Agents all reported record sales in January and February being busy but not as strong.  There was an SLC Australia/New Zealand event in London that attracted 50+ agents where I also caught up with ANZCRO area manager.  The Unite Pacific trade show in London was really good to catch up with multiple agents in one place.

The end of 2024 was very quiet as everyone enjoys Christmas with their families, but January 2025 has started with a bang as everyone now starts booking their holidays.

Trailfinders reported having their biggest day ever in the first week of January, they are always a great guide as to what the UK market is like.

What a year it has been!  No-one is clear about recent past/present or future trends as the market is yet to stabilise post-Covid.  We have had the desperate VFR market, followed by the ‘Revenge spenders’ almost as desperate to travel again and now it looks like we are in the ‘normal’ times again but flight prices, flight availability and UK/EU economy issues are still muddying the waters. 

It has all been about agent training events this month.  So many agents seen at World Travel Market in London, Tourism Australia Marketplace, Travel Counsellors 2024 conference ANZCRO Hull, Selling Luxury travel events x 2, Travel Bulletin event, and directly organised trainings.  Now I have to do follow up for all of these agents to make sure they see how the products we offer suit their customers and how to get support as we come into the main sales period.

It has been a huge month attending the Great Kiwi Road Trip all over the UK and Europe with an awesome team of NZ product suppliers.  I also had the Boomerang 30th Birthday consumer/trade event and an ANZCRO agent event and a Trailfinders wine night with more NZ suppliers.  And a quick trip to Denmark and Manchester for appointments.

I am presently in Aarhus in Denmark to see a big selection of Danish agents including My Planet staff from all over Scandinavia now that they have been bought by the Kilroy/JYSK/Benns group.

The photo is of Ega. When I am here I always visit a friend from Kilroy, Thea Schwartz, 25 years gone but not forgotten.

This month was mainly in Australia and New Zealand travelling with my family, catching up with friends and trying out various products.

Good catch up with Tourism New Zealand this month and obviously time spent in New Zealand and Australia.  Arrivals to New Zealand are up for 2024 compared to 2023 but UK and EU arrivals are still 32% down on 2019.  Trade sales make up 64% of these bookings so travel agents are still the most popular method of booking.

Right now, it is all about getting front and centre of everyone’s minds while they plan their New Zealand and Australia itineraries, promotions, websites and brochures.  This month has most agents forming their plans for what products they will sell/promote for 2025 and into 2026.

I am making sure I send out regular mailouts with any new images, video, or news

The demand for travel to New Zealand and Australia is still very strong with the main barrier to sales being the present cost of flights as these have doubled in costs since pre-Covid times.  I do expect the rates to drop a bit for 2025/26 as more lower brand carriers come into play and capacity grows but the rate drop will not be large and will then grow again in the future.  That might not seem like good news, but customers are just accepting the increase in airfares globally as the new reality and new customers are unaware that rates used to be much lower 5 years ago.

The end result of this

May was all about Trenz in Wellington and ATE in Melbourne. The Trenz turnout was poor but there is a fair bit of follow up from meetings and generally contacting agents that went there for a courtesy follow up to see how they are and how inspired they are about New Zealand.  Same for ATE but with more key decision makers attending and doing pre/post fam trips.

I attended an ANZCRO agent training event this month, great to see these starting up again, hopefully this is the first of many.  There are already rumours of another event in Manchester soon. 

I have been out in Europe on the Australia on Tour roadshow and the general consensus is very positive.  Flight prices remain high, but staff and customers are just beginning to accept this as the new normal (because it is!).

I spent a lot of time with Tourism Australia and Tourism New Zealand this month at Unite Pacific trade show and at ITB in Berlin. Both reported strong demand but still reduced numbers compared to pre-Covid figures. Seat capacity and high-priced airfares is still the issue and while this will drop a bit in 2025, I can’t see us getting back to 2018/19 rates. The same can be said for land products, rates will drop a bit in 2025 but not by much. Consequently, the agents are reporting far higher revenue per customer, which is nice in the short term, but we want more people going to NZ/Australia to increase returns and word of mouth.

This month has been all about travel shows and brochure launches. Both have been very popular which is a great indicator of demand. Good news all around.

Most agents report higher sales in Jan/Feb 2024 than the same time in 2023 which was already a very big year. A key difference is that in many cases the staff at agents in 2023 were new with one agent reporting 40% of staff being there under a year at that time. We are now a year on, so these staff are now more experienced and making better sales with less mistakes. There is also a very noticeable drop in age for the present new recruits, this shows that young people are travelling again, then they are returning and looking for work in travel.

All signs are good for a big 2024 for travel as staff numbers continue to increase at travel agencies. Enquiries and bookings are so strong that many agents are not doing any marketing as they are already working at a maximum capacity.

A recent report by TTG (Travel Trade Gazette) and PWC surveyed 2,000 people showed a continued strong demand for holidays with some people cutting back in other areas to ‘protect’ their holiday plans.  Only 3% were planning on travelling to Australia/NZ but 70% planned to spend the same or more than they did in 2023 with only 15% planning on cutting their holiday budget.  This extra spend was particularly in the higher income and older groups with customers aiming for ‘longer more premium’ locations which has to be good for Australia/NZ.

All the printed and virtual brochures are coming out now and agents are busy with enquiries and bookings.  The lack of flight capacity remains an issue and is keeping the flight prices high.  We are waiting for the China carriers to re-enter the market as they will come back with low airfares and help bring down the rates being charged by the premium carriers.

We are now coming into the peak booking season so there will be much more enquiries.  Lots of staff training which will be followed by staff incentives to kick off a fantastic 2024.

I have seen various agents and tourism bodies this month and they are very much in agreement about the present market situation.  There was a rush of demand post-Covid with customers not caring much about cost.  Many people did well out of Covid, earning full pay or close to it and not being able to spend anything so demand was high to travel, and budgets were good.  This was especially the case in Scandinavia where government social support has always been high.  This has now finished, and customers are being a bit slower to book due to high rates for flights plus ground product.  The only positive is that this is true of everywhere and everything, so customers are also beginning to accept that everything costs more than it did a few years ago.

I can’t say I am proud of my carbon footprint this month (or last month), but I have been to see a lot of agents with trips to Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland (twice), Belgium and Germany this month, plus Portugal for WYSTC.

NZ and Australia remain expensive due to lack of seats on planes but everywhere is the same!  Customers are just getting used to things being more expensive as staff shortages continue to create problems with distribution and lower service levels.

The Pound is having a tough time which is not great for me, but it is good for travel to NZ/Australia as the AUD is now over $2 to the £1 and NZD is $2.17 which makes the destinations cheaper.

On my way to NZ!!

The economic climate in the UK and EU is still a mess due to Covid hangover, mass migration and Brexit.  This leaves us with a lack of staff in many countries, mainly in the lower paid sector.  The UK is the hardest hit with high inflation, high interest rates and ever-increasing energy costs.  Things seem to be settling down a bit this month and the news has swapped over to the heatwave in Europe. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-66207430  This is causing people to cancel holidays in Europe and even USA so we may see a few extra bookings coming in for NZ.