by Hays Travel’s newest branch will have no customers; in fact, you couldn’t book a holiday there if you tried. But it could simply be its most high-profile opening, in a location visited by millions of Britons every day: Weatherfield, the fictional setting of Coronation Street in the north of the city.
Eagle-eyed viewers spotted the new addition on the Weatherfield High Street set in October, when its bright blue and yellow branding was covered by a sign reading “Coming Soon.” It finally “opened its doors” this week, and was the backdrop for Monday night’s most melodramatic scene, with its Christmas lights twinkling merrily in the midst of the fight.
But the resurgence of the humble shopping agent is no fiction: across Britain, travel brands are opening brick-and-mortar stores in response to growing demand.
“We’re seeing an increasing number of customers wanting face-to-face meetings,” says Bethanie Hall, associate marketing supervisor at Trailfinders, which currently has 43 “travel hubs” (holiday stores) across the Kingdom. United Kingdom and Ireland, with three more opening in 2024. ABTA, the Travel Association, which represents British tour operators and travel agents, says its membership currently includes 2,116 stores across the country; Together, its members account for 90 per cent of holiday bookings in Britain, both on the road and online.
TUI is also experiencing a “resurgence” in demand for in-person sales, says its sales channel director, Belinda Vázquez. The brand, which has more than 400 hotels and resorts, announced in May that it would open 21 new stores over the next 12 months, in addition to its current 317 branches.
Meanwhile, Hays Travel has added 61 stores to its network in recent weeks alone, with the acquisition of the former Just Go Travel and Travel House stores, plus its Weatherfield branch, of course. It now has more than 470 stores across the UK and is spending more than £3.5 million refurbishing, relocating or adding branches this financial year alone.
Could travel agents save Britain’s high streets?
As well as charity shops, travel agencies are “propping up” Britain’s high streets, says Jacqueline Dobson, chairman of Barrhead Travel, which has more than 80 shops across the country. And God knows they need it: our high streets have long been in decline and more than 6,000 shops in the UK have closed their doors in the last five years.
But amid the trend of travel booking in person, the demise of the high street has presented an opportunity, says Richard Slater, owner of ABTA member Henbury Travel. It recently moved the business to larger premises in the center of Macclesfield, tripling the size of its previous store on the outskirts of the town: “I was able to negotiate the lease a lot because the hair salon that occupied it was closing, while our business is growing. ”, he tells Telegraph Travel.
Online bookings still account for the majority of holiday shopping: rather than rivaling virtual transactions, the rise in retail reflects the broader dynamism of the travel industry. The sector has enjoyed double-digit growth for 11 of the last 12 months, Barclays’ latest spending report revealed on Tuesday; In November alone, travel agency trade grew by 9.2 percent and airline trade by 14 percent.
And even smaller retail travel agencies are rising: “We’re a small shop but we’re doing very well,” says Clare Dudley Adams, managing director of Ponders Travel, in the village of Over, Cambridgeshire. “We have just passed £4 million in sales, which, for a small team, is impressive.”
When radio presenter Chris Evans spotted a new Travelbag agency on his local high street in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, last week, he praised how it was “disrupting” the market by prioritizing physical retail. “It made me very happy to see a travel agent appear on the high street,” he told listeners to his Virgin Radio show. “Clearly, Travelbag has realized that people… might want a bit of social interaction and personalized service again.”
That’s the key to a retail recovery, says Jonathon Woodall-Johnston, chief operating officer at Hays Travel. “A holiday is a big value purchase, not just financially but emotionally, and people want to book with an expert,” he insists. It is a steady hand while you are fooled by online options and the assurance that you are safe from scams. “Entering a branch gives [customers] the confidence that someone is there to look after them, from booking to travel to the safe return home.”
And booking in person isn’t necessarily more expensive than online: in May, which one? The report found that holiday quotes were initially more expensive through an agent, but many retailers were willing to offer discounts when requested. In-person customer service was “mostly excellent,” she noted, which “can be invaluable if any part of your vacation doesn’t go as planned.”
“One of those small pleasant moments in life”
There is also comfort in the vague nostalgia of travel shops. The 1980s and 1990s were its heyday, when around 90 per cent of Brits’ holidays were booked face to face, rather than by telephone. According to Atol, the licensing scheme for air travel organisers, more than 3,000 travel agents had 4,500 branches across the country, including Lunn Poly, Thomas Cook and Going Places Travel. You may remember its walls filled with colorful Christmas brochures, its permed staff with giant computer monitors, and the pleasing physicality of a paper airline ticket or a hotel reservation on letterhead.
Is there any call for that in 2023? Absolutely, says Slater. “We are actually a travel agency from the 80s, albeit with technology,” he laughs. “We have comfortable chairs and lots of brochures; people like their tangibility and talking face to face.” It’s the antithesis of facelessness online, a throwback to simpler times and perhaps also a new cornerstone of the community. “People often come to chat and we are used by people of all ages – from 18-year-olds on their first trips to families looking for beach getaways and retirees booking cruises.”
In the 2000s, with the rise of personal computers and virtual retail, travel agencies fell out of favor, unable to compete with the high prices of online agencies. And their demise continued: By the 2010s, agents were firmly out of fashion, a relic of an offline world.
But the pandemic was a wake-up call, as thousands of tourists were left out of money due to online companies’ inflexible refund policies, or left stranded abroad without the support of an agent on the other end of the phone. We quickly learned our lesson: in 2022, an ABTA study found that 37 per cent of Brits were more likely to book with a travel professional than before Covid. Their top reasons included up-to-date advice (45 percent) and the safety of a package trip (43 percent).
As the icing on the cake, booking in person “feels more like an experience”, says James Kenny, a portrait photographer from Northamptonshire who recently booked a trip to Turkey through his local TUI store. “Years ago we used to book in person, but we stopped doing that when online offers started,” he explains. “But this was much better. The process of walking into a travel agency and flipping through the brochures while waiting to be served is one of those pleasant little moments in life.”
