Attraction World staff ‘saved jobs’ with four-day week

Tickets specialist Attraction World has told how the commitment and dedication of its staff helped it get through the recession without having to make any redundaciest.

The firm ended the year on a high, turning its fortunes around from being 30% down in February to 10% up by its November year-end.

It was also elevated by Thomas Cook to gold supplier status.

Tony Seaman, sales and marketing director, said this achievement was in no small part due to the “Dunkirk spirit” of its 40 staff who, in order to save jobs, agreed to a four-day week during 2009.

He said the move was so successful that after just two months, bosses were able to reinstate everyone to five days and even pay an end-of-year bonus, meaning no one was left out of pocket.

“We are a service provider to our trade partners so we have to do our job so well that they can’t do what we do,” said Seaman.

“We retained all our people and expertise so were able to continue doing what we do.

“The team was very aggressive and we grew our business, which was pretty good in what could have been a very bad year.”

Seaman recalled how bad things had looked at the beginning of 2009.

“The business was never in trouble, but it’s like steering a ship through rocky waters.

“You have to get it in a seaworthy state because, looking at the forecast, it was going to be really tough and no one knew whether it was going to pick up.”