‘Book our in-house product to win in 2023’, Travel Counsellors urges

Managing director Kirsten Hughes told delegates at the Travel Counsellors conference that, if it “gets difficult” next year, there will be both “winners and losers”. 

“Some travel companies will end up 60%, 70% down, and we can take that market share but we have to be in it together,” she warned. 

Hughes said that the drive to package trips on Phenix instead of with tour operator partners was primarily a customer-centric strategy, since agents are better able to look after their customers when they are in direct contact with the hotel or DMC partner. 

But she said using Phenix was also the best way to boost margin, especially for those agents who’d seen their profitability drop this year. 

“Some of you are so busy with bookings that you’ve ignored margin… and you are earning only 11% margin this year when you were earning 12% in 2019,” she reported. 

“Average selling price is up 27% compared to 2019, which I’ve never seen in my lifetime at Travel Counsellors, but that may normalise in 2023 and you will then start to see it in your salary if you ignore margin,” she added. 

Selling Travel Counsellors’ product also prevents a customer from taking an agent’s advice then going to book direct, she noted.

Head office is to invest £10 million in TC’s proprietary booking system Phenix over the next year, which represents a 45% increase on 2019 spend on the platform. 

Hughes told TTG that sales through Phenix now make up around 55% of all leisure sales and 35% of corporate travel sales. 

“We’ll never be 100% Phenix, and we have supplier partners with specialist knowledge and product that won’t be in Phenix, but we can control the booking better, and get better opportunities from hotels for fam trips, when we’re closer to the product,” she said. 

Enhancements to Phenix will include additional product and a new transfers supplier, while the associated customer app, MyTC, is to gain Google Pay and Apple Pay functionality.

Other tech developments include an expansion of the TC Teams platform through which individual travel counsellors can share bookings and commission with colleagues, enabling them to take on more business and ensure continuity while they’re on holiday. The company reported that more than 700 agents are now using the platform to collaborate with others.