The independent agency group achieved £5 million sales in one day last month, breaking this barrier for the second time in its 25-year history.

Figures reached £5.2 million on 31 January, with the month also seeing 369 of the company’s business owners enjoy best-ever sales.

Travel Counsellors said January as a whole “was also a record breaker”, following a 10% rise in sales on the same period last year, with UK sales up by 15% in the first quarter of the financial year.
 
The company, which now has more than 1,900 independent franchisees running their own corporate and leisure travel businesses in seven countries, achieved global sales of £90 million last month. Three of five of the firm’s top sales days were achieved in January.

January sales results follow a record-breaking period for the company in the period 1 January to 20 December 2019, with total transaction value surpassing £650 million for the first time since its launch in 1994. This has led Travel Counsellors to forecast total sales in 2020 in excess of £700 million.

January was supported by a dedicated sales incentive that saw top-selling agents win more than 60 prizes worth £50,000, including trips to Florida, India and Barbados.

Record levels of bookings were sourced through the company’s in-house booking platform, Phenix, with more than half the company’s leisure travel itineraries created in the platform in January. The company also reported a 40%-plus increase in customers taking advantage of Travel Counsellors’ dedicated travel app and secure payment portal, myTC, with 8,000 new customer accounts created in January.
 
Chief executive Steve Byrne said: “It’s a great start to the year, and we’ll continue to provide the very best digital platform that supports the growth of our business owners, more of whom are now using this platform and the wider Travel Counsellor community to scale their business through, for example, working in teams or in shared office spaces. 
 
“Regardless of their location every Travel Counsellor and support team colleague shares a common purpose to reinvent and redefine what personal service means in the travel industry, by putting people at the heart of everything we do.”