TV, trust, touring – and turning back time – were themes of this year's Hays Travel Independence Group conference in Greece's Kalamata, where members were encourage to look to the past, the present and the future for business inspiration.
More than 350 delegates spanning Hays's IG group, its homeworking personal travel consultants and Explorer franchisees joined Hays head office staff and key suppliers for the get-together, which centred around a theme of "It's All About the Mix".
Besides all the latest news, insights and important announcements from Hays, key figures from Hays revealed some key shifts in the way the business will go to market in future, shaped as much by learnings from the past as the bleeding edge tech developments of the day.
Streaming for success
Hays Travel will advertise on a range of streaming services including Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime and Spotify for the first time during peaks in an attempt to target a younger demographic.
The ads, featuring TV favourite and Hays Travel brand ambassador Davina McCall, will launch on Boxing Day to complement the agency's existing advertising campaigns on terrestrial TV and YouTube.
Hays Travel's new campaign will feature brand ambassador Davina McCall (Credit: Hays Travel)
Messaging will continue to drive home last year's “Holiday Outside the Box” theme, with ads also appearing on local radio. Hays' shops will also carry the same messaging.
Hays Travel chair and owner Dame Irene Hays said: “I can guarantee to you the messages of value, independence and expertise will shine across 2026."
Trusted high street brands
Dame Irene added the campaign would complement recent research showing UK travel agents are enjoying an uptick in business despite a more than 20% month-on-month drop in confidence in the UK economy last month.
Barclays' latest Consumer Spend Report showed spending with travel agents grew by 7.2% in October compared with September, which saw growth of 4.2%, while transactional growth was up by more than a quarter (28.5%) month-on-month.
"Consumer confidence is low, but it is not in relation to travel agents – we need to take advantage of that," said Dame Irene, who added the data proved Hays's decision over the past few years to buy up a number of agency brands, including several IG members, had been the right one.
Dame Irene Hays expressed dismay at why cruise lines don't pay all agents the same level of commission (Credit: Hays Travel)
This year alone, the agency has acquired 12-branch Spear Travels, online travel agency cruise.co, and most recently, Polka Dot Travel and Millington Travel, which have 15 and 14 branches respectively.
Dame Irene said the agency was still on the acquisition trail, and would always consider businesses that fit with its strategy to increase cruise and long-haul bookings – and can bring in additional skills and expertise.
“We believe there is a future [for agents] in the travel industry, but we’re really careful about the brands we acquire," she continued. “We’ve spent a lot of money investing in the high street, but carefully – it’s really important to us that everything is aligned.”
Investing in agents
Hays is also continuing to invest heavily in its IG members, Dame Irene revealed, after pumping £14.9 million into 48 partners over the past 12 months.
She said investment often took the form of interest-free loans that agencies cannot typically get from banks owing to their size, their financial history – or banks failing to appreciate the business opportunities travel presents.
"Hays Travel has the strongest balance sheet in the independent sector," claimed Dame Irene. "We do not have any debt whatsoever, we are a company that doesn’t like debt."
Addressing delegates directly, she added: "We have a really strong balance sheet, and as interest rates come down, we want to help you grow.”
AI here to stay
Dame Irene Hays told delegates Hays would understand, embrace and "play" with AI, warning them there was no stopping the tide – and no desire within Hays to swim against the current of progress.
Hays is investing millions in integrating AI throughout the business, which started in its call centres and is now coming to agents, IG members and homeworkers through a new quoting trial, which delegates were told could save an agent half a day's work.
Dame Irene reasoned that with AI becoming commonplace in other businesses, and more and more current or prospective Hays customers becoming familiar with AI and even using it for travel planning, the new technology – which it hopes to roll out fully in time for peaks – would come into its own with more complicated itineraries.
Touring on the up
Touring will be another major focus for Hays in the coming years after Dame Irene weighed in with a bold prediction that will no doubt make agents sit up and take note. “It [touring] is now emerging like cruise did 10 years ago.”
Head of commercial Claire Gibson picked up the baton, telling delegates taking advantage of demand for touring would help drive two potential growth sectors for Hays – long-haul and cruise. "Touring offers customers more than a beach break – for us, it’s not about meeting demand, it’s about staying ahead of it."
Gibson said Hays was targeting more than 30,000 touring passengers during its current financial year – 30,161 to be precise – which would represent year-on-year growth of 26%.
And despite lagging a little behind with around 14,000 passengers sold so far, Gibson is confident planned touring launches in December would give sales a boost.
September's Best of Touring campaign has so far drummed up 2,106 bookings at an average booking value of £6,125, with profits per booking running to £809 on average.
Gibson added the campaign’s success represented growth of 20% on a spring touring campaign, with autumn profits standing at about £1.7 million in total – 30% more than in the spring.
Equally important, Gibson, stressed, was that more than a third (34%) of the bookings were made by new-to-Hays customers. “They want a different experience," she said. "Touring is more profitable, and you are getting more added value as well. If you’re not offering touring, ask yourselves why not?”
Still in it for the long-haul...
Following the launch of Hays’ long-haul strategy at its 2024 conference, chief operating officer Jonathon Woodall-Johnston revealed the effort was already bearing fruit.
He said with 143,805 passengers booked since the start of Hays's 2025/26 financial year on 1 May, the agency is well on track to hit its target of 228,000 for the year.
Woodall-Johnston said Hays had taken its key learnings from driving its cruise division and applied them to the long-haul sector, with the first move being to appoint a dedicated product manager solely responsible for driving the group.
He revealed Hays was also working with airlines to get exclusive fares and advance booking opportunities, which they are also getting from hotels. “They’re a key opportunity for us and that gives us an edge over our competitors,” Woodall-Johnston said.
He added a recent zero-deposit scheme had only led to a small increase in cancellations.
A focus on training has also helped drive long-haul sales. “What’s really encouraging is every single area in the group is exceeding the targets we’ve set," Woodall-Johnston added.
...but don't forget short-haul
Hays used the conference to reveal a new partnership with Ryanair, which will allow the agency to leverage the budget's carrier's vast network and dynamically package its flights.
The deal is similar to agreements Ryanair has struck with Tui, On the Beach and Loveholidays, which follow a wholesale change of heart from Ryanair about working with the trade.
Woodall-Johnston said the arrangement would allow Hays agents and IG members to be more flexible when it comes to selling city breaks, adding access to Ryanair flight stock would also fill some previously identified product gaps.
And besides city break opportunities, Woodall-Johnston flagged Ryanair's strength flying to mainstream destinations like the Canaries, which would again give Hays agents more scope to be flexible.
Turning back time?
Richard Harpin pictured with Dame Irene Hays and Hays non-executive director Jo Rzymowska
The last word came from entrepreneur Richard Harpin, owner of domestic emergency repair firm HomeServe, which bought Checkatrade in 2017.
Harpin used his address to remind delegates that some seemingly old-fashioned marketing practices, such as flyering, remain just as effective today, revealing Checkatrade still puts millions of leaflets through people's doors up to four times a year.
He insisted the practice was incredibly effective in an age when most companies spam people's inboxes, making a leaflet through the door stand out more than ever.