Rise in high value bookings delivers second record year for The Personal Travel Agents

A second consecutive year of record-breaking sales has been reported by The Personal Travel Agents amid a rise on high value bookings.

The Midcounties Co-operative independent travel home working group saw an overall 25% rise, and an increase of 45% versus pre-pandemic sales.

Average earnings for the independent PTAs in 2023 are at an all-time high with a year-on-year increase of 34% expected.

The PTAs’ commission builder scheme, which pays extra levels of commission based on volume, is due to hand out more than £270,000 at the end of the year with about half of homeworkers benefitting.

A business update also revealed a growing volume of high value bookings for the PTAs.

A quarter their earnings have originated from bookings with a value of more than £10,000 this year. 

The number of bookings worth more than £10,000 being made has increased by 26% over last year, versus a 9% rise for bookings under the value of £10,000.

The data was revealed by head of PTAs Sheena Whittle as more than 80 out of 150 attended the group’s annual conference on board a Uniworld river cruise ship in Paris.

The PTAs also used the conference to launch new initiatives, including a business insights dashboard to help agents understand the detailed insights into their business; a bespoke river cruise toolkit to help  boost their sales in the sector; and a customer referral toolkit to help them track and reward the biggest supporters in their customer databases.

Whittle said: “It was truly special to have so many of the PTAs together on the River Seine to celebrate another record-breaking year of business.”