P18-19 HAYS apr10 6/4/09 17:20 Page 18
news conference report
ttglive.com
Hays IG Conference
April 1, 2009 ■ Birmingham
Hays Travel’s Independence Group gathered
MULTIPLES.
last week for its annual UK conference.
Big two ‘now even
Rupert Murray reports from Birmingham
less like indies’
THE GULF between independent agents and
agents who work for the big two is wider than
ever, according to Hays Travel boss John Hays.
Speaking to his Independence Group members
he said: “Thomas Cook and Thomson are not
pretending to be travel agents any more because
they sell only their own product.
“They are not real agents like us, but I have no
doubt their model will work for them. But the
people who work in their shops are less like inde-
pendent agents than ever; they are told what to
sell and are part of the distribution network.”
Hays said he believed the move from a big four
to a big two had merely widened the distinction.
“When it was the big four they also tended to
sell trips belonging to one of the other players,”
Independence Group agents made an “astonishing” 26% more sales in March than last year, the conference heard he added. “But now with just two main players
they are far less likely to sell each other.”
Hays hails mighty March
HAYS TRAVEL’s Independence Group members was going to be at the start of the year. If you
are flourishing despite the recession, the had offered me March’s figures back then I would
conference was told. have taken your hand off.
In March, the group’s 130 independent agents “There is no doubt that the IG group has
had 20% more customers, saw the value of sales outperformed the market and I am cautiously John Hays with IG members
rise 26% and earned 19% more commission optimistic.
compared with the same month last year. “And with iSell Flexisearch soon to be in place
Group founder John Hays hailed the figures I believe things will continue to improve.”
COMMISSION.
as “astonishing”, especially in the context of a Flexisearch is the next development for the
DIY sales outpay packages
market which he estimated at being between group’s iSell system, which will offer agents
10% and 15% down. expanded search and filter options. SALES OF dynamically packaged holidays earn
The positive trading in March eclipsed Hays’ trading figures were revealed at Hays agents about five percentage points more
January and February, but Hays said even those the Hays IG conference last week, which Hays in commission than package deals.
months outperformed the market. declared a “total success”. Traditional package sales commission levels
In January, passengers were down 0.65%, “This group is full of innovation and for January, February and March were 9.3%,
but value of sales up 2.2% and commission enthusiasm, and it reinvigorates me when I 9.2% and 8.6% respectively.
down 1.33% year-on-year, while in February, spend time with them,” he said. But for bookings of dynamically packaged
passengers were down 8.53%, value of sales “The feedback and suggestions from the holidays, Hays Travel agents earned an average
down 0.1% and commission up 0.6%. members have been invaluable and they seem of 13.5%, 12.2% and 14.1% respectively.
In those first two months of the year, Hays to have taken a lot from the day – it really is a In the first three months, the share of personal
estimated the market was down by 20% to 30%. two-way street, with us learning as much from travel consultants’ sales that were dynamically
He added: “I am a lot happier than I thought I them as they do from us.” packaged were 52.5%, 64.5% and 56.9%.
18 10.04.2009
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