Your Stories: Atas award winner Darryl Gardner on why touring and adventure is important to his business

Cartwright Travel’s Darryl Gardner tells Samantha Mayling about winning with Atas and switching from being an account manager to an agent

Q. Why did you join Cartwright Travel?
A. I was made redundant from G Touring in September 2020 and spoke to the Cartwright managing directors: Steve Cartwright and Steve Philippou. Having been good friends with Steve C for many years, due to his support for me during my days on the road, it was a no‑brainer to join. Redundancy was a blessing in disguise as I no longer had to live out of a suitcase and my work-life balance improved. Our HQ is in Cardiff and I work two days a week from home in Treorchy, in the Rhondda Valley. But I must give a shoutout to all the reps out there now, flying the flag for tour operators. They deserve utmost respect from us agents.

Redundancy was a blessing in disguise as I no longer had to live out of a suitcase and my work-life balance improved

Q. What was your previous experience in travel?
A. I started as an apprentice with [southwest miniple] Lets Go Travel in Taunton. Then I was a customer service manager for Thomas Cook; worked as a business development manager for the Specialist Holiday Group [now Travelopia]; and spent two years with G Touring as area sales manager for the southwest and Wales. I’ve had some great mentors including Susan Allan, Ian Dines and Sharon Thomas at SHG; Mandy Shillito, now at Miles Morgan Travel; and Sarah Weetman at G Touring. Also, I worked for Craig Davidson of Flexireps, one day a week over a four-month period during the pandemic. It was nice to be on the road again visiting agents.

Q. Any memorable bookings?
A. I was only 22 and had to deal with a MyTravel booking for 80 hockey players travelling to Croatia. It was cancelled, then rescheduled, but it stood me in good stead for difficult conversations during Covid.

We built up a strong client base across the UK, and even in the US, thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations

Q. How have you coped over the past three years?
A. The Cartwright Travel team are an absolute joy – we’ve always smiled and maintained a lovely working environment even when we’ve had difficult conversations with our loyal customers. We built up a strong client base across the UK, and even in the US, thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations. And my football team, Nottingham Forest, got a lot better. I watch them regularly playing Premier League football.

Q. How has business been recently? 
A. This has been the strongest peaks, with people booking their bucket lists and into 2024 with the likes of Newmarket, Just You, Riviera, Cosmos and Titan Travel. We’ve seen a strong lates market, and adult-only all‑inclusive hotels are really selling well. Customers want to SKI – ‘spend their kids’ inheritance’!

This has been the strongest peaks, with people booking their bucket lists and into 2024 with the likes of Newmarket, Just You and Riviera

Q. Did you travel during the pandemic?
A. I managed to fly to Dubai and I went to Madeira. We were like a travel agency for Madeira, sending people there because you could get the Covid tests at the airport. This year, I’m visiting my grandmother’s homeland, Sicily, in August. I’m turning 40 too, so I’m off to Paris with Mrs Gardner in March and taking golf trips at the end of summer to Spain and Portugal.

Q. What sort of marketing do you do?
A. E-shots play a big part but we won’t send something for the sake of it. We have 40 strong offers on Facebook each week across our two forums. Our client base is across the UK, thanks to hard work by the directors and team during the pandemic. They used the time wisely to find new customers. Retention has been key and our amazing forum members have spread the word. We’re still old school, with a call centre as well as web and social media. We pick up the phone and send tickets to customers because many of them are technophobes.

The escorted tour operators we work with pay good commission and offer price parity, so it can really increase the bottom line

Q. Why are touring and adventure important?
A. It’s the best way to see countries’ highlights, sample authentic experiences and feel safer in destinations if you haven’t got the time or energy to do it independently. The escorted tour operators we work with pay good commission and offer price parity, so it can really increase the bottom line.

Tell us about winning your Atas Award

I won the 2022 Atas Social Media Award and Cartwright won Agency of the Year for Wales. I absolutely love the Atas Conference; it’s the perfect chance to catch up with suppliers, learn about trends and get ideas about improving your business. I would recommend every agent to attend. Winning was great as I’m very competitive. I wouldn’t have put myself forward if I didn’t think I’d done enough to take such an accolade. It recognises two years of hard work. We have two Facebook forums, one for cruise and one for tours, and together they have 30,000 followers.

Social media is a great way to increase sales without spending a fortune. You must be hardworking and dedicated to managing your pages. If you get the formula right, customers contact you at all hours to book. My top tip is don’t just advertise snippets of escorted tours, post the full itinerary. Customers love to know what happens each day and which hotels they’ll be staying in. Once you deliver this information to their fingertips, all they need to do is call and get booked.