She characterised this as: "Our traditional peaks of January and February, as well as a lates market due to the opportunities and additional capacity our supplier partners have to offer."
Thompson went on to congratulate the audience at the conference, held in Leeds, for “smashing it out of the park” in January, revealing Hays IG had been hesitant about performance during January 2024.
“We didn’t need to be,” she said, pointing to a "peak" of the group’s own – the best trading day in its 29-year history on 31 January. Hays IG also welcomed 12 new members to its now 109-strong roster during its latest financial year – due to end in April 2024 – with the newest joining last month.
With more than three-quarters of the membership represented in the room, Hays senior figures and member representatives took to the stage to address opportunities ahead, but were mindful not to shy away from the challenges. So what did they have to say?
What might a second peaks look like?
Dame Irene Hays told delegates January spending patterns were in line with previous years, but stressed what was different was "the consideration period for booking a holiday" and the patterns the group was seeing, alluding to a potential second peak.
"We’re seeing the consideration period coming right back to four to eight weeks," said Dame Irene. “The anecdotal evidence we’re seeing from our shops is that people are uncertain about their financial position; they want to hold on to their money for longer. They intend to go on holiday but make that decision later”.
However, Not Just Travel non-executive director Derek Jones, who spoke during an IG member panel at the event, argued every year typically had something that could be considered a second peak, and said the question was more how big the second one would be.
"If the first peak is Everest, is the second peak going to be another Everest? Is it going to be a Kilimanjaro or a Ben Nevis? You’ve got to understand where that demand is coming from and what’s going to drive it,” he said.
Jones urged delegates to consider this year’s early Easter break as a factor driving a strong second peak. “The longer that run is from Easter to the May departure point, the more bored people get.
"If the weather happens to be rubbish between Easter and June, you get a stronger second peaks because people just get fed up,” he noted.
’Don’t discount unnecessarily’
Hays Travel chief operating officer Jonathon Woodall-Johnston told delegates to “value your worth” and to dial back on "driving the market down with unnecessary discounting".
Woodall-Johnston said IG members had shown "incredibly strong performance”, hailing some of the biggest successes among the group’s retail businesses and “phenomenal” success across its homeworking operation.
“Overall, IG going in the right direction, but we’re mindful of the contact centre models,” he said, adding discounting had become “fierce” in contact centre environments.
He continued: “We know we have to remain competitive, but we have seen discount messaging. We’ve got to be mindful from a margin point of view. We’ve been asking ourselves – do we need to price match?
"We’re very good at service – why wouldn’t customers want to buy from someone they trust? Your service is what other people can’t deliver.”
He added all "rounding" discounts has been stamped out across point-of-sale and social media marketing. "You won’t see £399 – it’ll be £405," he said.
