The final day of ABTA's Travel Convention neared its close with a fittingly celebratory panel; representatives from Dawson & Sanderson, Barrhead Travel, World Travel Holdings UK and Not Just Travel reflected on reasons why travel agents ought to be cheerful heading into 2026
1. Strong demand
After a 1am arrival—and an early morning read of ABTA's Holiday Habits report, unveiled at The Travel Convention, World Travel Holdings' UK new MD, Lisa McAuley, was brimming with reasons to be cheerful. One such was demand. "No matter what report I read, whether it's people I speak to or whether it's ABTA... the demand is there. It doesn't matter whether you're a travel agent, tour operator, cruise line, hotel: if that (demand) remains there, we will be okay."
Nicki Tempest-Mitchell, Barrhead Travel's managing director, has even more to reasons to be cheerful beyond the brand's upcoming rebrand.
"There's lots [to be cheerful about] from the last few days. More people want to travel and go on holiday, more people are willing to spend more. There's nothing not to be happy about... when it's the good times people want a holiday, but when it's a bad time, they need to holiday."
Away from the High Street shopfronts, Steve Witt's Not Just Travel is experiencing similar demand—in his case, record-breaking. "We are seeing nothing but record-breaking months every month."
"For us, every single session i've attended in the last two days has reaffirmed the belief that we work in... the most exciting industry in the world."
2. Supply to match
What is rugged demand without supply to match?
"With my new cruise hat on," Lisa continued, "the inventory is there: the supply is there. There might be challenges, because we all know that the cruise lines do global sourcing, but the demand is there and the supply is there."
Judith Alderson, Dawson & Sanderson's commercial director, recalled promising conversations with suppliers. "We've seen a big shift... [travellers] want to see more and do more on holiday. We are partnering with suppliers who can bring that product to us, and where then we come in as the ambassadors for their brand.
"We need to engage with our teams and make sure that they are always ahead of that trend, ahead of the game, and make sure that we are still the trusted and expert partners, and we can recommend the correct suppliers to the correct person."
3. High hopes for the High Street
After looking at the data coming out of The Travel Convention, Judith was keen to highlight her reason to be cheerful. "For me, the data, and the conversations around the data, has shown me that the future of the High Street travel agent is still relevant today. We need to move with the times, absolutely, but we have a really big place in the travel industry."
Tempest-Mitchell has seen similar signs pointing to the future of the High Street. "The youth market today, from what it was maybe 10-15 years ago, is transformed. They no longer want to travel and cut corners: the youth travel market wants to return to the High Street."
4. That's quality
The quality of the travel trade—both those in the room and those not—has been celebrated throughout The Travel Convention.
Steve Witt believes growing competition has raised the standards in the industry. "There is more and more competition for us, so that means we have got better and better. Our training gets better, our hunger for knowledge gets better, the quality of training from the operators is getting better. Across the entire industry, we are all just upping our game all the time."
Alderson added, "I know [the Convention sessions] have touched on AI: I'm not sure that AI can actually take the emotion that our staff can, and then recommend something. It's emotion that is behind a holiday purchase."
Barrhead Travel agrees. Nicki continued, "We have always said we are a people-powered business... we constantly ask for feedback when we do not get things right, we work with our people to support that.
"We've got a long way to go, but we are certainly trying to improve that customer journey, making life easier for our people to fulfill it."
5. The next big thing
And 'the next big thing' that agents ought to be looking forward to? Relationships.
"It is all about relationships: that should always be the starting point," Witt said. "There is something to be said about personalities and following, but that's not the main stay of our business. It's about people. We are people organisations, finding ways to go to market, to be in front of people, to build relationships."
