Sales generated via social media grew 17% year on year to hit £4.6 million for The Personal Travel Agents at Co-operative Travel.
Social media resulted in 2,392 bookings in 2018-19, more than doubling the £2 million value two years previously.
The figures were revealed at the homeworking agency group‘s annual conference in Cyprus.
PTA head Sheena Whittle said: “Two stand-out examples of sales generated from the centrally-created social media calendar in the last month include a £12,000 group booking and a £9,000 city break booking.
“In January 2019, we hit £50 million sales, a huge milestone for The Personal Travel Agents at Co-operative Travel in our seven-year history.”
A range of new social media assets has been developed, ready for homeworkers to personalise and begin using from April 24.
In a business update, Whittle told 100 homeworkers at the event: “Repeat customers remains the number one sales generator, up 7%, year- on-year, closely followed by referrals, which is up 6% year-on-year.”
New initiatives include a new system to develop more comprehensive customer quotes; the introduction of ‘Hootsuite’ to offer agents the option to have brand building social media content created and managed on their behalf; and plans to develop the PTAs’ expertise in ski, luxury and cruise.
Whittle revealed plans to drive a partnership with The Travel Foundation further to build on the £8,600 raised last year from customer donations when booking holidays with PTAs.
Sara Wakelam was named Homeworker of the Year for the second year running. In second place was Jan Buchan, with Carol Novelli in third. Wakelam also picked up the award for best Finishing Touches Seller.
Other awards for top performing agents included:
- Best Profit – Stella Sharples
- Top Insurance Seller – Elisha Treserden
- Finishing Touches Seller – Sara Wakelam
- In-house Product – Stephanie Purshouse
- Average Profit Per Passenger – Dani Jewell
- Best Margin – Carol Novelli
- Best Database Increase – Kerys Williams
- New Homeworkers of the Year – Clare Gilliver
- Best Supplier Support (voted for by the PTAs) – Gold Medal
- Homeworker of the Homeworkers (voted for by the PTAs) – Suzanne Wren