Scottish independent Barrhead Travel, agent consortium The Travel Network Group (TTNG) and homeworking agency Not Just Travel have all reported healthy increases in turn of year business since peaks got under way.

Vim Vithaldas, TTNG chief commercial officer, told TTG the group’s members this month saw sustained growth in sales of mainstream cruise product, with long-haul and touring bookings inching back towards pre-pandemic levels. "Our partners are reporting strong trading days across January, with call centres busy and enquiry levels high," he added.

Bookings for summer 2023 make up a large share of TTNG’s members’ business, up to 70% of short-haul and 90-95% of long-haul. Top destinations for include the Canary Islands, Turkey, Greece, the Balearics, Amsterdam, Barcelona, New York, Dubai, the Maldives, Thailand, the wider US and the Caribbean.

However, despite the positive start, Vithaldas said members had raised concerns over conversion rates, with customers asking "far more" questions than in previous years before committing to a holiday. "There has been lots of shopping around and there’s still a lack of confidence pervading because of all the past travel disruption," he admitted.

"However, the rewards for perseverance and delivering great service are paying off – our members are definitely seeing the benefit of the service levels they provided throughout the pandemic."

Barrhead president Jacqueline Dobson had reason to be optimistic after the company recorded its best-ever sales day on 7 January, followed by two consecutive record sales weeks.

"Generally, our customers are telling us they want to book as early as possible to make the most of sale savings as well as having the opportunity to manage monthly payments," Dobson told TTG. "I think it’s clear 2023 is going to be the year of people fulfilling their travel dreams."

Tenerife, Orlando, Turkey and New York have all been popular choices among the agency’s customers, with additional demand for Japan, Canada and the Caribbean as people look to start ticking off bucket-list trips once again.

Not Just Travel, meanwhile, took the highest average number of bookings per agent in its history this month. Co-founders Paul Harrison and Steve Witt said profit from commission is up more than 60% compared with the same period in 2019, while booking revenues are double what they were pre-pandemic.

Cruise has been a major earner for NTJ franchisees. "Since September, we have had a sharp focus on the cruise market having launched the Cruise Mastery Programme, Seminar at Sea and the Why Choose Cruise mini documentary," said Harrison and Witt. "As a result, cruise bookings have tripled since pre-Covid 2019, and since September, have rocketed from 12% to more than 19% of the business."

The sales came as the result of the company attracting new customers, rather than existing customers switching from land to sea-based holidays, said the co-founders.

They highlighted the performance of NJT franchisee Lloydie Gardiner, who bought a NJT travel franchise when a road traffic accident forced him to give up his job and recently sold £150,000 worth of holidays in just two weeks.