A TRAVEL business is expecting sales at the start of next year to be 440 per cent up on what they were before the pandemic.

Not Just Travel, a nationally franchised homeworking business based at Bournemouth Airport's Aviation Park West, says demand is booming ahead of the peak period for booking holidays.

It expects sales from January to March – the traditional peak for bookings – to be up 340 per cent next year compared with 2022 and 440 per cent up on the same period in 2020.

The company has been focusing on selling lucrative cruise holidays and says sales of those will reach an all-time high and triple in the next 12 months. Cruises accounted for 12 per cent of its sales before it launched its cruise division last September and it expects that figure to grow to 25 per cent in January.

It says that growth will come from new customers, rather than its existing customers switching to cruises.

Paul Harrison, co-founder of Not Just Travel and the Travel Franchise, said: “The travel industry continues unabated. UK consumers may be cutting back on other items, but it is clear that holidays are non-negotiable. No matter what people read in the news, the one thing they look forward to is a holiday.

"It's treasured time with loved ones that keeps people going throughout the humdrum and turmoil of daily life. Consumers are willing to make other sacrifices before their holidays. We are seeing the evidence of this right now with clients booking both last-minute breaks and holidays for next year and beyond.”

The business says its recruitment arm, the Travel Franchise, has seen a fourfold increase in enquiries from people wanting to start their own franchise.

It says one husband-and-wife team, Isobel and Mark McCardie, generated £1million holiday sales in a month, and that some franchisees have made commissions of more than £70,000 a month.

Mr Harrison said: “The prospect of training as fully qualified travel consultants in just a number of days, becoming their own bosses and working from home, on their terms, also means the Travel Franchise phones are ringing off the hook with prospective entrepreneurs.

"More and more people want to run their own side-hustles and earn significant extra incomes helping their friends and family do what they are going to do anyway – book a holiday.”