Andy Nelson, owner of Craig Travel, told TTG business had been "a little up and down" after the agency's strong performances in November, December and January slowed going into February.

"The momentum hasn't fully carried through," he said, albeit while noting the group's branches around Manchester were "knocking it out of the park".

According to Nelson, a major trend is a lack of commitment from families. "Whether that's them juggling finances, or the cost of living, I'm not sure," he said.

"Unemployment has gone up, and I think the right word is ‘hesitancy’. Families are thinking, 'let’s book a little nearer the time' to make sure they can afford the two weeks, or 10 days, away on holiday."

Liz Houston, director of Houston Travel Emporium, agreed family demand had softened. "We probably do not get as many families as we would like," she said. "But it has been nice and steady – I'm not pushing it."

'General malaise'

At Ashdown Travel, head of retail Tricia Lester described a similar trajectory. "We had a slowish start to February after a brilliant January. Things fell off a cliff a bit,” she said. “But from the 10th onwards, we’ve had some really lovely bookings coming in – and we’re busy."

All four shops hit target in January, and three have already reached February targets, with the fourth close behind. But summer bookings remain "very slow", something she too attributed to hesitant families.

"We’re just not seeing families booking their summer holidays," said Lester. "We’re getting bookings in for now through to the end of May, and then for September onwards, but not so much for peak summer."

Arline Sloan, owner of Halstead Travel, also saw a standout January, putting through £250,000 before activity slowed in February. She also agreed the family market is "not where it used to be".

Karl Douglas, co-owner of Beverley Travel, described 2026 so far as "very patchy", particularly during half-term. "Parents are either with their kids, or at work while the grandparents have the children, or they’re away on holiday. There’s a general malaise," he explained.

Douglas also pointed to price sensitivity as a reason for the "missing" family market. "It seems people are put off when the price changes. They never believe us when we warn them the price will go up."

'Is that for real?'

Luxury travel has been protected from some of February's uncertainties, according to Designer Travel's Amanda Matthews. 

She described January as a "huge month with a record-breaking turnover", with February technically trading better than the previous month. "We're doing better, not in terms of volume, but year-on-year increases, so I'm feeling really positive," she said.

Her focus on "affordable luxury and up" is insulating the business from some of the pressures facing the mass market. "We’re lucky to have some very high-net worth clients that bring bookings that can really change your fortunes in a given month," she explained, with the agency securing three 50k+ bookings yesterday.

Long-haul and more adventurous itineraries are also on the rise this month. Nelson reported an uptick in bookings to Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, driven by eye-catching window displays, while Lester flagged Canada as a popular choice.

"We had advertised Costa Rica in the window for about 10 minutes before somebody came in and booked it. They literally sat down and went, ‘is that for real?’, and then went ahead with it," he said.

Nelson added the stop-start nature of February had caught some retailers off guard, particularly after a buoyant peaks period. "There was really good momentum in January, and I think the other agencies I've spoken to hoped that would run on through February and into March," he continued.

"I think the fact that it almost just shuddered to a halt for some people was unexpected. But I'm old enough, and I've been doing this a long, long time, so I know not to worry about a quiet day, week or, dare I say it, a quiet month."