Tom Morgan freely admits he didn’t have to leave Riviera Travel when he did.

Having worked in various trade-facing roles at the escorted touring and river cruise specialist for the best part of a decade, Morgan became a go-to figure for agents wanting to sell more of the operator’s diverse product mix.

So why did Morgan leave Riviera to become G Touring’s trade sales director earlier this year? “Travelsphere and Just You [G Touring’s brands] have so much potential,” he says. “Plus, it was a great opportunity to work with agents.”

In his first trade press interview since taking the role, Morgan repeatedly stresses the “huge growth potential” inherent in both brands, and how agents can drive them forward.

One day, he hopes solo specialist Just You can become the “UK’s largest escorted touring brand sold through travel agents”. But he concedes: “We’re not near that at the moment – it’s a pretty ambitious goal."

Bookings, though, are heading in the right direction. Morgan reveals Just You sales are up 25% year-on-year, while escorted touring brand Travelsphere “sells itself”.

And despite being in the role for just two months when he talks to TTG, Morgan believes he has already found areas for improvement.

Two-month targets

Firstly, he thinks that Just You is “slightly under indexing” with homeworkers. He insists: “We’re actively encouraging them to get in touch with us.”

To attract more homeworking agents, Morgan wants to expand the trade sales team, which currently consists of key account managers Jasmine Moreton and Jason Kemp, and head of trade sales Rachel Mould, who joined G Touring in June 2022.

Morgan is quick to hail Mould, who last year oversaw G Touring’s trade relationships during a four-month period after Sarah Weetman joined Kuoni and before Morgan, Kemp and Moreton were in place.

“She did a fantastic job of keeping us in front of agents,” Morgan says.

He declines to give a date when G Touring will expand its sales team, but adds: “We must prove our sales performance. As long as we grow with the trade, we’re going to invest in travel agents.”

Secondly, Morgan believes the brands’ social media marketing could be improved. “We’re looking to combine our social media pages and we need to make sure we’re on top of Facebook before we start TikTok-ing,” he explains.

Thirdly, he wants to ramp up the brands’ training programmes. G Touring launched its Travel Agent Hub last August, which offers registered agents marketing assets, holiday information and trade training.

“Part of the new training will include a dedicated Just You module on demographics that will help raise awareness among agents," Morgan adds. "We do have the capacity to train more agents."

The role of agents

His final mission is to offer more fam trips next year. In 2024, G Touring will take 50 agents away on five fam trips to Canada, Sicily, Turkey, South Africa and India. “I want to make sure we’re supporting agents effectively,” he says.

According to Morgan, around 55% of Just You sales come via agents, while 45% of Travelsphere’s business is through the trade. Even though Morgan says agents drive a “significant” portion of sales, he believes the figures could be higher.

“We’re not quite where we need to be with the trade, but there is so much potential there,” he adds. “Every part of this business wants to find ways to support the trade more – not many travel companies can say that.”