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Social media post urging people to book with an agent goes viral
A Facebook post urging people to consider booking holidays with a travel agent rather than online has been shared hundreds of times on social media.
Latin Routes co-founder Jess Dennison posted the message after reports of a surge in holiday bookings following Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that leisure travel might resume from 17 May.
She asked that her contacts outside the travel industry considered booking with an agent to protect jobs and livelihoods.
Jess also pointed out the numerous benefits of booking with an agent rather than online.
She estimates her post has been shared around 500 times so far.
"It occurred to me that if we want to recover as quickly as possible as an industry and get people who lost their jobs back into jobs, then we need to be proactive as a united industry and work together to support each other rather than just waiting for things to improve.," said Jess.
"In the early days of Latin Routes, word of mouth was the strongest and most powerful form of marketing, and as our business now relies heavily on our travel agent partners, I thought we need to start close to home and promote booking through travel agents and not online, through our own contacts. If everybody shared the post, the reach would be huge, and of course free.
"Of course I had no idea that so many people would resonate with the post and copy/share it as I was just speaking from the heart and spontaneously off the back of watching the positive news, but its great™
Commenting on the post, Bruce Martin, founder of the travel industry Facebook group Travel Gossip said: "It’s so good. It’s everywhere."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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