Recent news that Hays Travel, the UK’s largest independent travel agency, has stepped in to buy all 555 of Thomas Cook’s retail stores, offering job opportunities to thousands of Thomas Cook employees, was met with celebration from ex-staff, the industry and Bournemouth-based sister companies Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise, which trains people to become self-employed Travel Consultants.
John Hays has sat on the Advisory Board of Not Just Travel and acts as a mentor to its Co-founders Steve Witt and Paul Harrison.
Paul Harrison, Co-founder of Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise said: “We are very proud of our strong alignment with market leader Hays Travel. The news that Hays is buying Thomas Cook’s stores is fantastic and makes Hays the stand-out player in the retail sector. Not Just Travel won the Hays Outstanding Achievement Award in 2017. If last week was a sad event in the travel industry, then today makes up for part of that as hundreds of families will benefit from this fantastic news.”
Steve Witt, Co-founder said: “This investment by Hays shows commitment to personal service, and proves yet again that the Internet hasn’t taken over. Not Just Travel uses the Hays booking platform, and now that Hays is an even larger buying group, Not Just Travel customers benefit from having a greater choice of holidays. This is great news for our Travel Consultants as well as independent Travel Consultants across the country.”
John Hays, Founder of Hays Travel said: “Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise are a delight to work with. Steve and Paul have something good going on. We’ve built a dream team to take things forward and to continue this journey, to grow this business is really exciting.”
About Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise
Industry leaders Not Just Travel have over 750 home working Travel Consultants in its ranks. At a time when Thomas Cook has collapsed, Not Just Travel has increased its staff force by 60% in the last year, and has also broken multiple commission records in the last 12 months. Yet Steve Witt and Paul Harrison know what it’s like to work through difficult times as Not Just Travel was launched the day before the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Paul and Steve have created a totally unique franchise set-up, not found anywhere else. Franchisees get their fees back (ranging from £11,995 to £29,995) if they hit sales targets in the first year. They now recruit 20 new franchisees a month, and are well-respected among franchisees as they offer unbeatable sales support and training, and their personal stories are so powerful.
With the flexibility of working from home, Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise enable travel consultants to maintain their work-life balance around their families and lifestyles, while beating other travel agencies on price, yet providing concierge-style service that customers would normally pay a higher fee for.
Watch Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise’s video interviews with John Hays:
https://notjusttravel.wistia.com/medias/6ak8qlp6wy
https://notjusttravel.wistia.com/medias/h7mibzqhh2
https://notjusttravel.wistia.com/medias/f06i9f806h
