news trust in travel agents
An agency that has flourished where eight others have failed puts its success down to the virtues embodied in TTG’s Trust in Travel Agents campaign. Sophie Griffiths reports
‘It’s about adapting and doing what clients want’
KATY SAVVIDES never dreamed she would one day own the travel agency where she started working part-time in 1979, but 13 years later, along with her colleague Sonia Michaels, Savvides bought Sabra Travel in Edgware, north London. Since then business for Sabra
has remained strong, despite the agency never having adver- tised or marketed itself, and the demise of eight other travel agencies in the local area. “For us, it has been all about building and maintaining relationships with customers and adapting the business to market conditions,” Savvides says. “Our whole ethos is that we are never out of
reach from the customer. They can call and speak to Sonia or I at any time.” Savvides originally began working three days a week at Sabra, which had been started in 1972 by Greta Mar- shall and Gerald Noskeau. Initially the company focused on retail travel, but in 1982 Savvides received a call from a friend enquiring about whether the agency arranged business trips. “I’m not one to ever say no,” she says. The agency also branched out into the meetings, incen- tive, conference and exhibi- tions market in 1995 after one of the firm’s business clients called up and asked if it would be able to arrange a conference.
“I called a friend who worked in this area, and asked how we would go about doing it,” con- tinues Savvides. “We’ve since put on shows that have been at- tended by anywhere from 800 to 2,000 people, in the UK and abroad.” However, she adds that this side of the market has started to “dwindle”. “It goes in peaks
and troughs,” she says. “We will keep focusing instead on business and retail travel. They tend not to all dip at once.” In the current climate Savvides says the cus- tomer largely wants security. “We’ve noticed an increase in people coming back to us for security reasons – they like to know there is someone there for them after the tsunami and ash cloud. “During the ash cloud crisis we all had our mobiles on 24/7 and we helped get peo- ple home who were stuck all over the world, from LA to the Canary Islands. One family – a grandfather, mother and young children – were stranded in the Canaries and I got them on a flight to Madrid and then sorted out a hotel and put them on the first flight out when the air- ports opened. Since then they have come and booked with us again.”
Katy Savvides: forging relationships
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14 26.11.2010
The close relationships which Sabra has forged with its clientele mean it is also ac- tive in the local community. “We sponsor a lot of indi-
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trustintravelagents.com Email:
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North London’s Sabra Travel has been trading since 1972
viduals because we know all our customers, and we donate prizes for raffles at the local syna- gogue and Greek Orthodox Church.” This link to the community is clearly successful for business – around 90% of the firm’s trade is done through repeat customers. “We treat them as friends,” Savvides says, “we’re all on first- name terms, and our business spreads by word of mouth.” For Savvides, the service and value are why
TTG’s Trust in Travel Agents campaign is so significant. “There is too much publicity about how people can do things cheaply if they do their own thing. They need to remember that service and security are important and that agents are often more successful in putting things together cost-effectively.”
TTG’s trusted travel agents
Shop name: Sabra Travel
Owners: Katy Savvides and Sonia Michaels Location: Edgware, Middlesex Number of staff: Six
Specialist areas: Cruise, Israel, conferences, business travel
What makes it special? 38 years’ old and with staff who have worked hard to maintain close relationships with local clients, Sabra believes its success is down to adapting to market changes. It continues to flourish despite the closure of eight local travel agencies.
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