Sales generated by social media for The Personal Travel Agents’ (PTAs) – Midcounties Co-operative’s homeworking division – reached a record £6.8 million during 2021.
The sales total was 13% above their best performing year, back in 2019.
Nearly one in four sales in 2021 for the 165+ homeworkers originated from social media, with Facebook dominating and bookings via Instagram growing steadily.
Two-thirds (65%) of sales through social media were from new customers, and the top-selling destinations via social media posts were the UK, Santorini, Majorca and the Maldives.
PTAs’ own social media posts on cruises in summer 2021 also ‘gained a lot of traction’.
Sheena Whittle, head of The Personal Travel Agents, said: “Over the last five years, we’ve developed a real understanding of what works on social media, and by using this knowledge we’ve done really well working with supplier partners on specific offers curated especially for social media channels.
“During the last 12 months we’ve had a particular focus on training agents in how to share content via stories and our PTAs are having so much fun with this, creating really engaging and interactive posts to help stay connected with their followers.”