Dame Irene Hays says she sees a healthy future for high street travel agencies as she reported a slight dint in online sales in the recovery from Covid.
The Hays Travel owner said many new customers have been visiting its circa 450 retail locations across the UK as they seek more face-to-face advice.
More:Hays Travel returns to profitability in August
She told a Travel Weekly webcast: “We still see a future in the high street and we still see digital and virtual developing at the same time.
“That’s been the case for a long time but the pandemic might have slowed down online a little. It would be naive to think it’s not going to continue to grow so we’ll continue to watch how they both develop.
“At the moment, we’re committed to the high street. If the high street wasn’t working, we would respond.”
Addressing consumer sentiment towards travel agents, Hays added: “It’s really interesting about customers coming to Hays Travel who haven’t booked with us before and haven’t booked with a high street travel agent for a long time.”
She explained that, from 2017 to 2019, 19% of the agency’s customers were new to Hays Travel. This compared with 56% of business being from customers new to Hays Travel in August this year, a proportion not including those on the Thomas Cook database acquired by Hays Travel as new.
“They’re coming in, either perhaps because they couldn’t get through on a telephone line or couldn’t get a response to a query,” said Hays. “They might have had an issue with a refund, or they would just now like to book with a person rather than online.
“How long that lasts, I don’t know, because we know how successful online is.”
Hays noted that no Hays Travel shops have been closed since March, when 86 closures brought the network down to about 456 locations.
But she explained: “We have had one or two, where they’re developing a shopping precinct and we can’t stay in that shop.
“We’re down to just 19 where there’s an outstanding issue but they’re in places we want to be.
“We’ve made really good progress but it seems like a long time since October 2019, when we embarked on this journey.”