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@atas_travel strong peaks trading


“We’ve introduced a 5% trade exclusive offer that allows agents to undercut us direct”


in average booking values, which is really encouraging. There’s a demand for higher-value, longer-duration itineraries, and we’re seeing some of our less mainstream tours becoming more popular.”


Members said added value and


low deposit offers were helping to stimulate business, but that general concerns over consumer confidence and spending in the run-up to Brexit had not forced them to increase discounts or offers.


Lockie Kerr, sales manager at


Back-Roads Touring, said: “We don’t focus heavily on offers, but we have introduced a small 5% trade exclusive offer that has allowed agents to effectively undercut our direct prices, and that has been really well-received.” Despite the overall positivity,


The Atas agent engagement committee meets in London


most members agreed that a trend for the first part of the year was that there was ‘no pattern’ to bookings. Parton said: “Overall we are up year on year, but we might have


one record day followed by a much slower one.” Lynch added: “It is positive


but inconsistent. We’ve had times where we’ve staffed up on weekends and been slower than expected, but then we’ll have a Wednesday that goes through the roof for no obvious reason.”


Trends


The Middle East and Asia are leading growth for many operators, although both Back-Roads Touring and Titan Travel said interest in UK tours was also increasing. rending destinations identified


by members included Jordan and Sri Lanka, with China and particularly Japan driving growth for many suppliers. Edwina Coppock, head of trade


sales at Titan, said: “We are having a great start to peaks with trade sales remaining at record highs. “Long-haul is doing very well for us with India, Japan and the US in our top sellers.” Coffey said: “We are seeing


triple-digit growth for the Middle East, which is being led by Jordan and gypt ut apan is definitely a hot destination and that will be helped further with British Airways going back to Osaka.” Parton said Europe and particularly Italy was showing strongest growth for consumer bookings, but said the US was Cosmos’s fastest-growing destination for the trade. She said: “It’s quite unusual to


see a discrepancy between our trade and consumer trends, but the trade is responding really well to upgrade messages for the US and [transatlantic] airfares generally are really good at the moment.” Both Travelsphere/Just You


and Abercrombie & Kent said bookings from solo travellers were increasing, with Abercrombie & Kent’s Lynch saying: “Solos are asolutely flying Titan’s Coppock said advance bookings were also performing well, with sales for 2020 “particularly strong”.


31 January 2019travelweekly.co.uk13


PICTURES: WENDY WU TOURS; SHUTTERSTOCK


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