Not Just Travel expects to “knock on the door” of £1 billion annual turnover in the next five years if it continues to grow at its current pace.
Co-founder Steve Witt said most of the homeworking agency’s sales growth would come from existing consultants rather than new recruits, following investment in supplier partnerships, training and technology.
Speaking as the firm reported triple-digit growth for the year to date on last year for sales of cruise line Virgin Voyages, he said: “In the next five years we reckon we’ll be touching the billion-pound mark; we hope to be knocking on the door of that.”
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Witt declined to reveal the agency’s current turnover, but said: “With the current growth trajectory, there is no reason to think £1 billion will not be achieved. Our growth is strong; we have doubled down on coaching, training, development and technology to help our consultants.
“We do want to recruit more consultants, but our biggest growth will come from existing consultants.”
Key to this will be further investment in working more closely with selected suppliers, Witt said.
He revealed plans to replicate the agency’s partnership with Virgin Voyages with airlines, hoteliers and tourist boards, adding that it had already achieved “fantastic” results with Beachcomber Resorts & Hotels, Hyatt and Constantinou Brothers.
Not Just Travel and Virgin Voyages have “invested heavily” in a closer relationship since 2022, with more than 300 agents boarding the line’s ships.
Witt added: “We didn’t just take agents on board, we had coaching and training sessions, plus we took a camera crew to create content for our agents. It’s not just ‘look and learn’.”
This summer the companies held their second Seminar at Sea and this month 130 Not Just Travel agents boarded Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady for an inaugural Platinum Get-Together, during which the agency announced multimillion-pound investments, including a new quotation tool, rolled out to agents this week.
While cruise is the agency’s fastest growth area, it plans to boost its focus on luxury and adventure travel. It also aims to recruit 250-plus agents, mostly new to travel, a year. It currently has more than 700 consultants.