WHAT WE LEARNED WHEN THE WORLD SHUT DOWN
Seven travel industry take-aways and lessons from the pandemic
Looking back over the past year, we’ve learned some valuable and important lessons as a business and as anglers. We’ve also been reminded of so many things that are important on both a personal and professional level. All told, Yellow Dog navigated some tricky waters in 2020, and along the way, our team gained (and re-gained) some valuable perspective on the importance of fishing, friendships, relationships and communication. 1. Having an agent working on your behalf is important – especially when things get difficult. We saw this play out time and again in 2020. While we were not always able to immediately fix things or deliver the perfect answer for cancelled trips, we worked tirelessly for our customers – operating on their behalf and looking out for their interests. Having an agent like Yellow Dog (the largest creator of trips for many of the lodges in the industry) often-times made a difference. For people that had booked on their own or through a smaller shop or hobby agent, the outcomes – and the solutions offered – were often-times markedly different.
2. Patience is everything. We’ve learned that tenacity and persistence goes a long way when it comes to re-bookings, reschedulings and other resolutions. In the beginning of the pandemic, many operators and lodges were unprepared or unable to provide optimal solutions for cancelled or affected trips. Over time, however, we were able to work with many of these operations – on behalf of our clients – to secure better solutions and improve offers. Patience pays!
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3. Being nice matters. When the shit really hits the fan, that is the time that you truly see the very best of people, and also the very worst. Luckily, the vast majority of our customers and clients were patient, nice and incredibly understanding throughout the pandemic, realizing that the world shutting down was not our fault nor the fault of the lodges or guides. The entire destination angling infrastructure took a devastating hit in 2020, and – unlike major airlines or cruise ship companies – there were no industry bail-outs. Every lodge, guide, outfitter and agent has been hurt by this, and for every one of you who was kind, patient and understanding in the face of cancelled trips and disrupted fishing plans, know that it was very much appreciated! (For the very small percentage of traveling anglers that were NOT nice, we’d love to send you some information on how to get involved in competitive bowling…)
4. Trip insurance can help, but it is important to understand the fine print and details. For years, trip insurance was the security blanket that promised to make things right if a fishing trip was cancelled
Quick and easy detailed information on all destinations at: www.yellowdogflyfishing.com
