FRONTLINE
Travel Trust Association and chose them as our agency consortium. They give us weekly newsletters and updates and invite us to training events, which helps bolster the insight we get from our own network. Ironically, Cruise1st didn’t make me redundant when the furlough scheme ended in October 2021, so, to avoid a conflict of interest, I signed my third of the business over to my wife Lesley-Anne, although I’ve continued to work for Travel 1st. I have since left Cruise1st and work as a sales manager at IT services and consulting company Tech Mahindra during the day and Travel 1st in the evenings and at weekends.
LEE ASHTON
Manchester-based Lee set up Travel 1st in October 2020.
He spoke to Josie Klein about co-founding a travel agency during the pandemic
Q. What is your background in travel? I fell in love with the industry while working in a travel agency when I was young and living in Australia, and I have now worked in the sector for more than 10 years. My first UK travel job was at Expedia, then I moved to Cruise Club UK and then onto Tui, where I was lucky enough to win Leisure Agent of the Year at Travel Weekly’s Agent Achievement Awards in 2018. After that I moved to Cruise1st. I have always loved the industry because I enjoy talking to people and that’s what working in travel is all about.
Q. Why did you start your own company? I was furloughed by Cruise1st at the beginning of the pandemic and told I would be made redundant when the furlough scheme ended, so I began thinking about other options. I reached out to Lee Evans, a friend of mine and former colleague at Cruise1st, and we spoke about setting up our own agency. He got in touch with his friend Greg Barratt, who has a finance background, and the three of us created Travel 1st. We contacted the
24 12 MAY 2022
Q. What was it like starting a travel business during the pandemic? The whole experience has been a whirlwind with so many ups and downs. When we started, we targeted the network we already had from previous jobs to try and build our client base, and then we did some paid advertising on social media, which really boosted interest. We’ve been far busier than we expected so Lesley-Anne, a teacher, works for us in the school holidays and my 19-year-old stepdaughter helps with the paperwork. There’s no doubt that it has been hard work – none of us have taken a day off since we started in October 2020. The business is still very new so we all have other full-time jobs to avoid taking a wage at Travel 1st. Greg and Lee both work at Manchester airport, where Lee works days and Greg works nights. Greg covers the day shift at Travel 1st and then Lee and I take over in the evenings. Fortunately, most people email us instead of call, so we don’t always have to be readily available and can reply when we get a chance, which is always within the hour.
Q. How is your business developing? We created the company in June 2020, but didn’t start trading until the October of that year. Since then, we’ve booked trips for nearly 600 passengers, sold £1 million worth of holidays and our profit is going up every day so it’s looking really good. We have been thinking about opening a retail store, but the profit margins are small so we might hold off on doing that. The pandemic forced people to book holidays online and customers are seeing how easy it is so there is less of a demand for an in-store service. We still see many of clients face-to-face as we offer a mobile service to those who want it, so we still offer that in-person experience. In an ideal world I would make Travel 1st my full-time job, however, I would then need to take a wage and that would cut into our profit margin. I’ll put it off for as long as I can before I quit my day job, but if we get too busy at Travel 1st, I may have to rethink it.
Q. What would be your dream holiday? It has been a lifelong dream to go on the Inca Trail to see all the sights and then onto the Galapagos Islands – it’s a unique place in the world and so untouched.
WHAT MAKES YOUR BUSINESS UNIQUE?
We don’t just focus on
overseas travel, we also book trips to UK attractions, such as sporting events or theme parks, which was a great market during the pandemic when people couldn’t travel abroad. We really value repeat customers and think
it’s important to give people a reason to come back. For
example, if a customer books a trip with us, we’ll thank them with a bottle of wine or champagne depending on the value of the booking. We’d rather be personal and customer-friendly instead of behaving like a big business and sending loads of spam emails and losing that
personal touch. One of my good friends is Coronation Street actor Andy Whyment and he’s been booking his holidays through us. When he went on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, his social media following shot up to hundreds of thousands of people, so when he posts about Travel 1st on his stories they have a massive viewership. It’s an amazing way for us to get our name
out there, and even better that he’s enjoying the holidays we book for him and wants to share that with his fans.
Lee with friend and actor Andy Whyment
travelweekly.co.uk
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