The Global Travel Group conference at La Manga Club in Murcia, Spain began today where MD Andy Stark told delegates that the group is “performing well” with bookings up by 16% over the past year. 

A total of 33 new businesses joined the group which has also contributed to overall growth, and of these, Stark said it was interesting to see that a number of them are experienced travel agents.

Despite the fact that travel professionals face many challenges when selling holidays due to changes such as Brexit, the General Election and the Trump administration, from a consumer perspective, he said:  “People still want to go on holiday and want to spend”.

He said the Western Mediterranean continues to rise in popularity, whereas the Eastern Med is becoming less popular: “We’ve seen a swing across to the Western Med; Portugal and Croatia are also doing well”.

He also told delegates that due to low flight pricing, there are some attractive fares which suddenly opens up destinations. He said consumers are increasingly travelling to places they haven’t been to before, so it’s good for them to talk to a travel agent about that.

He also said agents have the opportunity to open up high street shops: “When a large company moves out of town, its a good opportunity to jump in there.”

He told members that they will be offered more workshops across the country and training will be tailor-made to experienced travel agents.

On the subject of technology, changes also needed to be tailor-made and the group has been working with Traveltek.  He said: “It takes a lot of time and it was my decision to be cautious rather than just rolling something out.”

In summing up, he said: “May started off really well, were in good shape and with our 25th anniversary coming up, there’s an awful lot of things were going to celebrate, so watch this space.”