Hays Travel is recruiting for 680 permanent roles as holiday sales continue to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.
The figure includes 155 foreign exchange roles for Hays Travel branches. The move comes as the industry faces a recruitment crisis.
In 2020, the agency chain shed around 600 staff as a result of the impact of the Covid pandemic, many of whom worked in foreign exchange. Originally it had announced job losses could reach 878 but the agency later managed to redeploy a further 250 who potentially faced redundancy.
Chair and owner Dame Irene Hays said the decision to recruit was a sign of how the company’s sales were now performing.
She said: “Since travel restrictions lifted we’ve seen a surge in bookings and we’re expecting a bumper summer holiday season. We’re looking for people to join us who have a passion for travel and want an exciting and rewarding career.”
Head of recruitment Victoria Hill added: “It is a fantastic time to join the industry now that we’re seeing holiday bookings bounce back.”
She said the company had retained a “family feel” making it a “fun, exciting and secure place to work” despite being the UK’s largest independent travel agency, with about 450 branches.
Hays Travel offers an ‘Access To Travel Programme’ to train travel consultants and foreign exchange consultants who are new to the industry. Company benefits include Smile Reward Cards, a scheme in which staff can build up supplier incentives and bonuses to use like a debit card at high-street stores.
The company said its decision to rehire staff followed a 34% increase in bookings in the week after the announcement that test and isolation requirements would be eased from February 11.
Sales have continued to rise week-on-week since then and are now at the same level as the equivalent week in 2020, just before the pandemic began.
Most bookings are for summer 2022 or beyond and the company said clients are booking longer durations and upgrading their holidays, with average spend now £482 higher on a family break.
The most popular short haul destinations are Spain, Greece and Turkey, while the east and west coasts of the US are also proving to be firm favourites and long-haul destinations such as Mexico, Bali, Dubai and the Maldives are also popular.
Clients who cruised for the first time in summer 2021, trying out mini sailings around the UK, are now booking for cruises in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Norwegian Fjords, for up to 2024.