Congratulations to Andrea Lee, a homeworker for Kwik Travel, who has just landed a booking worth £150,000. Once again an agent has shown what initiative and a can-do attitude can achieve.
Having seen an enquiry for 50 people on Kwik Travel’s website, Lee called the customer to discover the booking was far larger than that looked. As she said, “Some people might shy away from it but I thought, ‘No, I’ll give it a try’”.
And that attitude and the resulting hard work has paid off. The end result is a booking for 289 rock ‘n’ roll fans to Tenerife.
The trip involves the charter of an entire aircraft and Lee is currently organising an itinerary. She dynamically packaged the entire trip and as well as earning commission in the region of £8,000, she is looking forward to the prospect of repeat business next year.
Lee’s success is similar to Marie Carpenter’s £840,000 booking which filled a cruise ship with 1,250 passengers.
With business being so tough this year thanks to the World Cup, a hot summer and an increasing number of people arranging their own holidays, it is refreshing to see agents are jumping on opportunities and adding value for customers.
It is this added value that will become increasingly important for the trade.
On a lighter note – and talking of rock ‘n’ roll – it would seem the King is alive.
Travel Weekly’s sister product in the TW Group, gazetteers.com, has put together 20 fascinating facts about travel agents, compiled from its daily poll.
As well as 36% of agents thinking Elvis is alive, 44% think the Queen should abdicate and 28% say they have famous friends.
It is difficult to find the underlying theme to this trivia – apart from the fact that a fair few of you rub shoulders with celebrities and there is an antimonarchist contingent in the trade.
You might not be tuning in to the Queens’s speech on Christmas day, but we do know that 45% will be eating roast potatoes with the turkey and 36% will be opting for mash.