Independent operator Mercury Holidays is planning to run more fam trips for travel agents in 2023 to capitalise on strong trade sales during the peaks selling season.
Tom Bugeja, chief executive, said the operator is seeing “a very good January” with “particularly strong sales through the trade”.
It has also added five new itineraries to its escorted tours brochure for 2023-24 to cater for “strong demand”.
The tours are India’s Tigers and Wildlife; Java, Bali and the Komodo Dragons; Grand Tour of Egypt; Madagascar: Discover a Lost World; and Pompeii, Capri and the Amalfi Coast.
Bugeja said its touring business is back to about 75% of pre-pandemic levels but would be on a par with 2019 if China and Sri Lanka were fully recovered.
Long-haul holiday sales are above or the same as they were in 2019, although its short-haul range is still behind pre-pandemic levels, as the market is very competitive and many major hotel partners are still recovering, he added.
Bugeja said travel agent sales are an “important part of the business and going well”.
“We want to talk to them more – we have got a great offering and want to do more with agents,” he said.
The company ran a fam trip to Sri Lanka last year and it is now planning one for Malta. It also hopes to run a fam trip to Mauritius and is in “early discussions” about Vietnam.
Michael Priest, head of product, said Mercury also wants to run white-label tours in partnership with agency groups again now that its staffing levels have recovered.
“We put the tour together and they run with it…they know their audience and customers,” he said.
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Bugeja added: “We can quickly put together a tour that is competitive, unique and agents can sell as their own.”
Based in Sevenoaks, Kent, the operator had more than 100 staff before the pandemic but it dropped down to about 40 staff.
It is now up to about 80, thanks to a focus on recruitment last year to ensure it had enough staff to quickly answer phone calls during the peaks selling season.
“We have been very busy – luckily we planned ahead and recruited well so travel agents and customers can get through to us on the phone,” said Bugeja.
He said web bookings are “strong” and now account for about half of sales, thanks to a redesign of the website to enable agents and clients to book easily online.
This January has seen “very strong” long-haul sales, especially to Mauritius, the Maldives, India and Vietnam. Sri Lanka is slowly recovering from Covid restrictions and political instability, he added.
Trade sales are led by Josh Harford, commercial manager, who works with Geraldine Stimson, chief commercial officer.
Clients for escorted tours are mostly empty-nesters, who have more time and money for longer durations, and are increasingly aware of the benefits of booking with travel agents, said Bugeja.
“The world has been closed for two years so there is massive pent-up demand from empty-nesters who have been stuck at home, frustrated but keen to see all those amazing places on their bucket list,” he said.
But he said clients are more price conscious than ever because of cost-of-living concerns, so the operator ensures its prices are “as competitive as they can be”.
However, with flights and hotel costs on the increase, holidays are inevitably more expensive, he added.
The operator raised £16,000 in November by holding a Give Back Friday event, instead of a Black Friday promotion, which saw the company give a donation of £25 for every booking made on that day.
The funds will provide meals to children in Sri Lanka via charity Their Future Today. Mercury Holidays has supported the charity’s rural village preschool in Sri Lanka since 2015.