FAMILIES desperate to escape the cold weather and January blues have delivered a bumper weekend of sales for an Oswestry travel agent.

According to Hays Travel North West managing director Don Bircham, January is the peak period for the industry as he reveals there is a massive demand for sunshine holidays with bookings up by 25 per cent on pre-Covid levels.

Don, who opened his first travel shop in Mold, in Flintshire, 22 years ago, said: "The first Saturday of the year is traditionally a big day for us and for the travel business across the country but this has been phenomenal.

"January is one month when there are no holidays for staff and we even suspend our training programme for the month make sure we are fully staffed for our customers.

Favourite destinations include mainland Spain, Greece and Portugal, the Canaries, Balearics, Florida and Cruise, while Sicily – where Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden and comedian Alan Carr are renovating a property for ITV’s The Italian Job – is also attracting plenty of interest.

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Meanwhile, Turkey is popular with the lira in freefall against the pound and Russian holidaymakers staying at home.

The fast-growing company has stores in Oswestry and Shrewsbury as well as across North Wales and the North West.

Don continued: "We are also seeing many former customers return to us – people who may have been booking on the internet are seeing the benefits in terms of safety and security of booking with a travel agent.

"We’re part of the biggest independent travel agency in the UK and we’re not going anywhere.

"We’re very competitively priced for everything down to holiday insurance."

He also reveals that 70 per cent of the holidays we sell are for this summer, some people are already booking for summer 2024 and the rest are early season sunshine holidays, mainly for couples and to places like the Canaries, Dubai and Florida.

"There is absolutely no pressure on our staff to sell a particular type of holiday so our customers come in and receive impartial advice without a particular emphasis on one tour operator" Don added "I think this is one of the main reasons people choose our branches to book their holidays."

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