Welcome to 2025 - the year of the travel agent?(you heard it here first)

Happy New Year – and welcome to the year of the travel agent. Well that’s how the TTG team is billing 2025, at least.

This is because, alongside TTG’s renewed vow to provide agents with industry-leading content to grow your business, one thing has also become abundantly clear following recent news reports alongside interviews with suppliers – the trade has never been more important.

A recent turn-of-year report by Barclays showed travel is continuing to outperform the vast majority of other sectors in terms of spending rebound, with signs of a continued return to face-to-face sales. Spending with travel agents specifically increased by 7.9% year-on-year, with growth in total transactions with agents rising by 14% in 2024 compared with growth of 11.8% last year.

The importance of agents continues to be amplified by operators such as Jet2holidays and Inside Travel Group whose agent bookings are “flying”, as well as Intrepid Travel, with boss James Thornton revealing the operator is “looking to work with our travel industry partners more than ever before”.

Scotland's Thorne Travel, which this month celebrates 15 years in business, has a similar message. Since opening its first store during the “great recession” of 2009, the agency now has three shops, 24 staff, is one of the most decorated agencies in the history of TTG’s Top 50 awards, and has just launched its first TV ad. Not bad given founder Shona Thorne had “never sold a holiday” in her life before opening her shop. She also remains overwhelmingly optimistic about the future. Yes, there are challenges, but “you just have to find ways to give value to your customers” she tells TTG.

It’s a sentiment echoed too by Abta chair Alistair Rowland, who believes consumers are demanding value more than ever. TTG’s latest research with PwC shows 31% of consumers have concerns about the rising cost of holidays, while 22% are worried about household finances. The crucial point, though, is that despite these concerns, people are still booking holidays – and will do so en masse during peaks, with one in five planning to book between January and March.

Yes, people might be worried about their finances, but as ever, it seems few will actually forego their holiday. And with that same research highlighting 40% of consumers “always or sometimes use a high street travel agent to research their holidays”, there really are several reasons to be cheerful as we enter the new year. So here’s to a happy and bountiful peaks. And here’s to 2025 – the year of the travel agent? (you heard it here first).