'Travel has changed beyond recognition,' says Oasis Travel founder
High street travel retailing has changed “beyond recognition” in the 40 years since Sandra Corkin opened Oasis Travel’s first branch.
The thriving independent, which now has eight shops across Northern Ireland, started life as a small shop with just two employees in Lisburn in 1984 when it became the eighth high street agency in the town.
"Now there are only three agencies here,” Corkin told TTG. “It’s incredible to think how many fewer travel agencies we have now compared with the 1980s.
“Things are unrecognisable from when we opened. It was all done manually back then and all the transactions took a long time to book. People came to the agency for everything and they relied on us for all the information because there was no internet. It’s a different world now.
"In those days, we mostly booked package holidays from Belfast to Spain, Majorca and the Canary Islands, as well as coach tours to England. It was a fairly limited range – back in the 1980s, taking a cruise holiday was considered a luxury.”
Corkin said one of the biggest changes has been the huge expansion in the range of products and destinations Oasis now sells, with cruise and luxury long-haul holidays seeing the largest growth in recent years.
“People don’t come to us with no knowledge now – they check online and look at TripAdvisor reviews. We still make recommendations, but it’s more likely that people will question us,” she added.
Oasis Travel has been holding a series of events during 2024 to celebrate its 40th anniversary, including activities to raise money for the Marie Curie hospice charity and NIPANC, Northern Ireland’s pancreatic cancer charity.
The celebrations will culminate with a special dinner on 19 November for the agency’s 60 staff, as well as several suppliers who have been working with Oasis Travel “through the years”.
“We’ve had an extremely busy year – and that comes after we had our best year in 39 years in 2023,” added Corkin. “Unless things suddenly fall off a cliff in the next few weeks, 2024 will be an even better year.
“In the past couple of years, there’s been such an appetite for travel – we’ve been waiting for it to slow down, but it hasn’t.
"Luxury has really grown and now makes up for 23% of our business. There’s been a lot of long-haul, and our average transaction price has gone up. Canada, South Africa and the Far East have all done well.
“We still sell a lot of short-haul in our mainstream business for operators from Belfast, like Jet2holidays.”
As for the future of Oasis Travel, Corkin jokes she is “looking forward to the next 40 years”. “We’ve opened another branch office and we’re seeing growth which is wonderful,” she added.
“But you have to work hard on the marketing now – you need to keep inspiring people and hold more events. Back in the 1980s, you just had to sit back and people would walk through the door."
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