The boss of OTA Holidaysplease is feeling “realistically confident” about January sales on the back of business in December rounding off a record year in 2022.
Director Richard Dixon hailed the energy and resilience of head office staff and the company’s home-based travel agent partners for the success achieved in the past 12 months.
He said: “The results we have seen in 2022 are a direct result of the incredible effort, spirit and belief that every single person involved in the business maintained through the tough times of 2020 and 2021.
“We knew that if we stayed on the front foot through the pandemic by continuing to invest in marketing, product and tech development, that we would be perfectly positioned to make the most of the good times as they returned, and that is exactly what we have seen throughout ’22.”
Looking forward to the new year peaks period, Dixon added: “I think it is right to recognise that there remain headwinds in the economy, on the other hand Holidaysplease customers continue to demonstrate a strong desire to get their holidays booked.
“Enquiry numbers for the two weeks leading into and then following Christmas were 51% up on December ’21, with bookings up 77%. That is really positive leading into January and bodes well for a busy and productive peaks.”
He pointed out that that more than 30% of the company’s sales team achieved their best ever results in the last year.
Dixon added: “Our ethos has always been about growing via the productivity of our sales team whilst also increasing the team size, so it has been particularly satisfying to see so many of our travel agent partners achieving record sales themselves, especially those that have been with us for many, many years.”