Hays North West marks 21st anniversary as August sales soar

The firm, which has a headquarters in Wrexham with an additional 44 branches across North Wales and the North West, reported an increase in sales by 60% on August 2019.

Don Bircham, who opened his first travel shop in Mold, Flintshire, under the Just Go travel brand, said: "This August has been our biggest and busiest ever in terms of sales volume in 21 years of trading.

"A lot of that was down to late bookings with 47% of sales and I think that clearly a lot of people decided on the spur of the moment that they just had to get away."

The group has seen average holiday spend increase by £100 per person and foreign exchange transactions increase by 40%. Cruise holidays accounted for a fifth of the company’s total bookings.

Around 20% of bookings are for winter holidays and 33% of customers have booked for summer 2023. Turkey has moved up the list of most popular destinations while Spain and the Balearics remain the most sought-after, with Greece, the US, Cyprus and Portugal also selling well.