TORONTO — For so many travel advisors, their profession is a dream job. But not for all, and after 22 years as a travel advisor, Lise Archambault says she’s leaving the industry – and sharing with Travelweek her reasons why. The veteran advisor of Ottawa-based Algonquin Travel & Cruise Centre – TravelPlus tells Travelweek she’s overworked and exhausted.
She made the decision to retire this November and she’s not looking back. As retail travel grapples with a labour shortage, fuelled in part by the retirement of experienced – and often burned out – travel advisors, Archambault’s imminent departure is a cautionary tale for the industry. She tells Travelweek that she’s tired of having to fix things for clients, whether that means dealing with flight cancellations or flight delays or cruise port changes, all of which are common occurrences in a post-Covid world.
It wasn’t always like this, says Archambault, recalling her start in the industry at the age of 17, working in the sales department at a major hotel in downtown Ottawa. In 1979, she was then hired as a clerk in the cargo department of a major airline, eventually working her way up to the law branch in Montreal. She returned to Ottawa to become a travel and tourism instructor at a private college and, in the early aughts, she made the leap to become a full-time independent travel advisor, spending the last 18 years at her current agency.
Over the course of two decades, she’s accumulated countless ch.
