Lynne Walton, an agent for Blue Bay’s homeworking arm The Personal Travel Consultants, has more than 35 years’ experience as a travel agent and returned to homeworking last October after a two-year break.

Between February and June 2022, Walton landed 54 bookings with MSC by tempting her customers to try cruising for the first time. 
 
Walton’s bookings accounted for 87% of all sales of MSC’s product by the PTCs in the period and represented 25% of her business. None of the bookings she made were discounted, with an average value of £3,995 each, and 75% of the bookings were from customers who have never cruised before. 
 
Prior to joining the firm last October, Walton was a homeworker with Vertical Travel Group, Future Travel, and Instant Holidays, as well as working for Thomas Cook for 14 years where she started as a school leaver and progressed to become branch manager.

Walton said: "I am so happy to be back working in travel and couldn’t have found a more supportive homeworking brand to partner with than The Personal Travel Consultants.

"Most of my customers are families booking luxury, land-based holidays in Europe, but they were convinced to try cruising for the first time when I showed them what fantastic value for money the MSC Cruises were offering, compared with a traditional Mediterranean resort holiday," she added.

 
Steve Williams, director of sales for MSC Cruises, thanked Walton for her "outstanding support," especially during these "challenging" times in travel.

"Her passion for MSC has certainly been demonstrated with the huge volume of bookings she has confirmed," he added. "We are sure her loyal customers will enjoy the most memorable of cruises onboard MSC Virtuosa this summer and will be rebooking with her again soon."