State of play H
omeworking is the hottest ticket in travel, if the past year is anything to go by,
with record-breaking numbers reported by many key players, big and small. Home-based agents are thriving as customers’ booking habits change and as the choice of agency models and commission structures continues to expand. This start-up culture is paying dividends
for established homeworking businesses as well as newcomers. Travel Counsellors’ global sales director Jim Eastwood says: “We continue to see phenomenal growth with record annual bookings of £933 million in the past financial year, up 23% on the previous year – and more than 700 travel counsellors had their best year ever in 2023. During peaks, we even did ‘the treble’, with our biggest-ever booking on the best-ever sales day, all in the best-ever week of sales in the company’s 30-year history.”
r24%ise in average profits for Vertical Travel Group homeworkers
4 JULY 2024
c30%onversion rate on Silver Travel Advisor enquiries, with an average booking value of more than £5,000
ON THE RISE
With such stellar sales figures, it’s no surprise new players are entering this sector. Travelosophers launched in November 2021 and has already grown to 48 agents and expanded its head office team, while Club Voyages was set up in 2022 with a focus on cruise, but has since branched out into luxury tailor-made trips and increased its team by 50% to 16 agents. Established high-street names such
as Althams Travel have expanded into homeworking with Baldwins Travel also set to follow, while up-and-comer One Travel Club – which only began trading in April 2023 – says it is aiming to grow from 100 to 300 homeworking agents by this autumn. Last year marked the fifth anniversary of US-owned InteleTravel’s launch in the British
Homeworking agencies are reporting their best-ever years and biggest-ever recruitment drives. Katie McGonagle reports
£72mturnover from The Personal Travel Agents, its biggest-ever year for sales
travelweekly.co.uk
PICTURE: Shutterstock/Prostock Studio
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