First Class Holidays has launched a recruitment drive and introduced a live chat function for agents as business starts to return to pre-pandemic levels.
The specialist tour operator, which sells the US, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean as well as its core destination of Canada, is on the lookout for eight new staff.
The vacancies – for roles in reservations, finance, sales and marketing, and for apprentices – are a mixture of new positions and replacements.
Managing director Dan Gathercole said: “We are starting to get back to similar levels of enquiries pre pandemic and we are now in a position where we need to recruit heavily, especially in reservations.”
Gathercole said the operator was likely to run another recruitment drive in the autumn for a further five or six staff in preparation for the 2023 peak sales period.
He added: “We see this being stage one, with more recruitment planned for September this year in preparation for next January”.
The operator has also launched a new live chat function to give agents an easy and quick way to contact the company to ask questions or discuss quotes for clients.
Agents need to request a link from the company to access the new chat function, which Gathercole was already proving very popular with the trade.
“The live chat is for those who have quick questions to ask or want to fire over quote details. It’s all about convenience for the travel agents,” he said.
Meanwhile, First Class Holidays has started guaranteeing prices all 2023 quotes to help agents convert more sales.
Gathercole added: “We have said before, you can’t expect an agent to give a client a quote and say the price may fluctuate, so we are offering all our 2023 quotes with a guaranteed price.”