My Guest Blogger!
This article will take approximately 3 minutes to read
Published 9 Apr 2021 in Phil's blog
Hi, I’m Sara Dunham, Chief Officer for Travel & Leisure. I’m delighted to be Phil’s guest blogger this week as we look forward to an exciting week for our Travel business. ✈
I joined Midcounties seven weeks ago and the time has flown by! My first impressions have been great - I have been so impressed by the energy, commitment & adaptability from everyone I’ve met to do the right thing for our customers, members and colleagues. Thank you to all of you who have made me feel so welcome.
Reopening our Travel branches
From Monday, non-essential retail, outdoor hospitality and hairdressers can re-open with appropriate Covid-secure measures in place. We’re hugely excited because for our Travel business this means we can re-open our branches and welcome back our Travel colleagues to offer customers in-person travel advice & expertise, to complement our online and contact centre services.
We know there is big demand already- people want to go on holiday and, with ongoing uncertainty about when & where we can go, there has never been a better time for customers to book with us as a trusted travel agent. So, to accompany this we are investing in marketing activity to kickstart sales by promoting our wide range of holidays. Offering added reassurance with flexible payment options, free child places as well as free changes and cancellations, low deposits and cash refunds within 10 days, all part of the Co-op Holidays Promise.
From Monday, our branches will reopen on reduced hours and we will also operate a pre-book appointment service to make sure we can see as many customers as possible in a safe environment. This helps us to do what we do best- give our customers brilliant service, help them book their holidays and improve our profitability.
Our teams have been getting ready this week by getting up to speed and preparing our branches to welcome customers back.
Our revamped Evesham Travel branch with colleagues Tracy Sheldon, Branch Manager (left) & Lilli Turner (right) preparing to open next week.
Thank you to everyone who has been involved in preparing for Monday. I know there has been a lot of hard work to get us ready for re-opening and we can’t wait to get going!
Further Travel announcements
We are expecting further announcements about the lifting of travel restrictions on Monday when the Government reports on the recommendations of the Global Travel Taskforce. Media reports suggest this is likely to focus on how a traffic lights system to categorise destinations may work, rather than where & when we can travel again, so we will need to remain flexible and adaptable in our activity as the situation changes over the coming months.
A few weeks ago, Phil & I took part in a Travel Weekly webcast where we called for clarity from the Government on how we can safely re-start travel - not only in setting out the initial framework but also in how this will be managed on an ongoing basis and getting advance notice of dates. The traffic lights system seems to be the first part of this, so we wait to see what is announced next week.
At the moment, holidays are not permitted before 17th May but we don’t know if this date will change. I know our Travel team are focused on helping customers and securing every booking we can in the context of evolving restrictions. We have plenty of holidays to sell even if not for immediate travel- we’re seeing a lot of customers planning further ahead and booking their holidays for 2022 or looking for options in the UK, including a totally new type of holiday ‘Seacations’. A word that did not even exist even a couple of weeks ago is now playing a large part in our trading as cruise operators re-purpose their activity to sail around the UK! Many of the cruises don’t dock in ports but stay out at sea and focus on onboard relaxation, entertainment & dining. They’re proving very popular with customers and a big well done to everyone who has made the most of this opportunity.
Bringing Sunshine Back
So, it’s an exciting time for Travel right now as we drive to kickstart sales and improve profitability in the immediate term. This will give us a strong base to build upon in the longer term as we aim to grow the business by becoming more member-led, further developing our product & channel offerings and joining up what we do. There are many great plans already in place to start to do this and I’m really looking forward to working with the team to further build on these plans in the months to come.
Have a great weekend and don’t forget that as a colleague you can get 10% off travel bookings (up to a max of £250). You can see the latest colleague offers here and via the Your Co-op Rewards app. For more information see here.
Thanks for taking the time to read my guest blog and if you enjoyed it, feel free to leave me a 'Heart' above or comment below!