EasyJet holidays is planning ‘multiple’ fam trips as part of a range of initiatives to further build travel agency sales.
The operator is marking the first anniversary of the launch of trade sales by offering trade exclusive discounts, prize holidays and places on its first fam trip, heading to Tenerife in November.
Brad Bennetts, head of distribution, told a Travel Weekly webcast that more fam trips are being planned, with the next ones due to depart either at the end of this year or after the peaks selling season early in 2022.
“It is really important to get across to agents how our offering works, what our in-resort experience is like. We are looking at multiple trips for next year,” he said.
“We are lucky that we are owned by an airline so we have access to airline seats; we have good relationships with our DMCs [destination management companies] and hotel partners.
“We’re really, really keen to get as many agents away next year as we can.
“That is a really important part of being in travel; we are all in travel because we love travelling.
“Fam trips are one of the things we have missed the most.”
He said the operator now works with more than 3,000 agents and the business’s proportion of trade sales are four times the level initially expected.
“The customer type that books through a travel agent is very different to the customer type that books online or through the web,” he said.
“There has been little or no cannibalisation…it’s incremental business for us, which is fantastic.
“Now is absolutely the time that customers will want to book with an agent because of all the restrictions, with all the extra testing and complications around travel.
“People want to talk to an expert and see people face-to-face.”
The operator is looking at attending face-to-face events such as roadshows and conferences and will expand its trade-facing team “when opportunities arise”.
Currently the trade team consists of Bennetts and Adrian Marpole, distribution manager, supported by a team of 24 in a call centre in Sheffield.
Numbers in Sheffield have almost doubled since trade sales began a year ago, he added.