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Agents hope for pickup in holiday sales

Travel agents are hoping this weekend will kickstart the January sales market following the failure of Travelscope and MAXjet.

Peter Goord Travel proprietor Anthony Goord said post-Christmas sales have been much slower than last year although he blamed this on New Year’s Day being later in the week. This has resulted in fewer people going back to work this week and slowed start-of-year sales.

Goord said independent tour operators needed to fill the gap created by the consolidation of the big four operators and the resulting capacity cuts, adding: “The reduced capacity gives us [independent agents] less chance to compete and hopefully independent tour operators will start giving us more holidays to sell.”

The Cooperative Travel head of retail Trevor Davis agreed bookings were slow at the moment but added the group’s decision to introduce £10 deposits and a TV advertising campaign should start driving sales this weekend.

However, Advantage chief executive John McEwan said sales would be affected during the peak sales period by the on-going downward turn in the economy.

He added: “It is going to be a reasonable January but not exceptionally strong.”

ABTA predicts agentswill continue to see more growth in the luxury market this year.

ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said many agents are already moving into specialising in the lucrative sector thanks to the high value bookings available and where

some luxury operators saw sales growth of up to 30% in 2007.

While he warned of a slight slow down in the market this year due to the squeeze in the economy, he said agents can still cash in, adding: “Standing out from the crowd by

providing unrivalled expertise and excellent customer service has proved to be an excellent business move for many.”

Tanzer added the cruising market will remain strong with eight ship launches scheduled for the forthcoming year while early booking patterns are indicating that Portugal, Turkey, Egypt and the US are all looking at strong sales in 2008.

While he urged agents to ensure they are well educated on responsible tourism issues, he added the association will continue to be a member of the airport expansion lobbying group Flying Matters.

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