Fred Olsen agent appears on national TV after booking spike

A Fred Olsen travel agent has appeared on national TV news after seeing a sharp rise in last-minute bookings.

Eastbourne branch manager Trevor Ridler was interviewed for BBC Breakfast and BBC News at Six on Tuesday (August 8), with the segment then broadcast two days later.

Ridler told Travel Weekly: “It was great to be on the programme as part of a positive story, especially after the last few years we’ve all been through.”

More: Fred Olsen Travel opens first concept store in Eastbourne

Ridler said the opportunity came about after the BBC contacted Advantage Travel Partnership chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said, who then put the journalists in touch with Fred Olsen’s Eastbourne store.

The story focused on the spike in last-minute bookings amid poor weather in recent weeks.

During the journalists’ visit to Eastbourne, Ridler answered five or six questions over the course of 10 minutes, he said, with a short clip then being beamed out across the UK.

In the broadcast clip, he said: “We have seen a 25% increase in last-minute bookings and that’s from pre-pandemic levels, so it’s a combination of things, but I think the weather is quite a big one because we’ve seen a big increase since we’ve been forecasted that we’re not really getting a summer.”

The clip also featured shots of two of Ridler’s colleagues – senior travel consultant Emma Bailey and assistant manager Tutti Taylor, who was taking a booking as she was filmed.

Business development manager Ridler, who also runs the Heathfield branch, said his experience of radio interviews meant he was comfortable with the TV visit.

He was also helped by time as a cruise director, he said, as well as a string of TV appearances in his youth.

After the BBC package was broadcast on Thursday (August 10), a number of customers got in touch with Ridler to say they had seen the piece.

“It’s not going to have done any harm – there’s no such thing as bad exposure,” Ridler said.

He added: “I’ve had close to 100 responses to the post I put on Facebook about it, with people saying well done and congratulations.”

Ridler said he first hit our screens at the age of 12, when his ventriloquist act was shown on children’s BBC programme Why Don’t You?

His credits as an extra include an episode of Worzel Gummidge.

The BBC package broadcast on Thursday also featured an interview with Becky Westaway of Northampton-based Westaway Travel.

Photo: Trevor Ridler (second from right) celebrating the opening of the Eastbourne store