I am reading hundreds of post these days written by people who are comprehensibly worried about their holidays. They are right. For some, journeys are a well-deserved achievement after a year of hard work, concerns, daily tasks and time spent to help others with a certain amount of personal sacrifice. There is nothing trivial, tough or mean-spirited in caring about a flight cancelled or the refund of a stay. In addition to the disappointment at a missed experience, a cancelled travel often entails an economical loss which has an impact on a family budget. This is not the time to recriminate or to yield to the dejection, we are living in unprecedented circumstances and everybody does his best to overcome the crisis and get back on track.

With different strategies and power of action, consumers, travel agents and operators, accommodations and transport companies are all trying to adapt to an undefined and uncertain scenario and to recover if possible the investments done so far.

Maybe it’s not yet time to make evaluations but in the tourism compartment, like in all other business sectors and in the private life of all of us, this emergency is apparently exposing dynamics which were concealed until recently beneath the dust, far from the look of people too busy, frustrated or harassed to pay any attention to them. 

Renowned reservation platforms as well as low cost transport companies owe most of their success to the immediacy of the services offered and to the substantial marketing strategies activated to promote their brands and transfer a message of stability and trustworthiness to the user. Setting considerations on the effective value for money of the services provided by these huge companies aside, everyone knows that low cost companies are actually raising their price lists by compelling travellers to purchase services parallel to tickets. We also know that the most famous booking portals apply heavy taxes which on the one hand inevitably increase the cost of accommodation and on the other do not safeguard in a really efficient and rapid way either the consumer or the accommodation facilities in case of controversies. 

Turning to local agencies and to operators who work on the place and are well-rooted in the territory represents a winning choice also in case of unpredictable events like the ones we are now living. If in normal circumstances the reservation of your stay, car hire or excursions directly with Greek operators means “just” encouraging the flourishing of local economy, getting advantageous conditions and starting to taste traditional Greek hospitality since the very start of your travel, today the presence of a well-defined and renown interlocutor on site means getting a prompt and effective assistance you concretely need. To rely on an agency like Kefalonia Living to mediate with local business grants personalised and well-studied proposals in the organisation of your travel and also clear communication, quickness and a conclusive solution in case of emergencies. 

Give your holiday a local dimension to make it a more responsible and conscious travel experience, support those who live tourism as a tradition and not only as a business and, last but not least, really get to know new places and cultures.