The ‘dinosaurs’ on the high street are in great shape and have a bright future, says Miles Morgan, managing director of Miles Morgan Travel
The reaction to my business’s recent announcement of further expansion has been interesting, with lots of people delighted to see some good news about the retail travel high street.
I see no surprise about this upbeat news. The vast majority of high street closures of late have been from the big two high street travel agents Thomas Cook and Thomson.
I think the days of these two players being classed as a full-service travel agent are long since gone: some of their staff may have the skills for the job but their role is to focus on in-house products, not build bespoke breaks and sell third-party holidays.
Different beasts
Their future and longevity on the high street has, for me, little bearing on the future of the modern high street agent; the two are increasingly different beasts with different roles to play.
As a small-business owner you can always make excuses for not attending awards ceremonies or going on educationals, but the value of such events can be greater than you think. Simply mixing with like-minded people ignites no end of ideas and inspiration. At the same time it quickly makes you realise the high street is full of very successful agents doing a great job and going from strength to strength.
The other thing that becomes very obvious is that there are a lot of ways to be successful but one thing is abundantly clear and consistent with those who are: they all know who they are targeting as customers, have knowledgeable, loyal staff and a total customer service focus.
Just ensure you listen carefully to how others approach their business and see what you can learn from it. I have a couple of dates in the diary to go and visit other agencies to see what I can learn; we don’t conflict geographically, so why not!
‘Dinosaurs’ thriving
The online world appears to have increasing customer-acquisition costs and decreasing margins, a very challenging mix. Meanwhile, the much-maligned high street agent takes advantage of the decreased competition down the road with the big two, enjoys extra online-generated business and carves out a large niche locally that is hard to beat.
Small wonder I see a bright future and lots of very successful people running different businesses to mine that think the same. Is it not about time the doom-mongers woke up to what is really going on in travel retailing? The online world has growth but spiralling costs of acquisition, reducing margins and questionable client loyalty.
Meanwhile, we dinosaurs on the high street are back in great shape and prospering with the perfect mix of the old offline business and new online-generated opportunities.