Vertical Travel Group’s homeworking agents are seeing sales surpass pre-pandemic levels as inhouse marketing campaigns are encouraging high-value bookings.
Sales last month for the group’s four homeworking brands – Your Holiday Booking, Holiday Elite, Instant Holidays and Instant Breaks – were up by 233% on January 2021.
Damian Mc Donough, business development director, said agents are regularly seeing bookings worth £15,000-£20,000.
The highest so far in 2022 is by Holiday Elite homeworker Michele Martin who made a £71,200 sale for a party of 20 to Halkidiki, Greece.
A dozen agents recently passed the milestone of £1 million in sales, generated since May 1, 2021, with more homeworkers set to reach that target by April.
Mc Donough said: “The mood of agents is so much more upbeat now since restrictions have been eased. People are eager to travel and are booking holidays once more.”
The group created more than 350 email campaigns in January on behalf of individual homeworkers, which were sent to the agent’s own database of customers.
“Agents have had huge responses to bespoke mailers we have created for them,” said Mc Donough.
“One had 15 enquiries and four bookings for a Lapland-themed mailer. Another secured a cruise booking for a group of eight people regarding an MSC offer we sent out for her.”
More than 250 agents now working for the four homeworking brands, up from 220 in May 2021.
“We are seeing people joining us who may have previously worked for a high street agency or have taken a career break and want to get back into travel again,” said Mc Donough.
“With the support we offer, from admin to the award-winning systems and marketing we provide…they know they are part of a team and not alone.”
Ben Rodger, group marketing director, added: “During the pandemic we put more focus on the marketing team and that investment is now paying dividends.
“Our dedicated team offer support in every facet of marketing including PR and social media to help agents advertise and promote their business every step of the way without any cost to them.”
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Vertical Travel Group reports growth of homeworking division