05.04.12 News
Riding the retail wave for 50 years
Sophie Griffiths
INDEPENDENT AGENCY Dawson & Sanderson celebrated its 50th birthday last week with a huge holiday-themed event. This included Royal Caribbean’s FlowRider, dancers and tropical- themed catwalk, as part of a “Holiday Festival” which the company held in
Newcastle’s
biggest shopping centre. The agency even got retailers based in Eldon Square involved, including Boots, Lush and John Lewis, with the latter holding a catwalk show with models showing off holiday clothing. Boots and Lush used the
opportunity to showcase must-have travel and holiday beauty products. The three-day celebration was attended by a number of cruise lines including Royal Caribbean, Complete Cruise Solution and Fred Olsen, as well as Tui, Thomas Cook, Jet2,
Emirates and Newcastle airport. The company, which has 21 stores mainly around the north-east, took some 40 bookings from the event, and many more enquiries which it now hopes will lead to more bookings. General manager Nicola Spence described it as a “fantastic event” which reinforced the importance of the high street travel agent. “It went brilliantly. Customers
have come full circle – people are returning to the high street because they can trust us and talk face-to-
face,” Spence said. “You have to have that level of trust to keep your customers coming back to you time and time again.” The agency started in 1962 after Thomas Dawson wanted to book a holiday, but found there were no travel agents in Ashington. He went on to ask Colonel Sanderson, whose family supplied Dawson’s off licence with spirits, if he wanted to invest. The company has survived through tough times, which Spence said was down to relationships. “We are a trusted brand – lots of our staff have worked here for many years and we have strong relationships with our clients.”
Spence said the anniversary
event helped to strengthen client relationships further. “We had 10 agency staff there each day – it was busy and hard work, but worth it.”
From left: Dawson & Sanderson’s Leanne Liddle, Nicola Spence, Metro Radio Dance DJ Stu Smith, Karen Smith, and on the surfboard, Jo Cragie Time Travel
numbers down – more went abroad” Fewer people in Britain took a holiday away from home in 1961 but of those who did, a greater number – about 4.5 million, or one in seven – went abroad. There was a big swing towards holidays in May and June, a slight easing of the July-August peak, and less demand for September.
50
April 6, 1962
“Holiday
The percentage of Atol-holders not seeking to renew their licences had almost doubled, the CAA announced. Nearly 7% of operators holding licences had not reapplied by the March deadline compared with 3.5% the year before.
25 05.04.2012 07 The TTG archives: 50, 25 & 5 years ago
Agents faced being further cut out of mainstream package sales as Thomson overhauled its technology and easyJet and Ryanair geared up to dynamically package holidays. A new system was to be used by both Thomson and Ryanair to package flights and hotels to sell direct to consumers.
5 April 9, 1987
“Sharp rise in operators letting Atols lapse”
April 6, 2007
“Agents face fresh online onslaught”
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