The report, published earlier this week, tracks agent sales trends during the second quarter of the year (three months to 30 June) and attracted 132 responses.

Data insights span sales performance, discounting, spending shifts and the impact of the cost of living squeeze, as well as what are the biggest issues facing agents – and their outlook.

Our insights also explore agents’ relationships with suppliers, how certain destinations and types of holiday are performing, and the wider state of the market.

Here are five things we took away from the Q2 report.

Agents in demand

A third of agents (32%) said up to a quarter of their Q2 customers were brand new to them, while 41% said as much as 50% of their Q2 business came from new clients. In Q1, nearly 40% of agents were in the up to a quarter bracket, meaning more agents saw a greater proportion of their business come from new customers during Q2. A further fifth (20%) of respondents said between 50% and 75% of their Q2 customers were brand new to them.

Bring on Q3!

More than seven in ten Q2 respondents (71%) said they felt either very (30%) or quite (41%) confident about the coming quarter, up from 69% in Q1, while 23% said they felt about 50:50, up from 21%. It means fewer agents said they felt either not very (5%) or not at all (1%) confident about Q3, down from 6% and 4% respectively in the first quarter. In addition, the number of agents who told us they felt their business was now in a stronger position or broadly similar position compared with Q2 last year increased slightly from 90% to 94%, with only 6% of Q2 respondents telling us they felt their businesses were in a worse position now than they were during Q2 last year.

The price must be right

Pricing is without doubt the single biggest issue facing agents at this time. Price increases remained agents’ biggest gripe in Q2, with 48% of respondents ranking it among their three biggest challenges, down from 56% in Q1. However, in response to feedback from our Q1 respondents, we added another option to the Q2 survey covering the issue of agents having to match web or direct pricing, which shot straight in at second in the ranking with 47% of agents highlighting it as one of their biggest issues.

Lates are everything

The market is continuing to get later and later heading into summer. The number of agents who told us that between 0% and 25% of their new sales and bookings were for departures within 12 weeks fell from 48% in Q1 to 42% in Q2. More than four in 10 respondents (42%), meanwhile, said between 26% and 50% of their new sales were for departures within 12 weeks, up from 39% in Q1, while 16% said between 51% and 75% of new bookings were for departures within 12 weeks, up from 11% in Q1.

Four in five agents (80%) said their most commonly booked season was still summer 2023, down only marginally from 88% in Q1. The figures chime with findings from bodies like the Advantage Travel Partnership, as well as consumer spending reports from the likes of Barclays and Nationwide. There is undoubtedly still a lot of last-minute business yet to be done this summer, and could hinge on seemingly ever-changing rates of inflation and interest and their impact on consumers’ spending might.

Back to normal?

There were several signs of things continuing to return to normal (remember that?) during Q2. The number of agents ranking getting hold of suppliers in a timely fashion as one of their biggest issues nearly halved from 31% in Q1 to 16% in Q2, while average call wait times also appear to have fallen. The number of agents who said they had to wait on the phone for between zero to 15 minutes increased from 20% in Q1 to 30% in Q2, while the number having to wait for between 45 to 60 minutes fell from 11% to 8% and for more than an hour from 9% to 6%. With all that said, while the post-Covid period has been a fruitful one for agents, many – a full two-thirds (66%) – now feel that the post-Covid boom is over.

You can read TTG’s second Travel Agent Tracker report of the year in full now, or catch up with the Q1 report to see what progress has been made this year. The reports feature more than 40 data points, as well as commentary from agent respondents.