Travel specialist smashes all time sales record

Travel Counsellors has smashed the company’s all-time sales record, breaking through the £5m barrier.

January 31st saw the highest figure achieved in a single day for the Manchester-based specialist in leisure and corporate travel, with £5.1m in sales, marking the first time Travel Counsellors has surpassed the £5m mark in its company history.

Travel Counsellors chief executive Steve Byrne told TheBusinessDesk.com they beat their previous record by £500,000.

The company’s corporate travel arm, Travel Counsellors for Business, boosted the surge in January sales with a 65% increase on the previous month and an 11% increase on the same period last year.

January represented one of Travel Counsellors for Business’ best ever months with sales of £15.2m, second only to October last year.

The news comes as the independent travel company enjoyed a record-breaking month in January, seeing a 15% rise in sales on the same period last year.

Mr Byrne said the corporate market remains buoyant, despite mounting political turbulence: “It hasn’t been affected by uncertainty over Brexit,” he said.

“People are still travelling on business, and are probably more inclined to want to travel to make sure they are staying close to customers.”

He said investment in the corporate arm has paid dividends: “We have trebled the size of the team. People appreciate good service.”

His team arrange corporate travel for clients throughout Europe and North America: “We arrange their flights and accommodation. We do everything for them.”

And he said leisure travel also enjoyed a surge: “We had a lot of inquiries in January and I think people have been waiting until the end of the month for their pay packets and to get their holidays sorted.”

Top-selling destinations in January were the USA, UAE and Indian Ocean, suggesting a trend towards long-haul holidays.

Despite the record-breaking performance, he said the figures are in line with expectations.

And he dismissed fears that a no-deal Brexit could play havoc with the travel industry, with some commentators predicting that on exit day, March 29, flights could be grounded.

“We are still positive. People are still travelling, both leisure and corporate.

“There is a little bit of nervousness about bookings around March and April about certain destinations, but there’s no reason to be nervous.

“We don’t expect there to be any major problems. On paper it’s a risk that planes could be grounded, but I am sure the relevant authorities will make sure that is not the case.”

Travel Counsellors, which has more than 1,800 self-employed travel counsellors running their own travel businesses in seven countries, achieved global sales of £82m last month.

In total, six out of 10 of the firm’s top sales days were achieved in January 2019.

Travel Counsellors also saw record levels of bookings through its in-house booking platform, Phenix, with £2.2m in sales secured through the company’s bespoke built system on January 31, alone.

The technology platform enables the company’s agents to create highly personalised travel itineraries for their corporate travel clients. As a result, 307 travel counsellors celebrated their best ever sales month in January.

Mr Byrne, said: “We are pleased with the record breaking results in January which is down to the hard work, commitment and care shown by our travel counsellors and support team colleagues across the globe.

“We are committed to building a community and platform that enables our corporate travel business owners to realise their full potential.

“I am pleased that in January, as always, that community, which spans seven countries, has helped so many travel counsellors scale their business further and do amazing things for their clients.

“It’s a great start to the year for Travel Counsellors, and we’ll continue to ensure that we are supporting the growth of our corporate travel offering by focusing on creating great customer experiences and putting people and technology at the heart of everything we do.”

Travel Counsellors hit the £600m sales mark in October last year, a company milestone which followed a secondary buyout from Private Equity company Vitruvian Partners in June.