Sarah Weetman U


head of trade sales, Travelsphere


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With less than a month to go to this year’s AAAs, we catch up with Travelsphere’s Sarah Weetman, who will be attending the awards for the 10th time


Q. The AAAs are the biggest travel agent awards in the UK. What have you been doing this year to improve your relationship with the trade? A. With travel trade bookings for Travelsphere at an all-time high, the escorted touring brand has more than doubled the size of its trade sales team. We now have our key account managers out and about all over the country to ensure we support our trade partners every step of the way. We also have a trade sales marketing team in place, who can respond efficiently to our trade partners and make it even easier for them to sell the right products to their customers. This year, we created a specialist team in our headquarters to handle bookings from our trade partners. Along with the dedicated team, we have a free priority phone number, so calls from agents are answered by a specialist team member who can promptly handle a booking or provide support as required.


Q. Why are agents so important to your business? A. Agents are key to the success of our business;


their experience and knowledge is unrivalled. Our trade partners understand our touring holidays and know exactly what customers are looking for in terms of experiences and destinations.


Q. The 2019 awards have some new categories. Which is the most exciting for your company? A. It must be the Atas Ambassador Award, which will go to the agent that sees the opportunities in the touring business and helps to grow the market. We are a dedicated supporter of Atas and are confident that through the agents’ commitment, the escorted touring market will go from strength to strength.


Q. What’s been the big news at your company in the last year? A. The exciting news has been the growth of our trade sales team, driven by the unprecedented growth we are seeing for our escorted touring holidays. I must also mention the expansion of our Travelsphere Cares programme. We believe in taking care of the communities that we visit and changing people’s lives through travel.


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