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We are the UK’s largest independent travel agent and the nation’s favourite. We provide excellent value, service, and choice in holidays across land and sea. With more than 40 years’ experience and 470 high street branches, we are proud to be the UK’s largest independent travel agent.

We are also honoured to be the nation’s favourite.

Thanks to public vote Hays Travel won three gold British Travel Awards 2023: Best National Travel Retailer, Best Travel Agency for Cruise Holidays, and Best Retailer for Forex/Travel Money. As a family-owned independent agency, what sets Hays Travel apart is our friendly and professional colleagues; we value our people, our customers and the communities where we operate . Being independent, we can offer our customers impartial advice and an extensive range of travel opportunities from hundreds of suppliers, whether in our branches, via our contact centre, through our network of homeworkers, or via our franchisees and independence group members.

Our community support

Throughout our history, staff across Hays Travel have worked hard to help the communities where we operate. Each year every one of our branches receives £500 to invest in their local community and in 2023 we have invested over £208,000 in local causes and activities, with a specific focus on supporting young people’s mental health.

Our Hays Travel Foundation

We established our Hays Travel Foundation in 2015, with a mission to help young people achieve and be the best that they can be in their health, sport, the arts and education. Working with a wide range of organisations and charities, the Foundation creates opportunities for young people who need a little help to develop to their full potential. To date our Hays Travel Foundation has donated: £1,374,306.

How Hays Travel began is legendary

In 1980, from the back of his mum’s babywear shop in Seaham County Durham, John Hays began selling holidays from a laminated dressing table. From this humble beginning Hays Travel expanded steadily with shops opening up across the north-east. In 1990 the first Hays Travel call centre opened, and in 1995 the Hays Travel Independence Group was formed. Consortium members retain their own independence and branding, but benefit from Hays Travel’s buying power, technology, and back-office support. In 1997, the company diversified into homeworking, and today has three different options to suit those who prefer more flexibility in their lives. In 2013 our retail estate expanded hugely with the acquisition of southern England’s largest independent travel agency, Bath Travel. Founded in 1924 and based in Bournemouth, Bath Travel had over 60 branches and 330 employees who joined the Hays Travel family. The acquisition represented a substantial growth in the company’s retail network, with Hays Travel branches now covering Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, and Sussex. A year later, in 2014, Hays Travel took on its first franchise in the north-west of England, a 14-branch travel agency formerly known as Just Go. Rapid expansion meant that Hays Travel now had almost 49 across three different franchises.

Humble beginnings to high-street heroes

In 2019, John and Irene Hays became ‘Heroes of the high street’ when Hays Travel acquired a lease to operate the former Thomas Cook shops, providing re-employment opportunities to 2,500 staff who were made redundant following the collapse. Another year later in 2020, Hays Travel took over all 20 Tailor Made Travel shops as well as retaining around 100 employees. The period from 2021 to 2022 was the most challenging in Hays Travel’s history, when it lost its beloved founder John Hays and weathered a global pandemic. January 2023 saw the biggest trading day in Hays Travel’s history, when customers well and truly returned to travel. The positive start to the turn of year continued and Hays Travel returned to strategic acquisition, first acquiring 45 of franchisee Just Go branches in the North West of England in September, closely followed by a further 16 shops in South Wales when it acquired Travel House. In addition to these acquisitions Hays Travel also opened new branches in Northern Ireland, Leeds Briggate area, and Gainsborough, and refurbished and relocated others as part of its retail and sustainability strategy. Hays Travel is committed to ‘growing its own’ and has received many awards for its apprenticeship scheme, which attracts thousands of applicants every year to work in branches across the UK and in each department in its Sunderland Head Office. Apprentices study while earning a salary, gaining valuable on-the-job experience, and achieving a nationally recognised certificate, Hays Travel’s programme retained its good rating following an Ofsted inspection in 2023, with an ‘outstanding’ rating for outcomes for young people. Today, Hays Travel has huge buying power and invests heavily in state-of-the-art technology. The company has an award-winning in-house training programme, won Large High Street Agency at the Agent Achievement Awards 2023, and is eleventh in the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers list for 2023. Fully ABTA, ATOL and IATA bonded, it offers customers complete financial security, and its independent status means staff can provide impartial advice and an extensive range of travel opportunities.

• 1980 John Hays opens the first branch of Hays Travel at the back of his mum’s children’s wear shop in Seaham, Co Durham
• 1982 Hays Travel opens second shop in Sunderland, where the company has its headquarters today
• 1984 Third shop opens in Washington, Tyne and Wear
• 1987 Expansion reaches seven shops in the North East
• 1990 First Hays Travel call centre opens
• 1997 The company diversifies into homeworking
• 2006 Hays Travel recognised as one of the Sunday Times’ 100 Best Companies to Work For in the UK
• 2007 Hays Travel Group hit £300 million turnover
• 2008 John Hays honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award at the Agent Achievement Awards
• 2009 John Hays picks up the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Globes
• 2010 Celebrate 30 years and John Hays’ inauguration into the British Travel Industry Hall of Fame
• 2012 Turnover hits the £500 million mark
• 2013 Acquisition of Bath Travel, the South of England’s largest independent travel agency
• 2014 Hays Travel Academy launched
• 2016 Another inclusion in the Sunday Times’ 100 Best Companies to Work For list whilst John Hays is awarded Freedom of the City of Sunderland
• 2017 Turnover reaches £850 million
• 2018 Turnover passes the £1 billion mark
• 2019 Thomas Cook retail estate acquisition
• 2021 Recruited additional 100 HTOL employees

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In 2023, 16 new cruise ships will launch, and thousands more flights from a wider choice of regional airports. With so many choices, we are here to help you find that perfect holiday, and as we are independent, it means we will find the best deal for you too.

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Hays Travel has always been known for great value, and more and more people are taking our interest-free easy payment plans making holidays more affordable.

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Combining new technology with ‘human touchpoints’ key to Hays’ future

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Hays Travel boss Dame Irene Hays says the retailer’s future lies in using new technology such as artificial intelligence combined with “human touchpoints” to react faster to clients’ needs.

Hays said the company was responding to a rise in customer expectations in terms of the speed they want to book and hear back from a travel company.

To achieve this, Sukie Rapal has been appointed to the new role of head of customer engagement to oversee its customer touch points and the customer journey. Rapal has more than 20 years’ experience in the sector including at The Midcounties Co-operative and cruise.co.uk.

Hays said: “We have to spend an inordinate amount of time and money understanding who our customers are and their preferences. It’s about the speed we as a company put an offer in front of customers before they even know about it.

“We need to persuade people this holiday is the one they want. I think the people who do well in the future will move into the metaverse and make better use of virtual technology.”

Hays said being able to book quickly and have a secure, value for money holiday were all messages the company needed to “hit” in its turn-of-year campaign.

“The way we are interacting with our customers has never been so complex and never been so reliant on speed,” she said, adding: “We believe this is where all our energies should be to make sure our customers get the best they can, irrespective of how they contact Hays Travel.”

She said the company could use technology better to track how its customers react to its social media posts quickly and understand their behaviour.

“Articifical intelligence is the obvious [way to do this],” she said.

Speaking on the same panel, Travel Counsellors chief executive Steve Byrne said it was important travel businesses interacted digitally with customers just as well as companies which only interact digitally. “That’s a minimum,” he said.

But he said having a relationship of trust with clients was potentially more important.

He added: “If you build trust with the customer they will forgive you if the digital experience is not as good. The digital experience is important but trust is just as important, if not more.”

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48 Hours to feature 2019 Hays murder: ‘Kristen Trickle: Autopsy of the Mind’

HAYS, Kan. (KWCH) - When Hays police found a woman dying from a gunshot wound on Halloween night in 2019, evidence at the scene didn’t add up.

Colby Trickle, of Hays, was convicted last year of the premeditated first-degree murder of Kristen Trickle. In November 2023, Ellis County Judge Glenn Braun sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years. According to Kansas corrections records, he’s currently incarcerated at a state prison in Ellsworth.

Prosecutors alleged that Colby “feloniously and intentionally with premeditation” shot Kristen in the head with a revolver and then lied to investigators by telling them she had taken her own life. Kristen’s family denied she was ever suicidal.

After his wife’s death and before his arrest, CBS reports Colby collected two life insurance payouts totaling $120,000. Two days later, he spent close to $2,000 of that money to buy a life-size sex doll.

Assistant Ellis County Attorney Aaron Cunningham told CBS that Colby spent the rest of the money in about eight months. Other spending includes video games, music equipment and paying off debt.

CBS correspondent Erin Moriarty gives the full story on Saturday at 9 p.m. on 48 Hours, right here on 12 News.

Copyright 2024 KWCH. All rights reserved. To report a correction or typo, please email [email protected]

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