Personal Travel Agents optimistic after record year

The survey of 2,500 PTA customers found 99% would take at least one holiday in 2023, with 81% planning several. The findings come despite research being conducted just after the disastrous mini-Budget that saw the pound plunge.

The Midcounties Co-operative’s homeworking business also found 40% would not be changing their plans due to the cost-of-living crisis, although 41% admitted they would spend less and 18% said they would take fewer holidays than usual.

Despite the enthusiasm, the search for value was also apparent, with 37% opting for an all-inclusive break – the most popular choice – and 23% self-catering.

“Generally, we were really encouraged,” said Sheena Whittle, head of The Personal Travel Agents, although she added PTA customers tended to have “slightly higher than average spend”.

She continued: “We are not challenging the fact that it’s going to be a tough winter, but the feedback from customers is that they do appear to be fairly resilient. We will do another survey in January.”

The PTAs’ tenth annual conference in Malta heard 2022 was a record-breaker, with average PTA earnings up 13% compared with 2019 and sales after cancellations up 11%. Average spend per passenger was up 15%. Whittle declined to detail actual numbers.

“We have had a year of record booking performance each month, we are significantly ahead of 2019 and there’s a lot of desire for customers to book bucket list holidays,” she said, adding PTAs had recorded their lowest level of cancellations since the pandemic in September.

She said 2023 prices were “quite high” and that 40% of bookings were for travel in the next 12 weeks. “Whether that continues into next year will be interesting to see.” 

Whittle added she hoped to recruit another 20 agents in the next six months to add to the current 160 but said she would not “fish in the pool of inexperienced agents”.