Mercury Holidays joins Atas as part of new trade growth strategy

He noted that agent sales before Covid accounted for about 22% of Mercury’s touring business and now it is about 30%.

But that is “quite low” for the touring sector, he continued, which means there is “a lot of opportunity” to grow through agents.

Commenting on current sales trends, he said there has been an increase in late departures this year, along with “huge demand” for solo travel.

Mercury offers more than 130 tours worldwide, with its most popular destinations being India, China, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, and the core demographic aged over 50.

Harford said the tours offer “excellent value at competitive prices”, adding: “We believe we are doing it in a way that is very attractive to new customers and customers looking for the best value proposition – tours are priced very competitively but we are not stripping away things to make it cheap.

“Our repeat bookings are fantastic as our guides are the stars of the show.”

Claire Brighton, Atas director, said: “It’s great to hear how Mercury Holidays is boosting its engagement with travel agents as part of its new strategy to increase trade tour sales – and how it sees membership of Atas as a key part of that initiative.

“I look forward to catching up with Josh and his team at Atas events and our annual conference in Wales in September as they update agents about their products and trade support.”