TTG's Tracker: Sales growing at fastest rate since mid-April
James ChappleTTG’s latest Travel Agent Tracker has recorded its largest weekly increase in respondents making sales since the survey debuted two months ago, as the first sustained green shoots of recovery blossomed last week.
Nearly three in five (58%) of respondents made a sale or took a new booking in the week to 19 June (Week 11) – up 11% on Week 10 (47%), and up from less than a third when the survey was launched back in mid-April.
The average weekly increase in respondents’ reports of sales over the past 10 weeks has been around 3%, with the greatest spike previously coming in at +10%.
For the second week in succession, the number of respondents reporting new enquiries remained above 75%, while the tracker’s new pricing bands revealed 38% of respondents closed sales during Week 11 worth in excess of £1,000 per head.
"There is a massive amount of interest; clients are in the starting blocks, just waiting for the pistol," said one respondent. Another added: "Things seem to be turning the corner now as enquiries and bookings are up."
However, the main issue raised by respondents during Week 11 was that of consumer confidence, with a combination of the government’s 14-day quarantine on arrival policy, the lack of an announcement on air bridges, and no certainty on when the Foreign Office will ease its travel advice, all making it difficult for the trade to convert evident holiday interest and intent into firm bookings.
One respondent said trading was "essentially on hold" until Monday (29 June) when the quarantine policy is due its first three-weekly review; ministers are expected to announce the UK’s first air bridge agreements, with this move likely to be accompanied by a change in FCO travel advice to allow some outbound travel to resume.
This timetable would match Tui’s commitment to restarting limited ex-UK holiday operations to Spain and Greece from 11 July, and both Ryanair and easyJet’s commitment to restarting flights next month.
Another issue, raised by more than a sixth of respondents, was that of supplier contact, with agents still struggling to get hold of suppliers in a timely manner to rebook clients, chase up refunds, and make new bookings. Several respondents said this was contributing to negative public perceptions of the travel sector.
People are booking though; nearly 50% of respondents reported new beach holiday bookings over the past week, up 3% on Week 10. Both cruise interest and cruise bookings recovered 4% last week too, while more than 50% of respondents said they had taken bookings for summer 2021.
There were also incremental increases in bookings for summer 2020, with 12% of respondents reporting new bookings (up from 9% in Week 10), and for autumn 2020, with 14% saying they’d made such bookings (up from 11% a week ago).
TTG Media will continue to survey agents throughout the coronavirus crisis to gauge the impact on the travel trade. Look out for the weekly tracker email, sent at 1pm on Fridays. Any feedback on the tracker should be sent to jchapple@ttgmedia.com.
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