The managing director of Cruise118 parent World Travel Holdings UK has shared her frustration at “hobbyists” joining the travel industry who are “just in it for their own needs and purposes”.
During a panel discussion at the Abta Travel Convention in Calvia, retail bosses were asked how the industry can maintain its quality at a time when “more people than ever are becoming travel agents”.
Lisa McAuley (pictured), who took the helm of World Travel Holdings at the start of October, replied: “We can’t, and we’re fooling ourselves if we think we can. That for me is a concern.”
She added: “It’s incumbent upon all of us to invest in our people and ensure they stay with us as long as they can, because longevity equals productivity.
“What we don’t need is hobbyists; what we don’t need is people who are just in it for their own needs and purposes, because that doesn’t do the industry any good.”
Judith Alderson, commercial director of Dawson & Sanderson, said: “Influencers are becoming travel agents and they are then recruiting other people in the network. I don’t think that’s a good thing because you can’t become a travel agent overnight; it takes years of quality training and investment in that person.
“If that’s a business model that some companies are adopting, then for me, that’s not working. That’s diluting our business.”
However, she added: “But in terms of using influencers as a marketing tool, I think can work very well in certain areas.”
Steve Witt, co-founder of homeworking agency Not Just Travel, who was also on the panel, welcomed growth in the number of agents, saying it increases competition which leads to improved services.
“I think it [more agents] drives us to be better and better as there’s more competition,” he said.
“Our training gets better, the quality of training from suppliers gets better and our hunger for knowledge grows. Across the entire industry, we’re all upping our game all the time.”
The panellists were also asked what trends their respective agencies are currently witnessing.
Witt said: “We’re seeing a big rush towards people trying to get away for last-minute sunshine and escape the rain – 19% of our sales right now are for the absolute last-minute escapes to the sun and 46% are for winter-sun.”
He added: “We’re having to get more effective at responding to trends so we can adjust our marketing to find the right products for people which is keeping us on our toes, but it’s great for businesses that people do want to go away last minute.”
Fellow panellist Nicki Tempest-Mitchell, managing director of Barrhead Travel, said the agency is seeing a rise in solo travellers.
“The two products that seem to be inspiring solo travellers in particular are cruise and touring and adventure,” she told delegates.
“We’re also seeing a real rise in people booking early and our growth for next year is pretty exciting – we’re 16% up and noticing people are wanting to take advantage of our pay monthly plan, with the ability to spread the cost making those trips more believable and affordable.”
McAuley said she is currently “drowning in data trying to spot things to capitalise on” having only been in the role for a week, but she has observed the luxury market has performed well this year.
“It has over-indexed compared to mainstream,” she explained.
Alderson said she has observed a trend of clients seeking local departures this year.
“And when we don’t have those, we try to make it really easy for those clients to get to their departure point,” she said, adding: “Offering private transfers to airports or ports has driven quite a lot of new business for us.”
