A DAY WITH... MILES MORGAN TRAVEL
Juliet Dennis visits the staff at MILES MORGAN TRAVEL in Wells, Somerset, one of the miniple’s best- performing shops, which recently scooped the Agent Achievement Award for best large agency in southwest England and south Wales
From checking whether a chinchilla cat needs a signed export certificate, to receiving weird and wonderful gifts from clients, it’s all in a day’s work. The staff at Miles Morgan Travel have
already received hugs from regulars and a giant bar of Toblerone within an hour of opening the shop. The agency, located at the top end of the
high street near the famous Wells Cathedral, is a hive of activity. According to manager
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
MARGARET MOULTON, MANAGER I’ve been in travel since . . . I was 18. I worked
in various roles until 2002, when three of us opened Cathedral City Travel. In 2010, we sold to Ambassador Travel and when that closed, Miles Morgan Travel bought us. My favourite destinations are . . . China and Egypt If I hadn’t become a travel
agent . . . I would have been an archaeologist. I always fancied being Indiana Jones.
MARIA MILLARD, TRAVEL SPECIALIST I’ve been a travel consultant
since . . . 2010. I was 49 when I started in travel, but I’ve always worked in sales. If you can sell, you can sell anything. You just need to know the product you’re selling.
My favourite destinations are . . . Vietnam and Cambodia. My biggest challenge is . . . when you can’t find what clients are looking for within their budget. If I hadn’t become a travel agent I would have been . . . an air hostess. My most unusual booking . . . was a man who wanted a holiday within an hour’s drive of his house because he took his parrot with him, and it got car sick and threw up if he went any further.
Margaret Moulton, this is a normal day. “We have a ball here most of the time; we laugh a lot but there are also days I want to throw my computer out of the window!” says Margaret, who has just been given a large bar of Toblerone by the grateful cat owner. She adds: “The most unusual thing I was
given was a whole salmon. I booked my clients on a holiday to Canada. They caught the salmon and brought it back for me. I don’t even like fish!”
CHANGING TIMES Margaret, otherwise known as ‘mother goose’ for looking after her staff and training many of the company’s newcomers, worked with two of her team under the agency’s previous owners, and even worked in the premises when it was a Bakers Dolphin, 15 years ago. Owner Miles Morgan bought the agency,
at the time Cathedral City Travel, after Ambassador Travel, which acquired it in 2010, went into administration in January 2013. Margaret and travel specialist Maria Millard
remember the fateful day the company collapsed. “The owner rang and said: ‘The business can’t go on’,” recalls Margaret. “He told me to lock the door. It was horrible, but the public was supportive. After that, we worked from my kitchen table and delivered tickets to people’s homes.
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travelweekly.co.uk 25 August 2016
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