Eight agents have received almost £80,000 between them to put towards opening new retail shops in Jet2holidays’ Scale Up Your Street competition.
Jet2holidays launched the initiative in March, saying it would support up to 10 travel agent partners by contributing a total of £100,000, as well as access to expert advice, to get a new retail shop up and running.
Agents had to submit a written pitch outlining their vision by 30 April 2025.
After receiving hundreds of submissions and being impressed by the quality of entries, judges upped the funding pot to £120,000 and shortlisted 12 candidates.
The first eight pitched in person to the judges at Jet2holiday’s Holiday House offices in Leeds yesterday. The final four will be made in the coming days.
Jet2holidays gave each of the four panellists £2,500 pot of cash per pitch, and travel agents had to persuade them how much to contribute towards their new business venture.
Not all of the finalists can be named yet for commercial reasons, but the list includes Idle Travel – which will now be opening a new store 40 years after the agency was first established – Perfect Getaways and Go Ben Ltd. All eight pitches made yesterday received significant funding, with many taking away the maximum available, which was £10,000.
All successful candidates from the final pitch event will be announced once their new high street travel agency is ready to officially open, and all commercial arrangements are completed.
Director of Travel Agent Relationships Alan Cross, one of the panel of judges, said: “The only word I can use to describe the day is inspirational.
“The passion and commitment we witnessed from agency partners and homeworkers proves that the high street will be a thriving place thanks to talented and brilliant people who want to open retail stores, providing innovative and welcoming places for people to book their holidays.
“All of the judges were blown away by the sheer quality of the pitches and we are incredibly excited about watching our partners progress and succeed. Scale Up Your Street is all about helping independent travel agency partners grow and and we are very proud of what everyone has achieved.”
Also on the judging panel were General Manager Trade Sales Lloyd Cross, Seaside Travel owner and Director Nicola Park and franchise owner of Hays Travel Mold Don Bircham.
