easyJet holidays
Q. EasyJet holidays is a sponsor of next week’s Agent Achievement Awards. Given last year’s awards were cancelled due to Covid, how important is this year’s event on the travel industry calendar? Very important, not just because it’s one of the first in-person events in the calendar but because we want to recognise the travel trade as we start coming out the other side of the toughest period the industry has ever faced. We jumped at the chance to be a sponsor of this year’s awards.
BRAD BENNETTS head of distribution, easyJet holidays
Q. The AAAs are the biggest travel agent awards in the UK. How important is the channel to easyJet holidays, and what have you been doing to strengthen trade relationships during the pandemic? From the moment easyJet holidays launched in 2019, there was always a commitment to working with the trade. We only launched our trade arm in August 2020 and we’ve been blown away by the response and support, especially against the backdrop of what the industry has faced, so we’re really pleased with what the channel has achieved. We now have more than 3,000 agents on board and we’re really focused on becoming the most trusted travel company and the operator of choice for the trade when booking a package holiday. It’s been exceptionally important for our industry to stick together, so we’ve really focused on supporting our trade partners over the past year. We’ve offered extensive training and upskilling, incentives, a commission uplift and trade exclusive offers. We’ve also increased the headcount of our live sales-support team, and evolved the processes for refunds and cancellations to make our agent partners’ lives easier. We’ve also recognised that agents have had challenges
beyond what we’ve faced as a tour operator, so we’ve been really focused on offering them flexibility and solutions.
Q. With Covid travel rules and protocols becoming more complicated, how important are agents in helping easyJet holidays make those vital sales? We know agents can attract a different type of customer, and that they are brilliant ambassadors and expert holiday advisers to our mutual customers. Travel agents certainly have a very important place in the industry. We recognise the value they provide for holidaymakers who want to book a break with someone they trust – something which is more important now than ever. We’re seeing strong demand through the trade, particularly for next summer. We know customers want to travel and that families, in particular, are booking through agents at the moment. EasyJet holidays is still new and growing, so the future for us and our trade partners is really exciting.
Q. Pandemic aside, what has been the big news at easyJet holidays since the last Agent Achievement Awards in July 2019? A lot, most notably our trade launch itself in August 2020! Our distribution team was born and there are now two of us in-house with 26 live sales agents supporting our trade partners, and we are recruiting for another two members to join the in-house team. Last month, we made sure to mark our trade anniversary as we’ve been very proud of what we’ve achieved with our partners over the past year. We launched some incentives and competitions for our agents and used the anniversary as an opportunity to encourage holidaymakers to book with their local agent. In the last year we’ve hosted thousands of agents on
agentachievementawards.co.uk
Brad Bennetts
Brad Bennetts
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