Travel with Katie Butler: Mission Christmas Toy Appeal success

Katie Butler, Total Travel, writes: I was hoping for our biggest collection ever and you guys really did not disappoint. We were overwhelmed with your generosity and the piles of toys and gifts mounted up across all three of our branches in Heckmondwike, Ossett and Brighouse.

All the gifts have now been delivered to the Cash for Kids warehouse in Leeds (thanks to my long-suffering husband) and will be gifted to children in and around our local areas. As always, we really would like to thank you all for your amazing donations and generosity, especially as so many are feeling the pinch as the cost of living crisis continues.

We have taken part in this initiative since we opened back in 2013 at Heckmondwike and encouraged our new branches to do the same. I feel privileged to be in a position to give back to our local communities – we have the time, we have the space and we have the support of our local towns.

I was speaking with Emma at our Ossett branch and it touched me when she told me how proud she was every time a new gift was donated and how it gave her a lump in her throat that she too, along with her customers, were involved in helping a child have a gift from Santa on Christmas Day.

It is the calm before the storm, whilst January is our absolute busiest month of the year for new bookings, of course December is our quietest (many of you will have been rushing around completing final preparations for the big day, with holidays being the last thing on your mind).

We, along with every other travel agency across the country, can take time and prepare for our ‘peaks’ season, ensuring we are fully stocked with stationery supplies, coffee and of course ensuring we are armed with our supplier campaigns.

Hopefully, there will be some fantastic deals to be had and of course I can’t wait to tell you all about them.

At least one team member from each of our branches attended our overseas conference in Cyprus and have updates at the ready to ensure all our teams are fully up to speed.

Last week was definitely a lot quieter than the previous week, although we remained steady away with last-minute Christmas gift ideas and holiday vouchers, and of course a flurry of last-minute toy donations for our appeal.

With regards to new holiday bookings, late deals were again strong, accounting for 29 per cent of our new bookings and we even managed to bag the last cabin on a Canaries cruise over Christmas for some very lucky customers.

Top-selling destinations were Tenerife and Lanzarote followed closely with cruises departing from Southampton.

We will be closing just after lunch on December 23 and will re-open again on December 27 at 9am.

I would like to take this opportunity to personally wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a huge thankyou to all our customers old and new who continue to support us. Have a good one!