Wendy Wu Tours has reported an uplift in sales of its tours since bricks-and-mortar travel agencies across the UK reopened their doors.
Non-essential retail has been allowed to reopen from April 12, since when the tour operator has reported a 74% uplift in demand and 52% uplift in trade revenue compared to the previous two weeks beforehand.
The Asia specialist put the sales spike down to a series of discounts and airline upgrades and £99 deposits it is currently offering, as well as extra knowledge gathered from online webinars that took place since the pandemic began – and which are due to continue.
Business development managers are due to begin revisiting agents in-store in the coming months.
Global sales director John Warr said: “It’s great to see so many of our trade partners reopening stores again and refreshing for the industry as a whole, as we all begin this new phase together with restrictions easing, agencies reopening as well as the promises by the government to resume international travel in May.
“It’s so encouraging to see this demand, hence our determination to continue to back and support our agents with some of the best offers in the industry, such as the current ‘Partner Flies Free’ and 50% off airfares for Solo travellers, all of which are helping agents to give customers’ the best travel experiences, at exceptional value for money.
“Our trade support team have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback from agents’ in response to our ongoing series of destination and training webinars and so we’ve taken the decision to add more webinars to our existing programme as well as getting our business development managers back in stores and visiting agents again over the next few months.”
Offers of free flights for partners and 50% off flights for solo travellers run until April 30, 2021.