Several agencies reported record-breaking days on Saturday, including Hays Travel, which celebrated the “busiest trading day” in history with “double-digit year-on-year growth”, while Not Just Travel described it as "its busiest Saturday on record".
We are very proud of our people and members, who have been working tirelessly in their branches, on the phones and online," said Hays Travel retail director Jane Schumm, while NJT co-founder Steve Witt predicted the group's "biggest peaks ever".
Barrhead Travel attributed its own "record-breaking" weekend to the brand's "busy stores, strong sales conversions and new TV and peaks campaigns".
The Travel Networking Group's homeworking division, Independent Travel Experts (ITE), also experienced a "significant" post-Sunshine Saturday sales uptick of +140% in average daily trading compared with the opening days of the month.
Anecdotal evidence from the wider agent sector painted a similar picture, with many independents telling TTG they have been operating at full capacity to accommodate the weekend surge. “There were four of us working [on Saturday], and none of us managed to have a lunch break,” said Kimara Boyd from Howard Travel in Trowbridge. “It’s been great, but intense.”
Vicky Samwell-Buckenham, managing director of Norwich agency Oyster Travel, was another to characterise Saturday as "really busy". “The shop has 14 staff, and we were all non-stop,” she said. “We were busy the previous Saturday too [3 January], but this was something else.”
Sandra Corkin, founder of Northern Ireland's Oasis Travel, told TTG this week would be the watershed moment for agencies in spite of Saturday’s success. “I’m looking at the figures about three times a day,” she said. “It’s early days, and this week is critical. But the office is very busy, so I’m feeling positive.”
Some agents, including ITE managing director Gary Gillespie, credited the bookings boost to recent poor weather, with a “brief, short-term dip” at the start of the year abating as people looked to book to escape the winter blues. He revealed ITE was outperforming last year's peaks across all key indicators, including a 28% increase in sales.
'Mixed bag'
Other homeworkers toasted sales success last week, including The Personal Travel Consultants in Partnership with Blue Bay Travel. Its consultants recorded a 20% year-on-year increase in sales for the period from 3 January to 11 January. This peaked at the weekend said group manager Abbie Heaton, with 10-11 January "commonly reported [by agents] as the strongest trading days of the year so far".
Blue Bay's PTCs were another group to highlight how “weather-related frustration” had boosted bookings, while adding its model had allowed its consultants to avoid the sales dip that might have hampered high street agencies.
While the recent cold snap inspired some clients to book, ice and snow did cause issues for some agents' clients. "We’ve had to find alternative means to get our clients in Amsterdam home, like the Eurostar, while others decided to stay longer and wait out the bad weather,” said Oyster's Samwell-Buckenham. “It’s been a mixed bag.”
Jo Richards at Tivoli Travel was another whose clients were affected. “There's been a few cancelled flights this month,” she said. “I think I was up past midnight one night trying to sort it out.”
Several agents told TTG that while short-haul had comprised most of their bookings, some had noticed spikes in demand for cruise, as well as multi-generational and higher-value bookings; Designer Travel's head of sales and commercial Darren Bien said the agency's early-year cruise bookings had grown by two-thirds year-on-year.
Agents also highlighted Egypt as a popular winter sun destination, with Canada, Australia and the Maldives proving popular long-haul options. Closer to home, Shearings told TTG the week beginning Monday 5 January had been its “largest sales week” since 2023.
TTG Poll: How is peaks going?
Around a third (32%) of the 50 respondents to a snap TTG peaks poll this week said bookings had so far been stronger this year than last, while just shy of another third (30%) said business had been weaker than in the early stages of peaks 2024. Nearly four-in-10 (38%) said bookings had been "on par" with last year.
