‘Clients are booking come what may’ Juliet Dennis


Holiday bookings through the trade are holding firm despite continued cost-of-living increases. The trade gave positive trading


updates this week despite inflation running at 9% and consumers cutting back in other areas, including on food. Althams Travel managing director


Sandra McAllister said cost-of-living rises were yet to put holidaymakers off, with demand outstripping supply. “There is huge demand and not


enough holidays,” she said. “If clients have waited for two or three years, they are going on holiday come what may and will make cuts elsewhere.” Fred Olsen Travel head of


commercial Paul Hardwick agreed


clients were prioritising holidays and cruises “above pretty much anything else for 2022”, adding that average booking values were also higher. “Customers are spending more on


this year’s holidays,” he said. “Our average booking value is


up £700 compared with 2019, with customers wanting to go away for longer or stay somewhere nicer after not having travelled for two years.” He described a dip in sales over the


Jubilee weekend as a “slight blip” in an otherwise “very strong” May and June. InteleTravel said bookings up to


May this year were 62% up on the same period in 2021. UK director Tricia Handley-


Hughes said: “Sales remain strong and have not yet been affected by any


Staff shortages force agencies to review branches


Harry Kemble


Staffing pressures are forcing independent agencies to review their retail networks as they struggle to maintain service levels amid strong booking volumes. “Desperate” Travel Stop owner


Bridget Keevil is considering closing her Buntingford branch in Hertfordshire after recently losing its single member of staff and finding it hard to recruit a suitable replacement. Unable to spare any of the


agency’s six staff in its Suffolk-based shops, in Elmswell, Hadleigh and Claydon, Keevil now drives 90


4 23 JUNE 2022


minutes to Buntingford to open the shop herself one day each week. Claydon is the only Travel Stop


branch that opens six days a week, while Elmswell, Hadleigh and Buntingford open just once a week. Keevil said: “We can only do this


for a certain amount of time before people fall over. It gets on top of you after a while. Our aim is to turn around a quote in 24 hours but we’re lucky if we are doing that in five days. Everybody is picking up four, five, six enquiries on top of that.” Keevil said she will close the


Buntingford branch at Christmas, when a five-year break clause in the


Some clients’


budgets are unrealistic, but we explain that prices have risen – it doesn’t put them off


of the current issues. We continue to see high average transactional values, with a top individual sale of £107,068 within the past two weeks.” InteleTravel agent Victoria


Grieveson, of Worcester-based Eden Voyage, said even higher prices were not putting clients off. “Some clients have an unrealistic


budget and we have to explain to them prices have risen, but it doesn’t


put them off booking,” she said. The rise in booking value was


echoed by The Advantage Travel Partnership. It said bookings by Advantage Managed Services agents were up 6% in volume last week versus the same week in 2019 but up 38% in revenue, with 45% of bookings for travel within 12 weeks. Leisure director Kelly Cookes


said: “The demand still seems to be there. Nothing is slowing it down.” Full Circle Travel managing


director Niall Douglas cautioned some price hikes were making clients rethink parts of their bookings, such as switching from airport car parking to travelling by taxi. “Some of the airport car parking prices are crazy,” he added.


Travel Stop’s Buntingford branch could close


Bridget Keevil


lease comes into effect, if she cannot find someone to manage the shop. “I cannot shift the staff around


[to Buntingford] because it’s too far away,” she said. “The shop is a chain around my neck.” Althams Travel, which has 31


branches, has shut its Littleborough shop in Greater Manchester for a month as it only had three staff, and the manager left due to ill health. But managing director Sandra


McAllister said the shop would reopen in July, following a successful recruitment process. “I can understand why agencies might have to shut. It’s so busy


and you cannot get fully qualified staff at the moment,” she said. Andrew Earle, head partner at


Andrew Earle’s Holidays, has reduced opening hours at his three branches in East Yorkshire and introduced an appointment-only system due to staff shortages. He said staff numbers at his Brough store had dropped from 13 to seven during the pandemic. While he said each shop was


profitable, he added: “If we have another serious dip [in consumer confidence], that could be fairly disastrous for the industry. If we go back into a winter of restrictions then we’ll have to review the business.”


travelweekly.co.uk


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