5 2
Bevan tips Brits to view agents as a status symbol
Lee Hayhurst
lee.hayhurst@travelweekly.co.uk
Having a trusted travel agent will become as much of a status symbol as having a personal trainer, according to the former boss of pioneering online travel agency
lastminute.com.
John Bevan, who became
European chief executive at Gold Medal and Travel 2 parent dnata Travel last November, believes the UK market will follow trends he witnessed in the US. Prior to taking over at dnata,
Bevan was based in Miami where he ran specialist gift token firm Spafinder, while previously he had been consumer brands managing director at
lastminute.com for four years from 2004. Bevan tipped the UK market to
shift towards the US model, where clients look to agents, particularly homeworkers, to deal with the details of their booking. “Go to the US and talk to people,
even young people, about booking travel and they will say ‘I get my
agent to do that’. It’s the equivalent of having a personal trainer. “Independents and specialists
are doing amazing business, it’s incredible. A lot is driven by all the noise on the web. People don’t have the time to sift through the options. “The OTAs are all going after
market share; there is going to be a massive fight online. So the opportunity is to convert people trying to do it themselves online and being disappointed.” Bevan said figures from market
research firm Euromonitor suggested the rise of online in travel had plateaued and could even be turning back towards offline. Speaking ahead of a Travel
Weekly Business Breakfast, Bevan assured trade partners they had nothing to fear from the group’s B2C brands. Dnata Travel also owns Travelbag, Travel Republic, flights specialist Netflights and online discounter Sunmaster. Bevan said: “We compete
against them. Sometimes agents have a quote from one of them that
they want us to beat, and we will.” › Business, back pages
Agent risks £4.5k on Liverpool win
Juliet Dennis
juliet.dennis@
travelweekly.co.uk
If Liverpool football fans were nervous as their team nearly blew a four-goal lead in the Champions League semi-final, spare a thought for the owner of Myriad Travel.
Tiffany Woodley had just risked thousands of pounds chartering a flight for the final in Kiev – before Liverpool eventually clinched the tie against Roma lastWednesday. Woodley signed a deal with
JTA Travel at half-time during the second-leg match, at which point Liverpool were 7-3 ahead on aggregate and seemed a safe bet to go through. That was before they let in three late goals. However, the Reds clung on
John Bevan, dnata Travel
business breakfast
to win the tie 7-6 on aggregate, ensuring Myriad’s risk paid off, with the £830 return airfares selling out within hours. Woodley described watching the nail-biting semi-final as the most nerve-wracking moments of her career, having signed with JTA to charter the return flight.
Recalling Roma’s fightback,
she said: “It was sickening. I have never taken a risk like this in my business, but so many people were asking if we would do it. “We were just so relieved when
Liverpool won.” After the game Woodley, who is on the shortlist for Leisure Manager of the Year at this year’s Agent Achievement Awards, booked a second charter flight. The independent agency teamed
up with high street rival Crown Travel to split the sale of the 300 seats on the two flights. “The phones went crazy and it
was hard to keep on top of it all. It was unprecedented. We had tweets, Instagram and Facebook messages,” Woodley said. “We had so much fun and it
created a real buzz. People were saying ‘are you the girl who can pull white rabbits out of the hat?’” Woodley’s staff will be at
Liverpool airport on May 26 to send fans on their way with cookies, drinks and travel packs including wristbands with an
emergency number. › AAA shortlist, page 18
10 May 2018
travelweekly.co.uk 5 3 STORIES HOT
Tiffany Woodley (centre) with colleagues daughter Jess Matthews
(right) and Stephanie Winfield
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
