NEWS


Tailor Made targets cruisers across the UK


Samantha Mayling


Tailor Made Travel plans to expand its cruise business nationally after acquiring the database of cruise clients from Edwards Coaches. The expansion will be led by


Andrew Jeans who joined last month and will be the Welsh agency chain’s first head of sales for cruise. Jeans will establish two new


brands for the agency: Cruise Club by Tailor Made Travel for mainstream cruising and Cruise Club Elite for the luxury end of the market.


Tailor Made Travel’s shop-based


agents can take calls from customers across the UK and the agency hopes the initiative can grow to include homeworkers. Cruises will initially be promoted


on social media and via email, with customers offered the option to chat over the phone or via Zoom. Simon Morgan, chief executive


of the 20-branch agency, said the database – acquired for an undisclosed sum – has about 5,000 clients, including 92 bookings with collapsed ex-UK specialist cruise line


Andrew Jeans will head up cruise brands


Cruise & Maritime Voyages. “We have a significant database


and we are helping a local business that is changing its structure to concentrate on coach tours,” he said. “The market is deflated at the moment, but that’s not to say clients won’t be cruising again.” Cruises account for 15%-20% of


Tailor Made Travel’s revenue, Morgan said. He added that Edwards Coaches can work with Tailor Made Travel to operate coach transfers for clients to reach UK cruise ports. Tailor Made will also deal with


cruises affected by the CMV collapse. Morgan hopes the clients will become new customers for his agency. “Cruises will come back, people


are still booking for next year,” said Jeans, who has previously worked for P&O Cruises and Tui, as well as Edwards Coaches where he was cruise product manager. “This is a chance to grow our brand.” As well as exiting the cruise


market, Edwards Coaches has closed its three agencies in south Wales as it restructures and focuses on its core coach business.


Hays Travel ‘acted to protect jobs’ Lucy Huxley


Hays Travel took on government contracts to keep staff with no work during the Covid-19 crisis in employment, the agency has said. Following national newspaper


reports at the weekend, the UK’s largest independent agency said it had “proactively looked for other ways to keep everyone going”. In a statement in response to


questions from Travel Weekly, it said: “In the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, we could see our industry facing crisis and we decided to be very proactive in trying to secure work for our people. We’ve tried everything in our power to protect the jobs of all of our staff. We had 3,000 retail staff working from


travelweekly.co.uk


home throughout lockdown helping customers, but others who had no work to do so we were proactively looking for other ways we could keep everyone going.” Hays Travel invited staff to come


up with ideas for cost savings at the start of lockdown. The statement explained that one employee who previously worked at a ‘service centre’ suggested Hays could support that centre because it “didn’t have enough skilled staff”. Due diligence was carried out


“to establish Hays Travel’s qualifications and robust processes” before Hays Travel bid for the work via “a formal competitive process”, the statement said. It added: “We don’t have


contracts direct with government


and Trace, and that all work carried out by Hays Travel employees did not require any medical expertise or training. Irene Hays, under maiden name


Irene and John Hays


– we are one of a number of subcontractors.” Hays Travel would not confirm


which projects it had serviced but Travel Weekly understands it fulfilled Covid-related functions including a ‘shielding’ helpline and NHS Track


Lucas, is a former chief executive of South Tyneside and Sunderland City Council and has been a non- executive board member and chair of the Education Skills Funding Agency since 2019. Responding to suggestions


Hays Travel may have been given Covid-19 response contracts at least partly because of her work for the government, the statement insisted: “There is nothing at all to suggest any impropriety of any sort”. Hays Travel began consultations


with 878 staff over potential redundancies earlier this month.


13 AUGUST 2020 7


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