The road to recovery: help for two agencies from TTG's Travel Heroes
With holiday bookings ramping up across the UK, the TTG Travel Heroes mentee agencies are looking to work with the suppliers to bolster their sales and marketing. Madeleine Barber reports
It’s been a tough few months for Romiley-based Key Holidays and Destina Travel in Hagley. Both travel agencies have been battling uncertainty around the government’s traffic light system, testing troubles and consumer confidence, but now things are looking up.
Sam Tyers, head of leisure sales at Destina Travel, reports August and September were the agency’s busiest months in a long time and says “it’s given us a real positive buzz in the shop”, while Key Holidays’ director Jonathan Cunningham explains his agency is seeing a similar trend. “Our sales have picked up over the past few months and we are now taking baby steps as we begin to come out of the pandemic – we want to look forward, not backward,” he says.
The agencies are seeing an uptick in bookings for cruise, short-haul destinations such as Spain and Greece, as well as the Caribbean, while long-haul and ski and snow still need some work.
“Clients don’t have the confidence to book destinations we’re not currently able to travel to,” says Tyers, with Cunningham adding they’re “waiting for positive news on Africa, the Far East, South America and Australia and New Zealand after the reopening of Canada’s borders last month and the announcement the US will open in November”.
REBUILDING CONFIDENCE
As both agencies are TTG Travel Heroes mentees, they have a trio of travel supplier experts to help them find their feet again as the UK begins to emerge from the pandemic: Nick Hughes, sales director for tour operations B2B Europe at Gold Medal; Sarah Weetman, head of sales at Travelsphere and Just You; and Jamie Louizou, managing director at AmaWaterways.
“We will do everything we can to build back confidence in the areas we love selling, and that’s where we’ll look to Nick and his amazing team to help us structure our marketing plan as we embrace the positive upturn,” says Cunningham. “We also look forward to working closely with and doing the very same with Sarah and Jamie, because touring and river cruise will return as confidence improves,” he adds.
Bucket-list trips, gastronomy, health and wellbeing and sports are all topics Cunningham would like to focus on in marketing through social media, mailshots and window displays in the coming months.
“We want to inspire our clients with further confidence, ideas, offers and incentives so they can plan and book amazing holidays for 2022 and 2023,” he says.
PARTY TIME
Tyers is also keen to work with the TTG Travel Heroes on marketing, as well as personalised offers from their respective companies and any opportunities to work together on the upcoming celebration of a Destina Travel milestone.
“We’re hoping to get a party organised to celebrate Destina Travel’s 50th birthday, which was last year, so we’ve just been waiting for restrictions to ease so we can make it a good one,” explains Tyers. This will be one of the first face-to-face client events Destina Travel has held since the beginning of the pandemic, following a charity day for the Alzheimer’s Society in October.
Key Holidays is keen to get back to hosting in-person events too, explains Cunningham. “Our strength here at Key Holidays is, and always has been, face-to-face service, which is when our travel personalities shine through.”
The TTG Travel Heroes will be working closely with Key Holidays and Destina Travel for the rest of the year, until their partnerships come to an end by 2022.
“We are very, very grateful for their inspiration, help and support,” says Cunningham.
Check back in next month’s magazine to follow the journey of the TTG Travel Heroes and their mentees.
THE HEROES ARE HERE TO HELP
Two of the TTG Travel Heroes plan to give Destina Travel and Key Holidays a boost with their marketing in October: AmaWaterways’ Jamie will supply a range of over-branded digital assets, including social media panels and videos, and the cruise line’s e-brochure. All content will be designed to showcase AmaDahlia, AmaWaterways’ new ship that sailed its inaugural cruise in Egypt last month, as well as the line’s 2022 and 2023 programmes that are now on sale.
Travelsphere and Just You’s Sarah will provide assets to help rebuild consumer confidence. This will include the operator’s WTTC Safe Travels Stamp and engaging videos showcasing its brands and tour managers, who are on hand to help with every trip. The content will span the operators’ UK, European and Worldwide tours and appeal to both couples and solo travellers.
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