Freeth said that following JG’s acquisition of National Holidays last year, he expected the group’s total business through the trade to increase from a current base of just over 10%.
JG swooped for National in July following the collapse of Specialist Leisure Group (SLG), with trade sales manager Claire Dutton and sales and yield director Matt Herbert joining from SLG to spearhead JG’s trade activity.
"We need to be the first brand or business that springs to agents’ minds when a customer comes in for a domestic break," said Freeth.
"That’s ambitious, I know, but I jumped on a call last week with about 10 travel agents in Yorkshire and I could sense the excitement from them with there being a business here that wants to support the trade, and has good product that is easy to sell.
"We want that excitement to be felt by all of the trade because there are agents out their churning out thousands of customers for National and doing really rather well financially for it – we want to be there to service that through Claire, Matt and the trade team as it expands. We’re going to look to beef that team up."
Freeth said additional trade support would initially come in the form of extra administrative backing for Dutton, with the team likely to grow based on the level of demand from the trade.
"At the moment, the trade is about 12-13% of what we’re doing," said Freeth. "I think that can creep up as more people become aware of what we do and more consumers lean towards a domestic break over the next year or two."
Earlier this month, JG announced it had added 40 new 2021 tours across its National Holiday and Just Go! Holidays brands, with the latter also celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
It is the largest collection in the group’s history, and Freeth said he was happy with the breadth of choice. "I haven’t identified any significant gaps in product or opportunities," he said.
"But there are a couple of things we’ll probably be taking a look at. The first is to add rail, where appropriate.
"And I think when it comes to some of our Europe and Ireland tours, quite a lot of customers do enjoy flying to join the coach.
"I think about 30-40% fly to join en route so maybe we will expand that a little further into other destinations."
