Global Travel Group round-table: Travel Weekly spoke to agency owners at the Global conference about their successes and the challenges they face. Lee Hayhurst reports from Dubai


CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Richard Elvin, Wendy Slack and Issy Wiggins-Turner


Global agents find success with H


ow have small independent travel agents survived the


threat of the internet, shocks such as 9/11 and the 2004 tsunami, and the recent economic downturn? That’s what Travel Weekly


asked a diverse group of agents at the recent Global Travel Group conference in Dubai. Some had decades of


experience running successful local travel agencies; others had recently joined the industry. Not all agreed about the future of the independent sector. But there was a shared sense of pride in the service and value that they offer customers. And for some there was hope that a new generation of customers, brought up knowing only the minimal-service world of low cost flying and cheap web deals, will rediscover the value of an agent. Richard Abery, of Spitfire


Travel, said: “Although the internet is still growing, I also think a lot of people, because it’s so easy to make a mistake, are coming back to travel agents. “Sometimes they disagree on


price, but I do not discount. I explain the advantages of doing it that way and nine times out of 10 they book.” Escape Worldwide’s Darren


Vurnum said his agency was having its best period for a decade, earning 13% average commission. He described his firm as neither a web business nor a high street store as it does not have a shopfront or a bookable website. “The internet is my shop


window,” said Vurnum. “We have to be more credible because there are so many untrustworthy people out there.”


tap into local networks as a trusted brand more easily than the big corporate players. Two new agents, Lisa


McGovern, who started her business Holiday Explorer a year ago with the proceeds from selling her restaurant, and Infinite Travel’s Emma Casburn, said they use Facebook. McGovern, who said she


“Although the web is still


growing, a lot of people, because


Social media Facebook is an increasingly important way of building credibility, added Vurnum, who posts pictures of his staff all over the world. While he admitted it wasn’t necessarily driving business, social media does seem to be playing an important role for many small travel agents, who are able to


34 travelweekly.co.uk 16 June 2016


always had a yearning to work in travel and once turned down a role with BA, specialises in weddings and honeymoons and picks up businesses at wedding fairs. “I have some


it’s so easy to make a mistake, are coming back to agents”


anything.” Casburn, who set up as a


homeworker two years ago having previously taught English as a foreign language, said she believes a stint in an established agency would have helped.


really good times and then it goes quiet,” she said. “I


have always had


my own business and I thought if I can


run a restaurant I can do “In retrospect I would have


worked for another agency, like a Trailfinders,” she said. “I had never sold anything


so it would have been good being in an office and hearing how people sell. Then again, people say I have an open view on things and haven’t been led down a particular path.”


The importance of personalised service Partners Kevin Whiting and Issy Wiggins-Turner of Goeasy Travel also have an interest in an estate agency and say there are synergies. Whiting said: “People do look for more service than just walking in and saying ‘book me a holiday to Benidorm’.” Wiggins-Turner said she had


survived a lot during her time as an agent, including the big shocks to the industry posed by the tsunami of 2004 and the 9/11 terror attacks in the US. “I kept on brainstorming and changing,” she said. “When the Twin Towers happened, I specialised in weddings and honeymoons. When things got tough again in 2007-08 I scaled it right down


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76