High street travel agencies are resilient. They have to swim against the current to achieve growth, no matter what is thrown at them.

People said the internet would kill off high street agencies. They were wrong. The same predictions are now being made amid the advent of AI.

But new data tells a positive story.

A year ago, during what felt like a particularly strong period for retail travel with lots of new branches opening, TTG learned there had been a year-on-year net change of just minus six in terms of the number of travel agency branches on our high streets – the smallest fluctuation for a decade, and by some distance.

It showed agencies were holding their own on the high street. So was that year a one-off?

Twelve months later, and with the nation now hoping a change of Prime Minister can boost the UK’s faltering economy, how are retail travel agencies faring?

Conditions are arguably tougher now than they were 12 months ago. Experts are predicting the effects of the US-Iran war will continue to hit consumers’ pockets for at least another six months, even with a tentative – now lapsed – peace deal signed off by Donald Trump and Tehran.

Furthermore, last year’s rises in employer National Insurance contributions, ongoing minimum and living wage hikes, and the new Employment Rights Act have undoubtedly dampened recruitment and investment.

So, it begs the question: have the number of high street agencies stayed the same, fallen or even jumped against all the odds over the past year?

‘You should never pause’

Tivoli Travel Director Jo Richards had hoped to have five branches by now. But she reluctantly paused expansion plans so she could focus on the agency’s fourth shop in the Yorkshire village of Denby Dale, which opened in January last year.

Richards admits other factors beyond her control also played a part. “I’m very much of the mindset that you need to expand your business,” she says. “You should always be looking for things to work on.”

However, she adds: “I feel like I’m pausing a bit at the minute – you should never pause.”

Jo Richards / Tivoli Travel

The Middle East crisis has affected “everybody”, Richards insists. “There are a lot of businesses that are feeling it right now. Nobody is jumping around for joy," she says. “Consumers are a little bit wary about booking next year until the conflict is done and dusted.”

There are also issues closer to home that influenced Richards’ decision. “Costs have gone up and there’s not much money around – it’s just basic numbers,” she adds.

Halstead Travel, another member of The Travel Network Group (TTNG), is feeling the pinch too. Owner Arline Sloan opened her first high street shop last September and has repeatedly stated her ambitious growth plans.

Sloan wants more shops, as well as a homeworking division. However, she has also been dissuaded from expanding for the time being, blaming rising rental and recruitment costs. “The costs have put me off," she admits.

Halstead Travel

However, Sloan tells TTG she is content to wait patiently for a more favourable environment that encourages growth. “I’ve had a lot of great feedback from people since I opened my shop,” she explains. “There’s definitely plenty of room on the high street.”

Sloan notes how “three or four” fellow Independent Travel Experts – TTNG’s homeworking division – made the jump onto the high street last year. “It has been quite quiet in terms of shop openings this year,” she adds.

Mark Lomas, Joint Managing Director of Market Place Travel, believes many agency bosses are “scared” to expand. “From our point of view, with the overheads on a shop and the rates you have to pay, you do feel like you're being penalised,” he says.

Market Place Travel had not expanded since opening its second branch in the Yorkshire market town of Richmond in 2023. “We’re just fine as we are," Lomas says. "We have spoken about expanding quite a bit.”

He reveals the agency’s first shop in Burton-on-Trent turns over £15 million a year, which he argues roughly equates to the cost of “five or six shops” elsewhere. “At the moment, it is controllable, and the quality of customer service we provide is unaffected,” he adds.

‘I’m not having record years’

Experience It Now Travel closed its Seaford shop in May when the lease came up and now has three shops in Eastbourne, Peacehaven and Halesham.

Rather than signing a new 10-year lease, co-owners Richard and Caroline Light decided to maintain “a presence in the town”. Going forward, staff will use a local leisure centre to meet clients, rather than in the now-closed Seaford shop.

Meanwhile, Travel Stop owner Bridget Keevil also took a similar decision to reduce the size of her agency's retail network.

In 2022, Keevil decided to run three shops – rather than four – and says she won’t go back up to four unless staff are seriously stretched. “I don't have any expansion plans,” she says. “I'm not having record years – I'm not even up to 2018 levels.

"After Covid, we lost so many knowledgeable staff. It has been hard to replace them. We're not expanding until we're bursting at the seams. 

"Most younger people don't know what a travel agent does. We have to find that niche again. Our customer base is generally older, and increasingly, they’re not around anymore.”

Is homeworking affecting things?

Experience It Now Travel also has 200 homeworkers, with at least eight more expected to join the business this summer. Richard Light insists both he and his wife are focused on Experience It Now Travel’s three shops, as well as its homeworking division, despite recent decisions suggesting otherwise.

But he concedes the growth of the wider homeworking sector could be affecting how retail agencies choose to expand. “Might the number of homeworkers in the market may be damaging the number of retail outlets?" he muses.

“When you open the shop, it’s hard to find new staff. We ask a lot more from staff than we did 20 years ago. Today we ask them to be multi-skilled.”

Asked if Seaford had closed because the agency struggled to hire quality staff, he says: “We shut Seaford because the national minimum wage, the rent and business rates have all increased. The government has made it harder for the high street businesses.

“So rather than signing a 10-year lease, we’ll keep our presence in Seaford without paying any overheads.”

'We choose to fight'

With all that said, and with costs clearly soaring and the geopolitical landscape far from certain, it seems miraculous to reveal the number of high street travel branches in the UK has remained broadly the same as last year, with new openings and closures edging ever-so-slightly closer to parity, in fact.

Local data firm Green Street, which provided the data for TTG's initial investigation into the high street travel scene, discloses that in the 12 months to July, there was a net change of just minus three high street travel agency branches year-on-year – three fewer than last year’s count. 

Beverley Travel is one agency that has expanded rapidly in recent years in the face of the pressures flagged by Tivoli Travel, Halstead Travel, Market Place Travel and Experience It Now Travel.

TTG Media

Co-Director Kelly Cheeseman explains why: “We set ourselves a plan in January, we knew the government rises that were coming in April, and the huge impact that would have. We knew it was either cut back, or stick with our growth plan.

"When they [government] come at us and try to take everything they can off us, we choose to fight and do everything we can to grow the business.”

Agencies may have to adopt this kind of fighting talk if they want to have any hope of expanding their retail networks in the current climate.