Luxury tour operator Exsus Travel has revealed agent bookings already make up 37% of overall revenues, despite only launching a dedicated trade sales team a year ago.
The operator recruited head of trade sales Neil Sealy last June as it looked to drive bookings through the agent community. Before that the tailormade specialist had been mostly-direct sell and virtually unknown in the trade.
It joined Aito in November 2018 and expanded its trade team in April.
To thank agents for their support, Exsus Travel held its first awards last week, honouring top-performing agents. Among the winners were Off Broadway Travel, Dorking Travel, Quality Travel and Baldwins Travel.
Sealy said he looked forward to seeing that figure grow over the next 12 months and that to assist this Exsus would be offering more fam trips and training events. He also said additional people would join the team to ensure more support is offered to agents.
He added: “It has been a fantastic year, with travel trade sales accounting for an impressive 37% of our overall revenue. A big thank you to all the agents we work with – these awards are richly deserved. I look forward to seeing what these figures look like next year.”
