Comment: It’s time to put forward the very best for the Agent Achievement Awards

After a record-breaking January for many travel firms, February has proved to be another successful month of trading.

The dust may be settling a little after a start to the peak and wave selling seasons that agents and operators could barely have dreamed of, but there is still plenty to cheer in year-on-year comparisons with pre-pandemic levels.

This strong start to 2023 is particularly impressive given the headwinds businesses continue to face in relation to pressure on consumer spending and their own resourcing and spiralling costs.

But it has proved once again the adaptability and durability of those in the industry who stuck at it during the worst of times and now see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Abta this week described the year to date as “remarkable” and its members’ trading performance as “robust”, with strengthening balance sheets offering additional reasons for optimism.

And it is this sense of momentum that we plan to harness at July’s Agent Achievement Awards, which launched this week.

As always, the largest and most prestigious celebration of travel agents in the UK and Ireland will be a spectacular event, as we rekindle our partnership with headline sponsor Virgin Atlantic and a host of other trade-friendly brands.

But before we get to the night itself, we need all our readers to get involved – either by entering or nominating your agencies and colleagues or, if you’re a supplier, voting for your top trade partners.

You can find out by visiting agentachievementawards.co.uk.