Hays Travel urges agents to achieve equal sales across short-haul, long-haul and cruise

Hays Travel has used its 2025 annual retail conference to emphasise its ambition to sell equal proportions of short-haul, long-haul and cruise products by 2027.

 

During the gathering in Greece, under the theme ‘It’s all about the mix’, the agency’s senior management shared tactics intended to increase booking numbers in all three areas.

 

Head of commercial Claire Gibson confirmed short-haul trips continue to account for the most bookings, but she added that there remains scope to boost sales further.

 

“There’s a big percentage of customers out there now who are booking direct and that’s an opportunity for Hays Travel to reach out and gain new-to-Hays customers and that’s going to massively help us grow our short-haul business,” she said.

 

She cited flight-only bookings as an area that can achieve particular growth and encouraged agents to make more use of Hays Travel’s in-house flights team.

 

“We’ve known for some time that flight-only travel has always been in demand and it’s trending more than ever,” she said.

 

“I firmly believe we’ve got a key opportunity here to meet an evolving customer demand which we hope will help boost your revenue.”

 

The US, Canada and Australia have been the most in-demand destinations for flight-only trips, she revealed.

 

“This means there are huge opportunities to attract a high-spend customer into your door,” she said.

 

As it stands, she said, a considerable amount of business is being directed to other companies rather than Hays Travel’s flights team.

 

Encouraging greater use of the in-house offering, she said: “We offer out-of-date-range [flights] until December 2027. Not every flight-only company offers this, but we do.”

 

On long-haul, she said the business had been “moving in a really positive direction” since using last year’s conference as a platform to encourage more long-haul bookings.

 

January and February are typically the strongest months for long-haul bookings, she said.

 

However, she added: “It’s not just about a two-month period. Long-haul should be an always-on approach.”

 

The agency’s ‘Worldwide’ brochure, dedicated to long-haul trips, was produced last month and distributed to more than 100,000 homes.

 

The business has also been updating its webpages to boost the visibility of long-haul content.

 

“We want to step away from the perception that we’re just bucket and spade,” said Gibson. “We want to be known [as much] for long-haul.”

 

Hays Travel head of cruise Catriona Parsons urged agents to ensure cruise represents a third of shops’ window space or social media posts.

 

She also identified “fly-cruise and stay” as the area with the “biggest opportunity”, while encouraging branches to discuss all types of cruise with their clients.

 

“River cruise has the highest growth,” she added. “It has a high margin and it’s suited to UK travellers.”

 

More than 500 agents attended the conference, held at Aldemar Olympian Village in Skafidia.