Hays Travel returns to profitability in August

The UK’s largest travel agency made a profit in August, despite having “come to expect” disappointments at the government’s traffic light list updates.

Hays Travel chair Dame Irene Hays told Travel Weekly: “It wasn’t the summer we wanted, and we’re nowhere near where we were in 2019, but August has been stronger for us,” noting the “innovations” of ‘seacation’ cruises out of the UK.

“The number of people we’ve sent on ‘seacations’ who’ve never cruised before, have tried one and come back and booked a cruise for next year or later this year, is massive,” said Dame Irene. “It’s got our customers’ appetites whetted for the future.”

Addressing last week’s traffic light update, she said: “We were hoping Turkey would come off the red list” and had hoped for some information on the medium-term prospects of travelling to the US.

“We were disappointed about Turkey but pleased there were no other major destinations taken off the amber or green list,” she said. “We’ve just come to expect that there’s going to be an element of disappointment with these announcements.”

She expects Turkey and the US to be added in the autumn but warned that would be “too late” and many Turkish hoteliers will shut as a result, “which is such a shame for their economy”.

Looking back on summer, Dame Irene said short-haul bookings “increased significantly” from July 1 onwards and has represented 49% of bookings since August 1. That compares with long-haul’s 23% share, a 23% share for cruise and the UK market accounting for 5%.

She said that while most July bookings were for this summer, just 27% of bookings made in August were for summer 2021, with 40% for summer 2022 and 2% for 2023. A further 21% is for winter 2021 and 9% for winter 2022.

These forward bookings are “much higher than they would otherwise be”, she said, “So there’s still reticence but we’re very, very pleased.”

She reported a higher percentage of long-haul in 2022, and customers spending “up to 18%” more.