Travel industry staff are taking on roles created by the pandemic that has put their livelihoods at risk in the first place.
Agents whose businesses have been forced into ‘hibernation’, and tour operator staff made redundant as a result of Covid-19, have found work outside the sector to boost their income until travel revives.
Self-employed homeworker Jan Buchan, as well as Steve Wilkinson and Beverley Philpotts, made redundant this year by Kirker Holidays and Great Rail Journeys respectively, have all taken jobs with medical agency Star Outico. They will help carry out a Covid-19 infection survey for a joint venture that includes the Office for National Statistics and the University of Oxford.
Buchan, of The Personal Travel Agents at Co-operative Travel, usually turns over about £500,000 a year. She said: “The irony is the very thing that has caused my business to come crumbling down is now the thing giving me back some money.
“I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t have to but it takes the pressure off with Christmas coming up.”
She has taken a six-month, part-time contract so she can work on her business two days a week.
“I have to be there for my clients but it got to the point in September where my bank balance was reducing further and further and I had to do something. I’ve cancelled £100,000 worth of holidays; the loss of earnings is horrendous.”
Wilkinson, a former regional agency sales manager at Kirker, said: “I was reluctant to leave but relieved to find something worthwhile which utilises my people skills and experience.” He hopes to return to travel but admitted: “Sadly it may be quite some time.”
Philpotts, former regional business development manager at GRJ, said: “I put a couple of feelers out [in travel]. There was interest but no jobs. I’m thinking of this as a six-month breather.”
Kayne Travel director Emma Kayne, who closed her Wath upon Dearne shop after hearing South Yorkshire was to be placed in Tier 3 lockdown, is applying for full and part-time roles in admin and retail.
“It’s soul-destroying in travel,” she said. “It would be nice to get out for a few months and come back in January with a fresh mind.”
