Travel management company Gray Dawes Travel says transactions have now recovered to more than half of pre-Covid volumes, with consistent growth in recent weeks.
Addressing delegates at last week’s ABTA Travel Convention, Gray Dawes CEO Suzanne Horner said: “In week 28 of our financial year in 2019 we did £3.4 million of business in a week. In week 28 of 2021, last week, we did £1.7 million. We’re back to 50 per cent.”
Horner also noted that the TMC had made more hotel bookings and generated more income from accommodation bookings in August and September this year than it had in 2019.
Meanwhile, Mark Colley, managing director of Sunways Business Travel, said he expects revenues to recover faster than booking volumes due to a move towards fewer but longer trips.
Colley said revenue growth is escalating quickly, with September 2021 at 40 per cent of 2019 levels and October already exceeding 40 per cent, with the TMC therefore increasing its Q4 projection from 45 per cent to 53 per cent.
“Travel is going to be much more considered. Corporate travel has changed indefinitely and those hour-long meetings in Zurich might now be done over Zoom and that makes perfect sense. There’s a positive impact for the environment,” said Colley.
He continued: “We are experiencing higher revenue-per-trip than 2019 levels due to extended trip durations and an increased demand for ancillary services, as well as higher airfares, driven largely by an increase in demand being met by still limited, albeit improving, capacity – a scenario we expect to continue into at least the first quarter of 2022.”
Speaking on the subject of ‘leadership in extraordinary times’, Gray Dawes’ Horner described how the TMC had gone into the pandemic. “We went from generating £200 million topline to £12 million and we had 250 staff and eight offices and a costbase that was now out of control. We had been flying high, life was good, we’d acquired companies, and we were signing new business.”
Ten years ago the business was turning over £30 million and losing £500,000 a year, said Horner, who has overseen nine acquisitions in the last four years.
“From £200 million sales in 2019 we were approaching £10 million profit and that’s what I promised my chairman year on year. But we all know what happened then.”
She described the 18 months since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic as “utter hell” but believes the industry must move on swiftly.
“We now need to forget about the past. When we came through the 2008-09 financial crisis, how many years did we spend saying ‘when are we going to get back to 2007 numbers?’? Are we going to spend the next five years asking ourselves when we’re going to get back to 2019 numbers? 2019 has gone and we now need to think about what we do with what we’ve got and move forwards.”
She continued: “We will make a profit this financial year. We made a loss last year – the first time I’ve made a loss in ten years. I will not make a loss again. It’s the most soul-destroying experience ever even though I couldn’t help it. It really did hurt. But we have a plan and we’ll execute it; we’re shifting to [preparing for] the mid and longer term. £10m profit… the target is huge, but we will get back to it. It will take a few years but we will do it.”
ABTA this week urged struggling leisure agencies and travel management companies in England to apply for financial aid, with as much as £300 million available in unused Additional Restrictions Grants.
It said many agencies had already successfully accessed ARG funds and that government guidance to councils overseeing the scheme encourages them to focus on "sectors that remain closed or are severely impacted by the extended restrictions, even if those businesses have already been in receipt of Restart Grants".
Luke Petherbridge, ABTA’s director of public affairs, said: "While the relaxation of a number of restrictions means that things
are starting to look up for international travel – the majority of our
Members have been starved of cash over the last 18 months. So, although
it is easier for people to travel, without financial support some
companies will find it difficult to get through these next few months,
which is why we are urging them to pursue the Additional Restrictions
Grant funding.
"The level of funding left does vary from council to council and each
local authority is ultimately free to make their own decisions, but we
would encourage Members to look into whether funding if available."