Raise your hand if your recent travel plans have worked out as planned. No one? Predictable. There is only one conclusion: Our travel-happy industry is, perhaps more than others, being severely plagued by the myriad inconveniences of the travel sector.
In Germany, it starts with the number one cause of travel chaos: Deutsche Bahn, the national rail system, and its subsidiaries, the regional S-Bahn trains. Strikes by train drivers, employees in essential roles out sick, the train ahead is late, the track is occupied, the train driver overslept—or needs to take a break upon arrival. And then comes Lufthansa, the national carrier, which struggles with service problems.
But the problems aren't confined to Germany. With many airlines, connecting flights are planned with at least two to three hours of layover. Once-reliable companies now reportedly have extraordinarily high delay and cancellation rates and are competing with some railways for the worst customer service.
Traveling is a crucial part of the job for wine merchants, producers, consultants, and even journalists.
The wine industry is a travelling industry. While some sales from wineries and cellars happen on-site, production and sales locations are not generally the same. Diversification was a smart strategy long before COVID-19, meaning: go out into the world, open markets, convince new customers—resulting in waiting at train stations and airports. This has become increasingly difficult for many in recent months and years. Timely arrivals can no longer be relied upon.
But travelling is often not an end in itself. It's not a leisure activity, not a nice break to finally tackle that long-neglected book. Travelling is a crucial part of the job for wine merchants, producers, consultants, and even journalists. Arriving late means missing important appointments with buyers, sellers, or interviewees, possibly missing them entirely and having to reschedule the trip.
The frustrating part isn't even the costs incurred. It's not (only) the business damage that goes beyond the increased travel costs when appointments arranged with key players after long preparations evaporate with a single push notification: "Your flight to [destination] has been canceled." Such appointments cannot be rescheduled easily. Weeks or months will pass again, and then comes setting up a new meeting, booking flights, trains, and hotels. Clearly, as a victim of flight or train disruptions, you're not directly at fault. Still, the trust of the potential partner does not increase with last-minute cancellations.
Yet the perpetrators of these problems remain unaffected. Overwhelmed agents on hotlines offer no solutions. Long queues result in hours of waiting, only to receive the final travel verdict: next flight available tomorrow. Compensation? An unfamiliar term for travel companies.
Only the on-site experience can authentically convey the spirit of the product.
So, what to do? If you ask me, there’s only one answer: avoid the worst companies and make it public. This isn't always possible, not for everyone, not on every route, not at any price. But booking certain companies less frequently, opting for buses, trying different airlines etc. Yes, it feels like we’re at the mercy of big companies—but even a small industry like ours can contribute to weakening these (supposed) dependencies. Because wine is a global product, and only the experience on-site, in the vineyard, in the cellar, in the restaurant or brasserie, can authentically convey the spirit of the product. Poorly managed large corporations should not be allowed to ruin this for us.