Co-founder Steve Witt praised the travel industry’s “resilience” over the past two decades as the Dorset-based homeworking specialist celebrated its 20th anniversary. “There’s nothing like the resilience of the travel industry,” he told TTG. “It’s been hit by so many things – terrorism, pandemics, climate issues, etc. But it’s still here and still the largest legal industry in the world, as well as being the most fun industry.”

Witt, who founded Not Just Travel with Paul Harrison, recalled agreeing to buy a travel franchise on 10 September 2001, only to wonder “if we were doing the right thing” when the terrorist attacks on the US took place the following day.

“We had to pay for the franchise and we thought we had made a big mistake as the world was about to stop travelling,” he recalled. “It was tougher then – nobody wanted to get on a plane, unlike now when everybody can’t wait to get on a plane. But I like a challenge so we decided to make a go of it.

“We just had to work harder to find the customers and focus on building relationships. You have to go where the customers are and be proactive.”

Witt set up Not Just Travel with no travel experience having previously run an internet company and admitted that “Lanzarote was the only place” he had travelled to outside the UK. The company initially had so little money that its first office was in a 2,500 square foot warehouse in Blandford Forum, Dorset, featuring a “condemned” heating system.

“We only had three staff and we were all huddled in the corner over a heater,” recalled Witt. “We had to wipe condensation off our PC monitors. It was all we could find because we spent all our money on the franchise.”

From these humble beginnings, Not Just Travel has now grown into a business turning over “millions of pounds” in travel sales per week and has trained more than 900 homeworkers to become travel experts – most of whom came from non-travel backgrounds.

Witt expects Not Just Travel to emerge even stronger from the pandemic with “ambitious plans” over the next 12 to 24 months. It has just recorded its best August for sales in company history, thanks to a surge in late summer bookings.

“In the past year, everybody has been holding on to money because they don’t know what the future holds,” he added. “We have invested in people and recruited quite a few key positions, including more BDMs (business development managers), with more to come.”

Witt said the company planned to recruit more homeworkers and was also working on a “new and unique retail offering”. “We will be opening a new flagship store in the near future,” he revealed. “We’re looking at a new retail model. Retail is definitely here and will be here for future. There will be a return to normality – some customers want to book online while others want to do it over the phone or face-to-face.”

Witt said there was “a target” for the number of retail outlets they planned to open. He stressed it would be “all about experience”, although he declined to give further details at this stage.

He also predicted a “tidal wave” of holiday bookings with pent-up demand from consumers coming through as travel restrictions ease. “We’re already scaling up ahead of that wave,” he said. “Peaks may be slightly adjusted – we may see a peak that stays more constant.

“We’re not like other travel companies – our sales have been strong throughout Covid. If we can have strong sales during Covid, imagine what we can do after Covid.”

Witt added that Not Just Travel’s success was built on “relationships” with their customers, which had been a key advantage during the pandemic. “It’s all about making it easier for customers and giving them confidence to book,” he said. “You have got that trust – that’s so important for customers to have somebody to take you through it all.”