Agents in football booking frenzy Juliet Dennis
Agents joined the frenetic scramble for flights and accommodation this week aſter four English football teams made it to European finals. Liverpool and Totenham Hotspur
fans are heading to Madrid for the Champions League final on June 1, while Chelsea and Arsenal supporters travel to Baku in Azerbaijan for the Europa League final on May 29. Agents were deluged
with travel requests but were forced to find innovative solutions as availability tightened and prices rocketed. To get to Baku
meant potentially booking transfers, trains, different airlines and stopovers. Tomas Cook Sport put return
day trips from Stansted and Liverpool to Madrid on sale from £559 to supporters with official match tickets, and from £979 for Baku. Cook said a lack of aircraſt due
to the grounding of B737 Maxs and only one airline operating to Baku compounded the situation. Ascot Travel House
manager Sarah Busby booked indirect flights and accommodation for one night in Madrid for a Spurs
Liverpool’s Mo Salah
fan and his son for £2,478, but said securing the hotel proved far from straightforward.
By the time I’d
found a hotel and checked with my client, the price had trebled or wasn’t available
“I researched lots of options, like
going to Barcelona and geting a train to Madrid, but my client’s time was limited,” she said. “By the time I’d found a hotel and
checked with my client, the price had trebled or wasn’t available. I had flights on hold until 4pm and managed to book the hotel at 3pm. I was panicking!” Tiffany Woodley, owner of
Liverpool-based Myriad Travel,
bagged cheap deals by booking straight aſter the Reds’ unexpected semi-final win against Barcelona. She said: “We were quick and did
it on the night, so the first few got the whole trip for £350. We booked passengers into Malaga the day before the match and a train to Madrid on the Saturday, returning to Malaga on Sunday and flying home on Monday.” Myriad decided against arranging
a charter flight following difficulties last year when one of four it organised for Liverpool fans travelling to Kiev was cancelled at the last minute, leaving the agency to deal with the “horrific aftermath”. Te CAA launched a campaign this
week to warn fans of the dangers of booking without financial protection.
Not Just Travel targets agents with experience
Robin Searle
Travel franchise firm Not Just Travel will launch its first recruitment drive to atract existing agents later this year as it pursues a target of 1,000 homeworkers by 2020. Te company has about 650
homeworkers and is recruiting 15 to 20 agents a month, most of whom are new to the industry. Te Hays Travel Independence Group member now aims to double
4 16 MAY 2019
the number of recruits each month and will launch a campaign this autumn in a bid to atract established agents from other companies. Steve Wit, co-founder of
Not Just Travel’s parent company Te Travel Franchise, said: “About 5% of our agents are established but that has happened naturally. We believe our model and benefits will appeal to established agents, so now we will be looking for people who are aiming to take their business to the next level.” To help it achieve its goal, Te
Travel Franchise has appointed Sara Rigby from the finance sector as head of marketing and is set to unveil a new head of sales next month. Not Just Travel hosted 80 suppliers
at its first Partners Day earlier this year as it announced plans to double sales revenue. It also reported a strong start to the year with sales in January up 82% on the same month in 2018. Wit said the company had
introduced a new level of training for its most-experienced agents focusing on topics including business skills and
Not Just Travel founders Steve Witt (left) and Paul Harrison
growth, entrepreneurial approaches and staff management, and will host a special training event in July to help agents develop digital strategies. It has also expanded its in-house
concierge service, which allows agents to delegate administrative tasks around bookings to a centralised call centre. Wit said: “We are members of
Hays Independence Group but have developed our own relationships with suppliers. We are targeting ambitious growth and are seeing that with mainstream and specialist operators.”
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