Travel Counsellors on track for a record year despite Middle East conflict

Travel Counsellors remains on track for a record year, despite the turmoil in the Middle East, with sales for the past four weeks recovering to be about 8% up year on year.

 

Steve Byrne, chief executive of the homeworking agency, said: “It seems to be coming back, but there’s no doubt the market is tougher than it was [before the war].

 

“We still expect to deliver double-digit growth this year and have a strong platform moving into 2027.

 

“We’re delivering record revenue and record profit this year…unless things get drastically worse.

 

“But even if things continue as they are…we still expect to deliver double-digit growth and have another record year. It just would have been even better without this.”

 

He has been sharing sales trends and stories of customer service with agents at the company’s annual series of TC Together events, hosted in cities across the UK.

 

“We are focusing on the size of the market opportunity…the fact that travel is being prioritised by consumers,” he told Travel Weekly.

 

“But we’re obviously going through some short-term more challenging times – transiting through or travelling to the Middle East has been really difficult…but we have got a much bigger medium-term opportunity.”

 

While the agency has seen some uptick in recent weeks, the trend since the Middle East disruption began is broadly flat year-on-year excluding rebookings, he noted.

 

About 70% of clients whose travel plans were affected have now been rebooked, either to the same destination for a later date, or different destinations – or both options.

 

Furthermore, about 15% of revenue came from sales to or via the Middle East, he added, noting that about 4,000 bookings have been affected by the crisis.

 

He said the Mediterranean market had been “soft” for about four weeks but it is now starting to come back – with prices remaining “pretty constant” while increasing elsewhere.

 

Greece is doing well, too, thanks in part to the relaxation of the European Entry-Exit System.

 

Byrne expects the Middle East will come back “strongly” soon as the Foreign Office advice about non-essential travel is lifted.

 

The agency’s focus on premium leisure travel is paying dividends as that market is proving “more resilient” than non-premium bookings – and there is “good volume growth” for its corporate business over the past six to eight weeks, he added.

 

“We are seeing significant growth in luxury cruising, river cruising and expedition cruising. Cruising was doing really well before the crisis and continues to do so,” he added.

 

Byrne also noted “good growth” in South Africa, an “encouraging” recovery in the US and year-on-year growth in Japan.

 

Overall, he described the market as “more challenging” but with some “real winners”.

 

He said 60% of what the agency sells now is premium leisure, with itineraries created through the Phenix platform, or agents booking pre-made holidays with TC Journeys or partner operators.

 

The agency is not seeing many lates, as its premium, long-haul focus means the lead time from booking to departure is about 150 days.

 

“We do sell a lot of short-haul beach holidays…and have seen it pick up in the past four weeks, which is really encouraging, because it was really tough for the four six weeks before that – but we’re not as heavily focused on it as other businesses,” he noted.

 

“Our forward bookings into 2027 are up by 27%.”