A DAY WITH... KINVER TRAVEL CENTRE, KINVER, STAFFORDSHIRE
Ben Ireland went to see Michelle Oliver and the team at Kinver Travel, which brings the world to a village of 7,000 people.
Michelle Oliver (right) and Victoria Jones
“We don’t keep computerised records,” says Michelle Oliver, co-director of Kinver Travel. “But we know our demographic. We’re here all the time and get to know our clients and what they like. It’s not exactly the same relationship you have with a friend, but it’s about as close as you can get.” This attentive and personalised service given
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
NATALIE PHILLIPS SENIOR TRAVEL CONSUTANT I’ve been in travel… for 21 years now. I started working at Lunn Poly after college and following that I went to work for Thomas
Cook in Bedford, then had two children. I came back to work for Kinver Travel Centre nine years ago. I love selling… Florida. I’ve been there six or seven times, with and without the kids. Travel has changed over the years because… there’s so much choice now. Twenty years ago you needed an agent to make simple bookings; now they’re needed to deal with more-complex products.
VICTORIA JONES SENIOR TRAVEL CONSULTANT I’ve been in travel… since 1984. I worked at Don Everall Transglobe in Worcester and have since been at a number of
independent agencies. I love selling… cruise. I’m going on two myself this year, one in the Mediterranean and one from Dubai. I like to go on a range of cruises with different lines and it helps me find the right cruises for our customers. The strangest request I’ve had was… when I made a booking for a sports group and they wanted to get pole vaulting poles on the flight – we booked them with Turkish Airlines.
to each client that walks in sums up the shop’s approach. Michelle, who has more than 30 years’ experience in the travel industry, knows the importance of such service in keeping customers’ loyalty. So much so that she can quite genuinely name every other person that walks past the shop, and in many cases the last holiday they booked with her or her team.
Long-standing traditions There has been a travel agency in the spot, next to cobbled shopping alley Chenevare Mews, since the late 1980s when it was Don Everall Transglobe. The store became West Midlands Co-op before Michelle and her sister Sue Foxall bought the shop and started Kinver Travel Centre in December 2003. Sue was chief executive of Midconsort, the
forerunner to Kinver Travel’s consortium Elite Travel Group, and Michelle had worked in tour operating, with roles at Thomson Holidays and Carousel in “the days you could have a weekend in Faro for £5”, before joining Lunn Poly as an agent. A chance conversation between Sue and
West Midlands Co-operative chief executive Ben Reid at the 2002 Abta convention in Cairo eventually led to the sisters taking over the premises. Kinver matched West Midlands Co-op’s £500,000 annual turnover in six months and has increased it every year since. Michelle says the challenges of the high
street are different today than they were 15 years ago. But despite the changes, Kinver Travel
Centre has kept high street traditions, like closing for half an hour at lunch. “We’re competing against the internet
so you have to offer more,” she says. “That’s why having strong relationships
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travelweekly.co.uk 29 March 2018
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