INSIDE THIS
WEEK Contents
NEWS Hot Stories
Laid-off Cook agents ‘will be snapped up’; Hays’ Just Go targets expansion; Search tool ‘key’ to Loveholidays’; Heapy urges agents to shun Tui and Cook; Agents can sell Jet2holidays on their sites
Round-up Hebridean awards; Reuben’s on TV
WIN! 08 Marella name ‘bold’; Tui apprenticeship 10
A place on the Gold Medal/ Travel 2 USA FAMtastic trip page 48
Special Reports MSC hosts agents on new ship Seaside 12 Jet2holidays Conference, Tenerife
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Freedom Travel Conference, Nottingham 16 Talk Back
21 Cook closures, Tui morale, P&O response
NEWS YOU CAN USE Product Travel The Unknown, Celebrity 25
Operator Premier Travel, Neilson, Saga 26 Cruise Pandaw, Saga, Princess, NCL Aviation BA, Primera, Blue Air, Level
FRONTLINE Comment Nikki White, Abta
28 32
04 A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
especially at this time of year. So I really feel for the 400 Thomas Cook staff who have
Great agents are in demand B
eing under consultation with the threat of losing your job must be extremely worrying and upsetting –
been told their jobs are at risk as the company announced 50 branch closures by March 2018. But as a former Thomas Cook employee writes on our
letters page today, there is light at the end of the tunnel. She went through a similar situation 11 years ago, moved
into homeworking – and has never looked back. And if anything, those displaced but highly-qualified staff hold the cards in the current market. I have lost count of the number of companies desperate
to find well-trained and experienced agents to join their homeworking organisations, or their expanding independent retail networks (page 4). You only have to read stories in Travel Weekly over the past few months to see that those who are made redundant should hopefully not be out of work for long. In the last few months alone, we have reported on Hays
Travel’s plans to open concessions in WHSmith across the country; The Travel Franchise’s intention to target existing agents, rather than new-to-travel members; Inspire’s search for 20 agents to work from home; Just Go’s plans to add further shops to its network; and the likes of Miles Morgan Travel taking on disgruntled ‘multiples’ staff anywhere in the UK and building a business around them. They may not be required anymore on those
high streets with too much competition and low footfall, but knowledgeable, experienced agents have never been in greater demand.
39
Readers’ Lives Francesca Barone, Brilliant 40 Caught on Camera Pictures of the week 44 Mystery Shopper Ipswich, Suffolk
54 DESTINATIONS
Greece & Cyprus Rhodes: History, beaches and mountains 57 Upselling: Add value and variety
61
FRONT COVER Craig Davidson, Jet2holidays; Tricia Rickerby, Cumbria Travel; Roy Baxter, Baxter Travel; Sandra Corkin, Oasis Travel; Alan Cross, Jet2holidays
Middle East Winter: Find the perfect winter-sun break 68
BUSINESS
Travolution Awards 2017 Top tech and 78 online companies honoured in London
WHAT
LUCY DID THISWEEK
Dec 7 1
2 3
Lucy Huxley Editor-in-chief @Lucy_Huxley
Joined agents on a whistle-stop tour to Trieste to see MSC Cruises’ newest ship, the very impressive MSC Seaside.
Ate my first turkey and sang my first carols of the festive season at the AWTE Christmas lunch, courtesy of Seabourn Cruises.
Watched on with pride as Aspire editor Hollie-Rae Brader launched The Wish List, the top 25 experiences picked by luxury agents.
7 December 2017
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