The boss of Jet2 has warned that travel agents face “a very, very tough time” with increased costs in the coming weeks – despite a “cautious” welcome for fresh green list additions.
Steve Heapy, chief executive of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, told a Travel Weekly webcast that agents can look forward to “cash in the bank” with commission from July and August bookings, thanks to the government’s expansion of the green list on Thursday – but they still face financial hurdles such as the furlough scheme tailing off, the end of rent holidays and repayment demands for loans.
“Life is going to get tough for travel agents, particularly the independent travel agents that perhaps don’t have access to funding that the bigger organisations do,” he said.
“Governments and local councils will want to replenish the reserves that have been depleted, probably by putting up council tax rates [and] even things that affect people indirectly.
“If they put parking fees up in town centres, that’s another blow to travel agents. It’s going to be a very, very tough time.”
He said the trade needs to lobby for investment in high streets, especially in the north, to revive town centres.
“Particularly after the last 18 months when people have got used to ordering stuff online, just expecting businesses to take a huge gamble and open up shops and reinvigorate the high street themselves, I don’t think it’s going to happen,” he told the webcast.
“The government needs to get involved and help these businesses.”
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He congratulated some of Jet2’s travel agent partners for changing their business models, with the introduction of call centres and social media marketing, for example.
But he added: “They might want to keep an element of that, but I think there is still a huge part of their business that could be high street, and the government needs to put support into this.”
Heapy said ministers need to visit northern towns to find out what needs to be done after the pandemic subsides.
“We need to reinvigorate the town centres,” he said.
“Travel agents, going forward, they’re not just going to be a shop on the high street, they can be a community hub.
“There’s a bright future, but it needs the government to put as much effort into reinvigorating the high street as they have done into Covid over the last 18 months.”
“It’s going to take businesses a long time to rebuild,” he added, referring to deferred rents and VAT, and loans.
“If shops have disappeared from the high street, there’s less reason for people to come on the high street. So, there’s a lot of work to do.”