A virtual call centre has been created by Tailor Made Travel for use by trade partners and the wider industry affected by coronavirus.
The initiative follows the Welsh agency closing its 20 branches following the government’s lockdown instruction to send staff home earlier this week.
The company is extending the use of the call centre to help the NHS.
Chief executive Simon Morgan said: “We have a volunteer crisis team in place at home dealing with all of our clients.
“We also have a number of furloughed staff – effectively ‘twiddling their thumbs’.
“Our unique communication technology allows us to send employees home with an Apple Mac and an internet phone. These are not limited to just our internal calls – we can accept calls for third parties too.
“After being approached to assist with NHS-related calls and successful trials of call management, recording, unique methods of identifying callers and called lines, the company has decided to offer the service to companies that have an influx of calls to deal with during the current crisis.
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“We can be who you like, deliver pre written replies and convert calls to emails etc. There’s really no limit – and you don’t get a better chameleon than a travel consultant – we can pretty much put our hand to anything.”
Morgan said it was “logical” for the agency to offer its services to tour operators, airlines and other parts of the travel industry “as we understand the business already and automatically understand key objectives”.
“This project also provides revenue to the company during a time that our competition is laying off staff and reducing hours. It’s a logical sensible path that will protect my amazing team,” he added.