Trafalgar Travel manager Charlie Coyle first met Joanne Dooey at a Thomas Cook top performing managers and regional managers event in Mexico several years ago.
It was during that meeting they discovered they were both from the same Scottish mining village of Newarthill – and their parents had been friends.
At the time, Coyler was a Thomas Cook branch manager in Guernsey and Dooey was the company’s regional manager in Scotland.
He went on to work for Guernsey-based agency Trafalgar Travel but when he learnt the business is to close down at the end of May, he contacted Dooey.
Coyle said: "We kept in contact ever since that meeting in Mexico and when I received the devastating news we would be closing down, I called Joanne and asked if she had any jobs available, to which she said she did.
"I join Love To Travel the day after Trafalgar Travel closes on 31 May. I am so very thankful to Joanne for this as it has taken a lot of pressure off me finding a new career."
Dooey said: "I’ve always wanted him to work for me. He asked about working for me. I said ‘of course’. He is a local lad and he will do amazingly well at Love To Travel."
Coyle will take up a newly created luxury and cruise specialist role at Love To Travel’s Motherwell shop. Dooey believes Coyle will help drive Love To Travel’s cruise sales, develop younger staff’s cruise bookings and then, in turn, organise the agency’s cruise events programme. Cruise currently accounts for around 25% of the agency’s business.
“I’m trying to step back from the business a bit and I want him to the lead with cruise in our Motherwell shop," Dooey added. She estimates that Coyle has up to 50 loyal customers who will continue to book with him when he joins her business.
“At some point we will take some of his customers out in Guernsey as we don’t want them to think we’re a faceless business,” she concluded.
A Trafalgar Travel spokesperson said the decision to close "wasn’t an easy one". "However, with recent trends to online bookings and increased overheads, we have had to make this very sad and tough decision," the spokesperson added.
All existing bookings travelling before 1 June 2025 will be dealt with by the Trafalgar Travel team, while bookings travelling after that date will be transferred to an alternative agency. TTG understands Coyle’s bookings have been transferred to Love To Travel.
“We are working hard with alternative travel agents to ensure you receive the same high level of personal service that we offer and that the transition is as smooth as possible,” he explained.
Coyle is not the only Trafalgar team member to have landed a new job. His colleague Sandy Ogier will move to Wayfarers Travel as a senior sales consultant, while the two other members of the Trafalgar team – Vanessa Bourgaize and Amy Pezet – are setting up a homeworking business under luxury operator Azure’s homeworking agency, Independents – Powered by Azure.
