EasyJet holiday’s Natasha Marson describes the Travel Weekly Agent Achievement Awards as a ‘night like no other’ as we look forward to the 2024 ceremony in three weeks’ time. Andrew McQuarrie reports.
Q. Why was easyJet holidays keen to sponsor this year’s AAAs?
We love to celebrate the achievements of our trusted travel agent partners, who have played a key role in supporting our rapid growth. So we’re delighted to sponsor this fantastic event to help make the ceremony even more special, and will be running a competition on the night to give away some well-deserved prizes. I am also thrilled to be part of the judging process for the Young Leisure Agent of the Year award.
Q. Which products are you focusing on at the moment?
We offer beach and city-break packages to over 7,000 hotels, across 100 destinations in more than 500 resorts. This year, we’ve seen increasing popularity of North Africa, including Egypt and Tunisia, some of our most popular year-round sunshine destinations. Our network’s continued expansion to key leisure hotspots, with heaps of new routes for this summer alone, has resulted in thousands more package holidays for our agent partners to book for customers.
We also welcomed new cities, including Cairo, Istanbul, Rotterdam and a second Iceland destination, Akureyri. We’re pleased our city breaks have grown in popularity, as we’ve focused on having holidays to suit all tastes.
Q. How are you supporting your travel agent partners?
We host a packed schedule of events to engage and educate our travel agent partners, with our strong trade distribution team growing by 70% to establish even closer agent relationships. Now with dedicated trade marketing support, we can make our events even bigger and create further trade-exclusive campaigns and incentives, which has seen tens of thousands of additional customer bookings, particularly in our peak period, all down to our travel agents’ hard work.
Our ‘Team Orange on Tour’ roadshows have seen the team travelling the UK to meet with more than 1,000 travel agents and key hotel suppliers. We’re also inviting agents on fam trips to Bodrum, Kefalonia and Mykonos to experience an easyJet holiday for themselves.
We’ve upgraded our trade portal, including new destination video guides, a social media tool to create unique assets and trading packs focusing on specific destinations and seasons.
We’re also looking forward to our next legacy event when the Big Orange Party returns this winter, with further exciting announcements to come on our annual celebration.
Q. How has 2024 been so far?
Our H1 results showed substantial growth – customer numbers rose by 42% year on year, and our headline profit of £31 million was three times the figure for the same period last year.
Also, we were in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work list for a second year running as one of the top-10 most-loved big companies.
Q. Advice for first-time guests at the AAAs?
It really is a night like no other, one of the best events in the industry calendar. It’s all about recognising our agents and making sure they feel valued for the incredible work they do. So, soak up the atmosphere, take full advantage of the brilliant networking opportunities, make new friends and have an evening to remember. You will find me on the dance floor!
Q. Favourite destination?
Corsica, from the mountainous terrain and stunning views to the wonderful lakes to swim in, and not forgetting the soft-sand beaches. Along with delicious food and fine wine, in an all-consuming culture, it has everything.
Q. The last holiday you went on?
Portugal with my daughters – we love to surf and be inspired by the local surfers.
Q. Dream trip?
Right now, Morocco – in a place near the countryside, close to the Atlas mountains, to trek and unwind with outdoor yoga.
Q. One word to sum up the AAAs?
What about three: passion, purpose, opportunity. It’s how we feel at easyJet holidays about the relationships we’ve built with our trade partners and how the event brings it all together.