MARCH 2023

TRAVEL
Fly Me Away
Travel boom continues despite high prices and poor service
BY PAUL NATINSKY
Rumors of the travel industry’s
decline based on pandemic
fears, high airfare prices and
poor, undertrained workers are vastly
overstated. In fact, travel is back at
record levels for 2023 and beyond, despite
the aftereffects of COVID.
Boom
“It’s out of control. People are like, ‘I’ve
got a get out of jail free card and I’m
going because I don’t know when they
are going to put me back in jail,’” said
David Fishman of Cadillac Travel Group
in Royal Oak. He said the “fear factor”
for leaving the state and the country
has been greatly reduced. He is now
booking people for Italy, Iceland, South
America, Costa Rica and Spain.
“it’s a bright future to be honest
with you. I have been in business over
30 years. Now it’s non-stop and I think
it’s going to be busier and busier,” said
Amira Bajoka of Rena Travel & Tours
in Sterling Heights.
At the same time, prices are going
up. “It’s not like before when you
used to have bargains,” said Bajoka.
“(Airfare) to California that was $300
and $400, which we used to think
is too much, now is $500 and $600.
Iraq before the pandemic in January,
February, March we had a special for
around $600 or $700, now minimum
is $1,370.”
“(2023) is going to be a recordbreaking
year for every aspect of the
travel industry,” said Fishman. “The
airlines are going to make so much
money they don’t know what to do
with it because they are charging astronomical
amounts of money; hotels
are coming back with a vengeance so
you’re going to see higher prices there,
but service levels are coming down
because of the lack of employees or
trained employees.”
Fits & Starts
The timeline for recovery featured a
“bouncing effect,” said Fishman. In
January 2021, the COVID vaccine was
just coming out. People could get a vaccine
and start traveling. “Then the CDC
said you can travel but you have to get
a test to get back in the country, so then
people did an about face and began
cancelling all their plans again. That
all happened in January 2021 and killed
the first half of 2021,” said Fishman.
“By 2022, the dust started to settle.”
Until the tests to get back into the
country were completely lifted, some
people wouldn’t leave the country.
Other people said, “forget it, I’m traveling
anyway.” Things began picking
up at the beginning of 2022 and in the
second half of 2022, things started to
get really busy, said Fishman.
Darkest Before the Dawn
Fishman has been in the travel industry
for 40 years and gone through
9/11, the internet travel boom, and
the economic downturn of 2007/2008.
“I’ve been through it all and this is like
nothing I’ve ever seen before. I do not
know how I survived it, to be honest
with you.” He said most travel agencies
are gone.
Bajoka said the aftermath of 9/11
was harder on her agency than COVID.
“Two weeks with nothing but refunds,
refunds, refunds. This one (COVID)
they did not give refunds, but gave a
credit. So, when they come back, people
have to travel because they have a
credit in their hands.
36 CHALDEAN NEWS MARCH 2023