TUI has issued an open ‘thank you’ letter to independent agents for their business so far this Peaks season.
The letter was issued by Director Marketing and Sales UK & Ireland Bart Quinton Smith, who said he wanted to thank agents for their hard work, despite the challenges.
Bart said: “Recent figures demonstrate an increase in bookings through independent agents, especially over the past weekend with Saturday standing out as a particularly buoyant day.
“This upturn in bookings comes despite a soft start to the year on the High Street with unpredictable weather impacting footfall.”
TUI said it has seen strong bookings, particularly for family market with free kids’ places driving volume and growth coming through the Holiday Village product over the last four weeks.
Longhaul has also performed well over the month for agents with Mexico and Dominican Republic coming out on top, while Egypt and Cape Verde are also popular.
Bart added: “We’d like to express our thanks to all of our trade partners. We remain confident that our strategy to strengthen our relationships with the trade is working and we will continue to see steady growth in bookings across both beach and cruise products.
“Now the UK weather has returned to some normality we are hopeful that we will see more bookings as consumers look ahead to their holiday plans for the year. We would like to once again thank the trade for working with us in such a collaborative way and wish them a successful selling period for the weeks ahead.”
One independent that has been singing TUI’s praises this Peaks is Claridon Travel Senior Travel Agent Gemma Krause, based in Nottingham.
She was quoted in Travel Gossip’s Peaks round-up on Tuesday saying: I think TUI is smashing it with prices.”
