The chief executive of The Travel Network Group has claimed that the competition posed by the growth of Hays Travel and InteleTravel brings opportunities alongside threats.
During a webcast interview with Travel Weekly, Gary Lewis said Hays Travel’s acquisition of Thomas Cook stores following the latter’s collapse in 2019 had “changed the retail landscape”, while InteleTravel’s arrival in the UK had brought new talent into the market.
“The [main] opportunity is the quantity and quality of talent within our industry,” he said.
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The importance that Hays Travel places on training and development is a particular boon for the sector as a whole, he suggested.
“Apprenticeships bring talent into the industry, which all organisations can benefit from,” he said.
InteleTravel had also swelled the number of people in the sector and this could also prove beneficial, he said, but he claimed that most of the company’s agents lacked the commitment demonstrated elsewhere.
“The majority are literally doing it as a hobby,” he said, arguing InteleTravel had implemented a radical and “dumbed-down” approach.
“I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but you can bring people in very quickly with very little experience and very little skill-set,” he said.
However, he added that InteleTravel was also performing “brilliantly well” in some areas – including its use of technology – and predicted the business would have longevity.
“I’m sure it will be around for a long time and it is bringing new talent into our market. Our issue is how do we take advantage of that,” he said.
Reflecting on changes on the high street over the years, he noted Hays Travel’s retail expansion since 2019 as being one of the most significant developments.
“Competition in each community has changed massively. There used to be seven, eight or nine travel agents within a community; now there’s one, two or three, and one of them is likely to be Hays.”