Collette Prepares for July 1 Return to Travel

As demand for travel has been steadily increasing, travel companies worldwide are preparing to resume operations while keeping guests as safe and healthy as possible.

In order to ensure guest’s wellbeing and restore confidence in guests’ travel plans, Collette, the international tour operator, introduced its Travel Well program, which implements health and safety policies to safeguard guests and employees before Collette officially resumes service on July 1.

In order to discuss the changes that will be in place, Collette president, Jaclyn Leibl-Cote, spoke to TMR to let travelers and advisors know what they can expect when operations restart.

“On May 15 we actually rolled out our travel well program,” said Leibl-Cote. “We consulted with health experts and used recommendations from the World Health Organization, and the CDC to make sure that everything we do for our employees and travelers is safe.”

The Travel Well initiative comprises a series of measures to protect travelers throughout their journey.

“We have up to 50% empty seats just to make sure social distancing is taking place. Face coverings will be provided for all travelers, along with hand sanitizer, which will be widely available throughout the tour experience.”

Prior to their travels, guests will be required to complete a pre-tour wellness declaration, confirming they aren’t sick, and have not come into contact with anyone showing COVID-19 symptoms. The company will also provide private sedan service to and from the airport.

“We’ll also have pre-tour health declarations for all guests that will be given to our tour managers on the day of arrival, making sure everyone is healthy and not showing symptoms of cold, fever, or COVID-19,” said Leibl-Cote.

They will also put travel tour managers on a rotating schedule to further ensure they don’t accidentally infect any guests. “Individual tour managers will operate tours 14 days apart to further mitigate the risk of unknowingly spreading the virus. We just want to be proactive, and from a consumer confidence standpoint, I think that’s important.”

She said that Collette’s real strength was the tour managers and in-destination suppliers that are ready and equipped to assist guests if they exhibit any health issues.

“We’ve been working closely with vendors and all of our suppliers globally, and we’ve been gathering intel on destinations to ensure the highest level of cleanliness and compliance. [Our tour managers] are trained, even prior to this pandemic, to be able to help any guests who shows symptoms of anything in any country they might be in,” said Leibl-Cote.

“Tour managers will also be equipped with additional face covers, gloves, sanitizers, and body temperature scanners.”

Collette has been tracking trends and government restrictions on a regular basis to monitor the constantly changing situation. And while there are signs that the COVID-19 outbreak could flare up again in different destinations, Leibl-Cote said she was very optimistic about the prospect of future travel again.

“We’re seeing [a resurgence in virus cases] in China right now, but we’re tracking and modeling from a bunch of different sources to really evaluate the trends and travel data.”

“2021 is looking very strong. In the last couple of weeks we’ve seen a lot of new booking activities and that’s starting to exceed the rebookings,” said Leibl-Cote. “That’s a positive sign that people are definitely starting to look forward. They definitely have the desire, but they’re planning for next year just so they can have the added reassurance to see if a vaccination is forthcoming.”

“Travelers are resilient, and people I’ve talked to really want to be positive and be aspirational about what the future hold and getting back out there,” said Leibl-Cote. “We just have to keep doing our due diligence to make sure we’re making the right decisions, and ultimately make it as safe an experience as possible.”