Targeting Travelers With Special Needs: Agents Can Earn Loyal Repeat Customers And Do Good

Travel agents may be intimidated the first time a traveler with special needs approaches them to book a trip. But Jim Smith, a longtime travel industry veteran helping serve this market, encourages agents to look past that initial fear, and instead envision a growing loyal customer base. And he will be leading a breakout session at TMR’s Travel MarketPlace in Toronto, June 13, to help them do just that.

“This is the first time to bring the message of special needs travelers at this level to the Canadian travel agency community,” said Smith, CTIE, who runs his own firm, Business Accelerator from West Palm Beach, FL., but also is a consultant with the Special Needs Group. “We’re very excited.”

Smith’s session is a combination of lecture and interactive discussion, to be followed up the next morning with the opportunity for agents to take their learnings and become accredited to serve the special needs market.

For agents pursuing their CLIA certification, Smith’s Special Needs training is the only program authored by a third party to offer five credits for CLIA’s ACC and MCC certifications.

“I think we’ll get a very similar reaction as we did in the states when we unveiled certification five years ago,” he said. “We hear a lot at trade shows for agents that people struggle to book an accessible traveler’s needs. Usually it’s eye-opening for agents to understand the size and scope of the special needs market. They have a hard time wrapping their head around the fact that 20% of the adult population fit this definition. They will become a lot more knowledgeable and confident about serving the market after Travel MarketPlace.”

The first thing agents need to do is get educated, Smith noted; “agents sell what they know.” Then “just make a conscious effort with every client interfaceto ask, ‘Does anyone have accessibility requirements?’ Agents then start to find this new loyal clientele.”

Smith has been working with people with disabilities since he was 20 years old, and moderating panel discussions and presenting at travel conferences for about 15 years now. He started consulting with the Special Needs Group in 2011, and has helped it certify more than 3,300 travel agents. Today he is asked to speak at conferences and host webinars about 100 times a year.

Agents have a lot of assistance in serving this market today, Smith said. For example, the Special Needs Group is an organization specifically designed to assist this market, and has a group to assist travel agents where they don’t feel comfortable making recommendations or finding resources.

“The most important thing we want to impress on the audience is that they are not medical professionals. They are travel professionals. If they need to go beyond a traveler’s basic needs, we’ll call the client for the agent and work with them. Then, we will call the travel agent and let them know what we booked, what their commission is, etc.,” he said. “So on one side, the awareness, the technology, the equipment has gotten a lot slicker, making accessible travel more available to more people.”

The United States is the only country that has laws requiring private and public entities to make places accessible to those with special needs; such laws don’t exist in the Caribbean or Mexico. “But places like Barbados are doing well, and the World Travel Organization has special needs travel on the agenda this year.”

At the same time, the growing number of active Baby Boomers is emboldened to take advantage of this technology and the different services travel suppliers are offering, he added.

“We’re seeing an attitudinal shift with Baby Boomers,” he said. Where their previous generation tried to hide disabilities and would not use a wheelchair, for example, today’s active Boomers “say ‘let’s go,’ and that means they need well-trained travel agents to help them navigate their options.”

Smith hopes Travel MarketPlace attendees are emboldened to expand their horizons coming away from the conference. Returning home, attendees can participate in an optional module, with four pre-recorded travel scenarios, to further test their newfound knowledge.