September news

Everyone is back from the summer school holidays and we are now right into brochure season.  Most agencies are flat out making brochures with product decisions happening now.  Brochures should all be formatted by now with copy/images decided very soon and proof reading and printing in October.  Staff training on new products (and new staff) in November.

There are more and more events coming up as tourism continues to build back up to pre-Covid levels.  WYSTC is on right now in Lisbon targeting student/youth travel, this is always a great event. Tourism Australia and Tourism New Zealand have trade updates coming in October followed by WTM in London in early November and Australian Marketplace in mid-Nov, really good that this is all happening again.

Early November will also see the New Zealand tourism awards including Altitude Tours as finalists https://www.nztourismawards.org.nz/2022-finalists.  Tourism NZ will also be running a fam trip to NZ for product managers and front-line staff from UK/DE in November.

Recruitment is still happening at a pace with most agencies trying to build up staff levels.  Latest news is Barrhead Travel have taken on Natalie Greaves, ex-STA, as ‘Adventure and Touring’ leader which is a move to the student/youth travel sector planned to be up and running by the end of the year.  Kilroy are still expected to be moving to the UK for this sector as well but Flavia who was looking after this has now gone to Escape Travel Norway.

Flight Centre are opening shops soon, great to hear that they are expanding back up again.