The industry veteran spoke exclusively to TTG last week about Audley Travel’s retail expansion as it prepares to open its first-ever physical store next month. 

“Going into retail wasn’t on the cards, but when the opportunity came up, we thought, ‘That could be really interesting’,” Fitzell said. 

Audley Travel confirmed the milestone news in September, announcing it would be launching 12 John Lewis stores across the UK after signing a partnership deal with the British department store chain. 

A number of these spaces were previously occupied by Kuoni, which announced in May that it would be closing all nine of its concession stores. 

Fitzell has now revealed that John Lewis was the one to suggest the collaboration with Audley: “They came to us and said: ‘We're ending a partnership and we were looking for a new travel partner.’”

Though Audley hadn’t intended to expand into the high street in the near future, the proposition of collaborating with a premium retail brand was strong enough to make them reconsider. 

“We were enticed because we feel like John Lewis and Audley are very aligned,” Fitzell said. 

The retail format of John Lewis, which already has footfall and therefore offers huge potential to expand Audley’s client base, was another pull for the operator. 

“The cost of acquiring a new customer today is huge for everybody – it's just gone up and up and up,” Fitzell said. “You need to be looking at your marketing strategy all the time and evolving it as a way of getting new customers without the traditional PPC [Pay Per Click] mode, so this is a great opportunity.” 

What will Audley Travel’s new stores be like? 

Audley has enlisted an interior designer to create a cohesive look across its 12 locations, which include Cardiff, Cribbs Causeway, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Edinburgh, Norwich, Reading, Poole, Oxford Street, Peter Jones in London, High Wycombe, and Southampton. 

Though they have yet to release images of the spaces, Fitzell promised an “inspirational, immersive” aesthetic that “makes people want to travel in an experiential way.” 

Recruitment is also at 80%, with nine of the 12 stores fully staffed and training for the Norwich and Southampton teams complete.  

“It’s going really well,” Fitzell said, confirming that some of its new employees have come from Kuoni. She added that though all of the staff bring retail experience, not everybody has a background in travel. 

With just one month until Audley opens the first of its 12 stores, Fitzell says its “amazing” project team is working on a “tight timescale” to meet the deadline. 
“We've got everything lined up; it's like building a house with all the different elements of it.” 

The stores will also exclusively sell Audley's product portfolio, which spans more than 90 destinations across all seven continents. 

‘The high street is not dead’ 

Fitzell is also excited about introducing Audley Travel to the UK high street, which – despite a tough economic climate – has given rise to a number of travel agencies over the past few years. 

“The high street is absolutely not dead,” she said. “I think about the high street in my home city of Chester, and it’s very much alive there.” 
Fitzell acknowledges, however, that Audley will need to work hard to establish itself in the competitive retail market. 

“It’s definitely tough, especially because people can just buy at home at any time now,” she said, before stressing the importance of giving consumers a reason to visit the stores: “I think if you're going to do it, you need to do it differently. You need to do it with inspiration as a way of connecting with people from a community perspective.” 

To give them the best odds at success, Audley has sought expertise from retail director Christian Haas, who has over 30 years’ experience in scaling high street businesses. 

“He’s already worked for John Lewis, which is fantastic,” Fitzell said, before adding that Audley wants to truly lean into its partnership with the department store chain. “The more successful we are, the more successful they are,” she said. “We may get it wrong, but we'll try our very best to get it right. And I think we're all in with it – we're going for it.”