Travel Counsellors Ireland report strong growth to the end of Q3 (31 July), with July being another record month and their best July for new bookings, since the company launched here in 2005.
The company is home to 72 Travel Professionals based across the Republic of Ireland, and while the number of TC’s here reduced over the pandemic, sales per Travel Counsellor and average booking values have soared.
Cathy Burke, Managing Director at Travel Counsellors Ireland reports; “In the past 6 months from 1st February – 31 July, we are now 45% ahead of the same 6 months of 2019 in new bookings, which is phenomenal considering the challenges the industry continues to have post Pandemic as the world continues to reopen. 24 of our Travel Counsellors (not including 1st, 2nd or 3rd year new TC’s) have already achieved their best year of sales and that’s with 5 months still to go in 2022!”
But what are they selling? Bernie Whelan, Business Development Manager says that with each passing month the top destinations are changing with an increase in sales gearing towards long-haul again. Bernie shares: “Our top 10 destinations for Summer 2022 departures are Spain, USA, Italy, Greece, Maldives, Portugal, Mexico, Canada, Australia and Mauritius. But when you look at what’s selling for Winter 22/23 Australia, South Africa and of course winter wonderland favourites Lapland, Austria and Italy are moving up the charts, while forward Cruise bookings for summer 2023 are very positive”.
Bernie adds. “Where we were seeing initial bookings for Australia and New Zealand were predominantly for those visiting friends and family, in the past 2 months or so we are seeing more Bucket List complicated itineraries for those destinations are becoming the most popular for our TC’s”.
Cathy adds; “We are very excited about the future and the trajectory the business is going in.”
