Travel with Katie Butler: Heartfelt thanks for all your support

Alison and other Yorkshire agents in Majorca.

I wrote last week about how time flies (especially it seems as you get older) and I find it hard to believe that this month marks five years since the collapse of Thomas Cook, a name which most of you will be familiar with.

Katie Butler, Total Travel, writes: When Total Travel was established way back in 2013, we joined independently under The Freedom Travel Group (part of the Co-Operative Travel who then merged with Thomas Cook) who provided our systems, ABTA and ATOL licences and commercial agreements.

In September 2019, Total Travel along with hundreds more independent travel agents found ourselves in uncharted territory when the collapse of Thomas Cook was officially announced, not knowing if our business would survive and if we would still be doing this job today.

Not only were we looking after our overseas customers who were stranded temporarily overseas as Thomas Cook flights were no longer operating, we had thousands of forward passengers to look after and a business to protect.

Thankfully, after discussions with ABTA we were gifted a new ABTA number and were able to protect our forward bookings and start to trade again within what seemed like a very long 48 hours.

The phrase ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ certainly comes to mind when I think of those hectic and chaotic times.

Who would have imagined that five years on we would be celebrating new shop openings, our best trading years to date and all on the back of a pandemic.

It goes without saying, that the support of our amazing staff and loyal long-standing and many new customers, we would not be here today. So, a big heartfelt thank you goes out to all who supported and continue to support your high street and independent travel agencies.

Roll on five years and we are employing local people and giving our team the opportunity to visit overseas destinations.

Last week, we welcomed back Alison (who works in our Brighouse branch) from Majorca, where she was hosted by Jet2holidays and Leeds Bradford Airport on a ‘Destination Discovery’.

Alison had not visited Majorca (one of our top-selling destinations) for over 20 years and of course plenty has changed. It is important to keep on the top of our game with even the most popular of places.

Alison was lucky enough to stay and visit a selection of Iberostar hotels and also waterpark hotels including the very popular Club Mac in Alcudia, a favourite for families.

There was of course, talk of some amazing tapas and possibly a few cocktails, I am informed.

It seems many of you are still hoping to catch a glimpse of summer, as last week out top-selling month to depart was October – accounting for 16 per cent of our new bookings.

Late bookings (travelling within 12 weeks) reduced down to 34 per cent of total sales and long haul increased to a huge 25 per cent of total new bookings.

Overall, a fabulous week, but no change to top-selling destinations – with Turkey, Tenerife and Majorca retaining their top spots.