When travel gets grounded open a Coffee bar!

In March 2020, as a speaker at Travel Marketplace in Vancouver, the talk was buzzing about the arriving situation of COVID 19. Who could have predicted at that moment just 19 months later we would have seen our bookings refunded and our businesses completely devastated with 100% total loss?

I have been in the travel business for over 15 years and never in my wildest nightmares would I have predicted this.

I had signed a lease for a beautiful new store front location in Fonthill in December 2019 ready to take possession on April 1st 2020 and we all know what happened on march 12th…

I sat, either at home by order of the government or in my lonely, very expensive store front after spending tens of thousands in fitting it out, and spent my days either changing or moving FIT or group reservations - often fully refunding trips without earning anything for the work being done to refund the clients. 

I decided to try to use my voice to help fellow travel agents  rebound and reboot their businesses. I was offering mentoring calls, blog posts and volunteer zoom calls to try to inspire people  to stay positive and to look at their business as a start up and to build back in a different way using their prior knowledge gained in the travel business but also embracing change that would help with the, so called “new normal”.  Trying to offer new ways to see things, new places to consider selling and new kinds of travel based on what people were looking for in the future of travel. 

On one of my webinars someone said after restaurants had been allowed to open for “take out only” that “There was no take out for travel agencies”.  I heard that and it got me thinking. I was still sitting in a beautiful space and as people were slowly starting to venture out onto the streets no-one was walking in my door and asking about travel. I am also the travel expert on Cityline TV in Canada and I was not even allowed to do any segments on travel due to the government advisory. 

With all this in mind I asked myself “How can I get people in through my door to even open a conversation about travel?” So I decided to open a coffee shop. 

Opening a Coffee shop

This may seem like a really crazy thing to do…after all by this time, April 2021 we were in a full blown catastrophic pandemic.. who in their right mind would open a new business? Especially a restaurant?  My plan, however, was much deeper than that. My goal was to inspire travel. I knew I would not become rich by fitting out my travel agency as an espresso bar but I wanted people to walk in.. To step inside and to buy a delicious coffee and to open a conversation that I would hope to eventually turn to a conversation about travel. So we set about with a plan.

The Build

I wanted the theme of the coffee bar to be travel so with the help of my partner we hand built the coffee bar out of reclaimed barn board, bought an espresso machine from Kijiji and designed several areas with travel themes. 

Behind the bar our menu was a “Departures” board and the place you pick up from was “Arrivals”. 

We built a British section complete with a luggage cart we found on the road abandoned near Toronto Airport. We cut it in half and mounted it to the wall to create a Harry Potter inspired Platform 9 3/4 at Kings cross station. Complete with vintage suitcases and even a vintage bird cage for the owl. 

Then we built a black and white awning for a Parisian cafe section and put a Parisian style bistro table set which again we found on marketplace. 

Next we headed to Asia for inspiration and built a Japanese Tori Gate out of reclaimed wood and painted it bright red, added rocks for a zen garden to finish the look. 

We sourced the coffee from two furloughed airline pilots in Guelph called “Lost Aviator” that turned coffee roasters and they designed out coffee exactly as we wanted it and we called it “Lost In Venice”. 

The Food  

Still keeping with the theme of travel our baked goods and lunch items were travel inspired. The idea was people would ask what a Banoffee pie was and we would tell them it was a British tradition and start to talk about travel to England. Or a Caprese sandwich with an Italian inspiration, a Sicilian Lemon Cheesecake or a French Clafoutis… all with designs to open a potential conversation about travel. At no point would travel be an opener or in anyway forced and we were certainly not asking “would you like a trip with that?“, but when people walked in, the travel theme was so obvious that the conversations often would naturally start about travel.  

Our menu board was like a signpost to different destinations around the world and each week we would change those destinations to obscureness so they would ask where is Bagan, or Cappadocia or Ubud? 

The Travel Coffee Club

In order to continue the global travel inspiration, one coffee cup at a time, and reach a wider audience than my home town I added a Global Coffee club to the business.  Each month we would deliver direct to the coffee lover a travel inspired box containing two bags of freshly roasted coffee - one our own blend  “Lost in Venice” and the other a single origin that we would choose based on travel experiences we can speak about for that origin. For example Peru : 

A single origin coffee from Peru would also include information about travel experiences in Peru. Gifts from Peru. Travel ideas, brochures and a call to action from the specific travel agent or Agency who sold the box. 

Each agent would either sell the box at a net rate and it is then delivered to the agency for them to personally deliver or commissionable at 15% delivered direct to the client and with only the specific agent “call to action”. This is a way to keep the dream of travel alive for agencies who usually engage with their clients through meetings and events especially corporate clients. Events that many large companies usually engage in such as Sports events and Golf days were not available so this was a great way to keep the clients engaged and still thinking about travel. 

Still Brewing Strong

So far the feedback has been fantastic.  The Pandemic Pivot is in full swing and working well. 

I have opened the Café and are now open for inside dining or take out. 

I am speaking about travel once again on TV giving me the opportunity to keep the dream of travel alive to a much wider audience. 

I have started making a video of the coffee shop pivot which we hope will be picked up by a network.. 

My travel business is bouncing back with more enquiries each day and even bookings for 2021 and beyond. 

Agents are loving bringing clients in to discuss travel. 

Agents are buying my Travel inspired subscription boxes for their clients, earning commission as well as keeping their own clients engaged.

I have also started personally travelling to personally share my own travel experiences to help the consumer feel more comfortable booking their own travel experiences. 

The future is certainly brighter now and the travel  will come back bigger and better than ever! 

www.Thetravelcafe.ca

www.lorrainesimpson.com  

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Nominated for an RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award