The Good Travel Agent targets 100 agents by end of year

The Good Travel Agent has launched a recruitment drive to reach 100 agents by the end of this year, and 200 by the end of 2026.

The franchise, which was set up two years ago and runs under The Advantage Travel Partnership consortium, had “a record-breaking May” with a 207% year-on-year increase in revenue.

Co-founder and chief executive Jake Cullum-Hollins said: “The main reason we are up so much is this time last year we had roughly 36 agents, but we’re currently at 77 agents, which is helping the volume of bookings we are doing compared to last year.

“A year-on-year comparison for us is more a measure of success of the training that we’ve given our agents. We have grown by 100% in agents, but we’ve also grown 200% in sales, so the training we’re providing is obviously working.”

He said average booking values had increased by £600 between April and May this year, while conversion rates and booking volumes were also up.

Looking ahead, Cullum-Hollins added: “Our projection is to get to 100 agents by the end of this year, and we want to double that to reach 200 by the end of 2026.”

He said the main target audience for the franchise’s recruitment drive were new-to-travel professionals and the company was leveraging advertising on Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and TikTok to reach them.

Cullum-Hollins also saw an opportunity to “inspire” agents with homeworking travel businesses or those working in retail who were not seeing “the same levels of growth or support”.

He said: “We are confident in the training and support that we provide because of the numbers we are getting and sales our agents are getting.

“They’re getting increased profits, sales and bookings, and we want more people to benefit from that."

He believes the business’ “biggest challenge” is likely to be recruiting talent into the head office of the business to provide the same level of high quality training and support with more agents.

Cullum-Hollins added lates were “back in full force”, with 58% of bookings travelling in the next 10 weeks.

“We saw a return to lates last year, but nothing in comparison to this year in terms of percentage of our sales,” he added.

Another sales trend he highlighted was “a big increase” in long-haul multi-centre trips and touring, which he attributed to customers looking for “as much of an experience as possible for their money”.

Private or organised group tours in Japan, Thailand and Sri Lanka were proving particularly popular, especially following the success of Race Across the World, which has showcased Japan, China and India in the last two years.

“It’s definitely had a big influence on customers’ buying decisions,” he explained. “This year Asia, along with Tanzania and Zanzibar seem to be the growing trends.”