Luxury operators 'as busy as ever' after sales surges
Luxury tour operator bosses say they are “as busy as we’ve ever been” after a recent surge in demand but have warned fast-filling capacity and last-minute booking trends are proving challenging.
Speaking on a panel at the TTG Luxury Travel Summit at the Biltmore Mayfair on Monday (18 October), Carrier managing director Mark Duguid said his brand had reported four "seven-figure trading weeks" since the middle of September and was currently trading at levels “in excess of 2019” with a negligible number of refund requests.
Duguid said Carrier had enjoyed “an immediate boost” following the announcement by transport secretary Grant Shapps on 17 September to end the UK’s traffic light system and further ease testing for vaccinated travellers.
Elegant Resorts managing director Lisa Fitzell offered a similarly positive outlook, telling delegates how her company had achieved September revenues 70% higher than during the same period 2019, while founder of Red Savannah, George Morgan-Grenville, said his business had seen sales “10 times as high” as September 2020.
“We’re as busy as we’ve ever been,” said Morgan-Grenville.
However, he admitted not being able to recruit the right staff fast enough to service that demand was proving “an issue” with Red Savannah wanting to bring more experienced staff onboard.
Duguid agreed there were difficulties, explaining how he believed it typically took a member of Carrier’s sales team around two years to “get fully up to speed”.
The panel also addressed capacity challenges as, an until recently, limited choice of destinations coupled with clients opting to book late, was causing headaches for operators.
“There’s a real mismatch between supply and demand, and I really feel for suppliers having to juggle availability at the moment,” said Duguid. “It’s already a problem and could become a real challenge.”
“[Capacity] is getting tight – especially around Q4 of this year,” described Fitzell, explaining around 65% of Elegant’s current bookings were for 2021. “It’s starting to get very tight,” she said.
Looking ahead to the resurgence of leisure travel in the remainder of 2021 and further into the future, the panel agreed the importance of offering “positive messages” to consumers with first-hand experiences and more video content.
Duguid suggested tailoring the approach based on each client’s confidence to travel.
Both Morgan-Grenville and Fitzell said they were focusing on getting their teams back travelling to the destinations they specialise in.
“Staff have come back feeling great and have gotten their mojo back,” described Fitzell.
Focusing on sustainability, she revealed findings from a recent Elegant consumer survey which found 90% of customers would favour booking with brands with responsible travel policies in place – up from 50% pre-pandemic, while 60% wanted to carbon offset their travel compared to a “very low” number prior to Covid.
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