My dad was not a pool shark.
To be fair, he wasn’t a pool player at all.
But one Christmas, my brother and I got a pool table. And from that gift came a lesson that has stayed with me for more than 30 years.
My dad said, “Ryan, in pool, it’s not what you get. It’s what you leave.”
This morning, that lesson came rushing back.
Last week, a seasoned travel advisor sent me a note. No marketing language. No polish. Just a short subject line that said everything it needed to: Worldia to the Rescue.
What followed wasn’t a case study. It was a real-world reminder of what actually matters when travel doesn’t go as planned.
On Tuesday afternoon, the advisor received both an email and a phone call from Worldia flagging a looming pilot strike in Spain. At that moment, a family of four was scheduled to depart just two days later, on Thursday.
Instead of waiting for cancellations, airport chaos, or panicked client calls, Worldia went to work immediately.
They reprotected the family to depart a day earlier so they wouldn’t be stranded in Madrid. All the advisor had to do was present four options to the client. Worldia handled everything else.
Flights were rebooked.
An extra night in Porto was secured and covered.
Stress was removed from both the advisor and the traveler.
“This was, without question, the easiest rescheduling I’ve ever experienced with a tour operator.”
Thank you, Nadia, for making that possible.
And that’s when I heard that lesson again.
As travel retailers, this matters more than we often admit. We talk a lot about commission, margins, and top-line sales. But how often are we truly accounting for the entire transaction?
The time spent consulting.
The time spent booking.
The time spent delivering.
And critically, the time spent fixing things when something goes wrong.
In FIT and custom travel, disconnected bookings can quietly destroy profitability. In a scenario like the one above, if that trip had been booked as multiple transactions across multiple suppliers, the advisor would have absorbed hundreds of dollars in unpaid labor, and the client would have absorbed unnecessary stress.
That’s why the idea of the connected trip matters.
A connected trip is one combined transaction with one source of truth. It is facilitated by a technology platform optimized for speed and accuracy. It is delivered by a tour operator. And it is sold by a human being who truly understands the traveler’s needs and wants.
This structure unlocks hyper-personalization, service consistency, and reliable in-destination delivery.
The good news is that this ecosystem already exists.
Worldia has built it. They are delivering it at scale. And their NPS scores, on both the advisor and consumer side, would surprise and delight any stakeholder in travel.
In the travel industry, it’s not what you get. It’s what you leave.
You can be left with commission, or you can be left with trust.
You can be left with a booking, or you can be left with a relationship.
You can be left scrambling when things go wrong, or you can be left confident that someone has your back.
What we leave our clients matters.
What we leave ourselves matters too.
Time.
Peace of mind.
Profitability that isn’t quietly eroded by friction and fragmentation.
When trips are connected, advisors are protected.
When advisors are protected, travelers feel it.
And when travelers feel it, they come back, they refer, and they stay loyal.
That’s the difference between selling travel and delivering it.
It’s not what you get. It’s what you leave.
If this resonates with you as a travel advisor, reach out to the team at Worldia today.
US and Canadian agency owners, please direct all inquiries to Jonathan Boiria.
