Travel with Katie Butler: Launch of Christmas gift appeal

We are collecting unwrapped toys and gifts for local children that for one reason or another will not be receiving Christmas presents this year.We are collecting unwrapped toys and gifts for local children that for one reason or another will not be receiving Christmas presents this year.
We are collecting unwrapped toys and gifts for local children that for one reason or another will not be receiving Christmas presents this year.
This week I am back to reality and revitalised after enjoying a wonderful holiday in sunny Turkey, taking time to unwind and prepare for the coming months.

Katie Butler, Total Travel, writes: We have lots of training, conferences and online learning events to attend, and of course Christmas to look forward to. It certainly is the calm before the storm!

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Ordinarily the months of November and December do tend to quieten down for our industry and it gives us time to plan ahead for what we call ‘peaks season’ in January and February.

It is also a time when suppliers and tour operators roll out training events and conferences and I am delighted that staff from all our branches will be attending and enrolling in as many as we can and gaining knowledge to pass on to our much-valued customers.

Every day is almost certainly a school day in our industry. Our first event of many is next week and is destination specific, where the team will be extending their knowledge on the Caribbean Island of St Kitts.

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Following this, the countdown is on for two back to back conferences in Cyprus, one being the much anticipated Jet2 VIP agent top selling conference, my favourite event of the year.

It is less than two months to Christmas and once again we are delighted to announce that we will be working alongside Mission Christmas Cash for Kids and all three of our branches in Heckmondwike, Ossett and now Brighouse will be official drop off points for this cause.

We are collecting unwrapped toys and gifts for local children that for one reason or another will not be receiving Christmas presents this year. If you would like to help us with our mission – please drop donations into one of our stores, on or before December 16, to give us time to deliver to the Cash for Kids warehouse, in time for them to distribute the presents.

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Unlike many, the families and children supported by this mission cannot reduce their outgoings, reduce food bills or cancel holidays, because they have never had these luxuries to begin with. We absolutely love doing this to help local children and this year, having three drop off points, we are hoping you can help us to make it our biggest collection yet.

October and November has proven to be a popular time for our staff to take their annual leave. Alison at our Ossett branch is venturing to Mexico and Alison at Brighouse is visiting Thailand (top of my bucket-list). I can’t wait to hear all about it and update you on their adventures.

We continue to be taking a consistent amount of late bookings which ordinarily start to slow down at this time of year, in fact 11 per cent of our total bookings taken last week were to travel this month and a huge 26 per cent of new bookings to depart within the next 12 weeks. The lack of British summer I am sure assisting in this huge demand for late and last minute sunshine.

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Cruise was also extremely strong although expected with the launch of P&O cruises right up to March 2027 (yes people really do book that early) and new cruise bookings accounting for a huge 23 per cent of new bookings. Top-selling destinations last week based on passenger numbers were Tenerife and cruises departing from Southampton.