Travel may have limped along for much of 2021 but five agents from Vertical Travel Group are celebrating after each smashing the £1 million sales mark.

The quintet all passed the milestone this week, having kicked off the sales year on 1 May 2021.

The first to reach the six-figure sum was Sarah Pratt, a homeworker with the firm’s Instant Holidays business.

The achievement was swiftly matched by Laura Slater, also from Instant Holidays, along with Bev Barron, Pauline Ramsay and Neil Bonner, all from Holiday Elite.

Sarah, who operates from Crete, partially attributed her success to being ‘super pro-active’ even as travel came to a standstill.

“I have tried to chase every booking, from the smallest to the hardest enquiries I received,” she said. “Even when clients haven’t seemed too interested, I’ve chased them to offer more options to keep my name at the top of their list for when they became ready to travel.”

Facebook became critical in promoting the business, with Sarah recognising that many potential clients were in isolation and using social media channels more than they usually would.

“I saw this as an opportunity to make myself known, as holidays seem to be back at the top of everyone’s list of ‘needs’ rather than the outdoor jacuzzi everyone was buying last year,” she said.

Sarah added that being upfront with customers about the possible disruption to travel, and the likelihood that changes would be needed as travel restrictions were imposed, was appreciated by clients.

“Sometimes this put people off booking immediately but they appreciated the honesty, and came back to me when the time was right to book,” she explained. “They also recommended me to friends and family or shared me on social media to a wider audience.

“I have been so lucky that less than 10% of my customers actually cancelled since May. I used mainly package suppliers who have been extremely helpful in moving deposits to winter 2022 or summer 2023. So although it’s a low point when they want to cancel I’ve been able to turn it around, save commissions and in some cases make extra.”

During 2021, the Greece-based consultant also told how she noticed increasing numbers of customers were splashing out on more extravagant holidays, with Lapland one of her biggest sellers.