In a study of 358 travel consultants across the UK and Ireland, questioned on 17 April, 53% of the 314 that answered ‘Have you had any customer enquiries for new holidays this week?’ said they had experienced an enquiries boost – up 11% from the previous week. 

However, the number of agents who secured a sale dropped by 3%, from 32% last week to 29% this time around, although 20% of overall respondents said their sales had grown week-on-week, with 62% telling the Agent Tracker their bookings tally had remained unchanged.

Europe was the most popular destination for enquiries (39% of respondents reported interest from clients this past week), with North America the second most popular (22%), while Central America, including the Caribbean, came in at 17% and Asia 9%.

Asked which type of holidays customers were most interested in, beach breaks was top – coming in at 34% of respondents, followed by cruise at 16%.

Of the 259 agents that answered ‘Which destinations have customers actually booked?’, 31% of respondents made a booking for Europe this past week, North America was the second most sold region at 16%, followed by Central America including the Caribbean the next most booked destination at 12%.

Despite 44% of the 259 respondents who said secured sales reporting their average price per head was more than £1,000 – down compared with last week’s 57% – forward sales for later in 2020 and 2021 proved more encouraging.

Summer 2021 was the most popular time for bookings, at 46%, with autumn/winter 2020 next at 36%, while spring 2021 at 34% came in a close third. 

Social media remained the most popular way of staying in touch with customers and potential new business.

Jet2holidays and JTA again impressed customers, Carrier was mentioned frequently, and Elite Travel Concierge was praised for sending "a great working from home newsletter with ideas for clients “which was very inspirational at this challenging time".

Beachcomber was praised for "big discounted holidays for NHS staff".