How the high street travel agent is making a comeback

Online bookings still account for the majority of holiday purchases: rather than rivaling virtual transactions, the increase in retail reflects the wider fleet of the travel industry. The sector has had double-digit growth for 11 of the last 12 months, the latest Barclays spending report revealed on Tuesday; only in November, the trade of travel agents grew by 9.2 percent, and airlines by 14 percent.

And even the smallest retail travel agents are growing: “We’re a small shop but we’re doing really well,” says Clare Dudley Adams, managing director of Ponders Travel, in the village of Over in Cambridgeshire. “We’ve just spent over £4 million in sales, which, for a small team, is impressive.”

When radio presenter Chris Evans saw a new Travelbag agency in his local high street in Marlow, Buckinghamshire last week, he praised how it was “disrupting” the priority market of physical retail. “It made me really happy to see a travel agent pop up on the high street,” he told listeners of his Virgin Radio programme. “Clearly Travelbag understood that people … might want some social interaction and personal service again.”

This is the key to the retail recovery, says Jonathon Woodall-Johnston, chief operating officer of Hays Travel. “A holiday is a high-value purchase, not only financially, but also emotionally – and people want to book with an expert,” he insists. It is a steady hand while you are deceived by the choice online, and make sure that you are safe from scams. “Selling in a branch gives [customers] the confidence that someone is there to look after them, from the reservation to the journey and the safe return home”.