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Trailfinders ‘bucks internet trend’

Long-haul specialist Trailfinders has seen record sales and its second-best profits performance without ever selling online.


The company saw sales rise by £17 million to £531 million in the 12 months to February.


Pre-tax profits were down slightly to £19.3 million from a record of £21.6 million in the previous 12 months, according to the Mail on Sunday.


Founder Mike Gooley said: “We completely bucked the internet trend.”


Trailfinders runs 27 travel centres in the UK and Ireland with a staff of more than 1,000. It claims the average speed of answering calls is 21 seconds and the average duration of each call is just 5 minutes and 42 seconds.


In a message on the firm’s website, Gooley said: “You are not led up the garden path of cyber space and obscure websites which cannot answer your specific queries but just demand you click their boxes.”


The company’s staff have on average more than six years experience in arranging travel. They have travelled to more than 96% of the world’s countries between them.


“It is a fallacy that the internet turns up the best value, because it cannot compare fares databases such as Trailfinders as they are simply not available to the public,” Gooley added.

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