Long-haul travel will play an increasingly key role as the Brexit saga rumbles on and as the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines accelerates, according to the boss of Blue Bay Travel.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, chief executive Alistair Rowland, said: “Long-haul is going to become more significant, and, probably as Brexit plays out, it does mean that long-haul is slightly protected from those debates.”
He added that many people had been stung by the changes to regulations around European travel during the pandemic.
“So many people have wanted to go to Spain or the Canaries; they’ve been told they can go and then they’ve got to cancel, plus they’ve got all of the issues around insurance and financial protection,” he said.
“With regards long-haul, as long as you can get the right value and put the right value in front of the right consumer, it’s really very powerful.”
Rowland said Blue Bay had already seen a spike in demand on the back of the Pfizer vaccine rollout starting and anticipated increasing interest.
“I think the big, big news will be the Oxford vaccine,” he said. “So when there is real news of 100 million vaccines in the UK that can be stored in a normal fridge, that is played out over a six-month period – then that will be more significant again.
“There’s a reason why that’s been held back, but I’m sure it will get approved and that will create the bounce in the industry generally that everybody’s really waiting for, I think.”
Rowland revealed that one of Blue Bay’s home-based agents had seen a huge surge in demand and booked over a million in revenue in November alone.
“We have a number of home-based agents, some of them that are extensions to the call centre, on a self-employed basis, and one of those agents transacted a million in revenue,” he said.
“She did a lot of days and a lot of nights. She picked up b2b, so the Co-op sales through the Facebook channel and offline, plus she has built a lot of really powerful relationships. But an incredible volume and good for her!”