travel, Susan Berman has “a few situations.” One group was on The Silver Spirit, Athens round trip, scheduled to stop in Haifa, which was replaced with Greece. All her clients were insured by Silversea, and so are not covered; they will travel, but they are unhappy. And the leader of a group sailing Avalon to Egypt is no longer comfortable going—but the $500 per person deposit is non-refundable/non-transferable. “They want to move to a new itinerary, but Avalon isn’t budging,” she said. “This one we’re waiting out since final payment isn’t due yet. Frustrating!”
“Some tour operators are not having any empathy for those that are hesitant to travel to the Middle East, and as such have not been gracious with their cancellations or offers of future travel credit,” agrees Rhoda Goodwin at RG Travel Services. “Some tour operators are concentrating solely on profits and not having the best interest of the clients at hand, and I have clients threatening legal action against them. Personally, I am livid, and I put the tour operator on my do not sell list.”
Suppliers Respond
Not all suppliers are taking that hard line, however. Nancy Bauman at Dream Travel by Nancy reports talking Kensington into a full refund for her customers, and getting full refunds minus some fees for two customers on Oceania. But all her commission is lost. “Hopefully people will feel comfortable traveling to Europe in the coming months,” she says. “Otherwise, it will feel like covid all over again.”
Michelle Murre at Azurine gave a pat on the back to Pomegranate for being “amazing” about accommodating her customers. And Phyllis Polaner at F1rst Class Travel LLC got a full refund from Mabat Platinum.
At Dawn Crow Travel, Crow notes that not allowing FCCs is bad not just for advisors and clients, but for the destinations as well. At CruiseWorld, a speaker from Israel Tourism gave an impassioned speech ending with, “Don’t cancel; postpone.”
“Israel will build back stronger when those trips that couldn’t happen finally DO,” Crow says. “The cruise lines aren’t helping [Israel and Egypt] by making guests keep their existing reservations—and sending them to other countries.”
TRO reached out to a number of suppliers for comment and many did not respond by press time.
But Norwegian Cruise Line said, “As always, the safety and security of our guests, crew and communities we visit is our top priority. As a result, we have made the decision to cancel all calls to Israel for the remainder of 2023 and in 2024. We are also canceling and redirecting certain calls to the surrounding region for the remainder of 2023…We will continue to monitor and make adjustments to both current and upcoming cruise itineraries, as needed, and thank our guests for their patience and flexibility during this fluid situation.”
But “at this time, we are not offering any refunds for missed calls to Israel. We are deeply saddened by the tragic situation. Our thoughts are with all those impacted during this time.”
Oceania Cruises said, “The safety and security of our guests and staff is our utmost priority and we have adjusted itineraries as necessary given current events. Our cancellation policy remains per our terms and conditions.”
At the Dream Vacations/CruiseOne conference on Carnival Celebration, Adolfo Perez noted that Carnival “is mostly North America-focused; our deployment is mostly Western Mediterranean from Rome to Barcelona or Dover. So fortunately, we are not really impacted.”
But AmaWaterways said it has “temporarily suspended its optional four-night post-cruise land package in Israel. Guests with the post-cruise Israel package scheduled to depart on Secrets of Egypt & the Nile itinerary starting in Cairo up to and including February 2, 2024, will be refunded for the Israel land portion as well as the Cairo to Tel Aviv airfare. Guests on these impacted departures should contact their travel advisor or airline (if flights were booked directly with the airline) to review change fees that may be applicable to their return international flights. There are no other changes to any other Egypt river cruise or associated land packages.”
And Windstar Cruises’ chief commercial officer Janet Bava said she is “very proud of how Windstar has handled our cruises in the Middle East,” where the Star Legend was supposed to sail its virgin voyage just as the crisis hit. “Not only did we offer FCCs and refunds to those who requested them, but for those customers that rebooked, we protected their ‘inaugural rate.’ Hopefully things will calm down by then, and they can sail to the Middle East. And we will work on getting back those who take the refund. We have outbound call campaigns planned and special offers to win back the business.”
In the meantime, the Windstar team in two weeks put together a full new Legendary Winter itinerary in the Mediterranean, which opened for sale this week.
Corina Johnson, owner of All Points Travel in Salt Lake City, doesn’t have any clients traveling in the Middle East right now. But like many travel advisors, she believes that “if it’s serious enough that a cruise line is moving a ship completely out of the region, they should at least let the customer change the date. I don’t understand why the consortia and ASTA as a booking block are not beating the drum about this. It makes me mad.”
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.
