Like all travel agents, including her fellow personal travel managers (PTMs), TravelManagers’ Kerrin Poupos, representative for Warragul in Victoria, worked tirelessly through the first half of this year to bring clients home, cancel or postpone future bookings and generally redress the chaos created by COVID.
Now Kerrin has shifted her focus to rebuilding her business with a greater domestic focus, and a fresh mindset that’s all about growth, learning and reigniting her passion for the industry and career she has loved for more than sixteen years.
“It has been a tough year for agents,” she says. “Back in April and May, it just hit me like a wave that our whole world was crashing down around us – to be honest I was really struggling for quite a few weeks. Then I decided it was a case of sink or swim, so I started to think about what I could do to rebuild and get back to what I love: selling travel.”
Kerrin says she began by focusing on product training, working her way through the steady stream of suppliers’ emails which in the past she says she had always skimmed over. She also worked with TravelManagers’ marketing team, learning how to improve her website and create her own e-newsletters whilst researching product, working with suppliers and putting together her own packages to offer to clients.
“I love hiking, so I have developed and printed my own brochure on Aussie walking tours. I am also working on my own personal newsletters, the first of which went out to clients last week showcasing a variety of amazing Aussie travel experiences.
“It’s been a lot of work, and I still dedicate one day a week to marketing and training, but it’s working,”
Kerrin adds, thrilled to report that she has taken a steady number of bookings in recent months including a variety of walking tours and cruise holidays within Australia and, bookings in anticipation of international borders reopening some time in 2021.
Like many of her fellow PTMs, Kerrin is grateful for the ongoing support of her clients, many of whom she says call her regularly to check in.
“Many of my clients have become friends over the years, thanks to a mutual love of travel and many shared experiences. For now, it’s lovely to meet up for coffee or lunch and a chat, but I know that once the borders open, many of them are itching to book their next holiday!”
IMAGE: TravelManagers’ representative for Warragul, VIC, Kerrin Poupos (second left) hiking the Bay of Fires in Tasmania, March 2020
