Co-op Consortium 'hoping for 50% of normal January sales'

Boss Alison Holmes told TTG November had been the group’s best sales month since February.

She said developments in efforts to produce a Covid-19 vaccine and news that the 14-day quarantine in England will be reduced with a negative test gave members reasons to be upbeat heading into the peak booking period.

“The combination of the fantastic progress being made on vaccines, the opening of further travel corridors, the reopening of high street travel agencies next month [tier dependent] and now this latest development to reduce quarantine will undoubtedly give peaks a welcome boost,” said Holmes.

“We know this January won’t be the same as previous years but all this positive news is making consumers more comfortable to think of travelling and we’re encouraged by the booking numbers that we’re seeing each week.

“We’re hoping for 50% of our usual January volume. Rebookings for 2021, which were made earlier in the year, accounted for about 40% of customers but we’re still hopeful to see half of what we did last January.”

The consortium held a virtual conference for its members last week.

It was the first gathering of its kind since membership rose sharply in the wake of the Thomas Cook collapse after a large number of Freedom Travel Group businesses joined its ranks.

Holmes said the event gave an opportunity to update members on group commercials, share industry research and explain new support tools.