2017 Business Excellence Awards

Acquisition International - Business Excellence Awards 2017 87 Best UK & Short Breaks Travel Agency - UK Westoe Travel Established over 28 years ago, Westoe Travel specialise in domestic holidays and long haul flights, particularly to the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. However, the firm are versatile, and able to book all travel from UK rail tickets to cruises, city breaks, short haul, hotel only or flight only. Graeme is proud of the firm’s history which he is eager to share with us. “Westoe Travel is a family run business with three generations of the Brett family involved in ensuring that we provide the very highest standard of service to our clients. We started with a desk at the back of the family news agency in South Shields 28 years ago and outgrew that space before moving into our current location just seven doors away from where we started in South Shields. Customers have seen our children Gillian and Martin grow up from small children to being Senior Travel Advisors. “Our client base is wide and we cater for both business and leisure travellers, and clients range from teenagers to pensioners and everyone in between. What links them is the level of support they receive when they work with us.” The rise of online travel has changed the way the business is run but, as Graeme explains in Westoe Travel is an award winning family owned Independent business based in South Shields. We caught up with Graeme Brett to find out more. Company: Westoe Travel Contact: Graeme Brett Contact Email: [email protected] Address: 120 Westoe Road, South Shields, Tyne and Wear, NE33 3PF, UK Phone: 0191 4552292 Web Address: www.westoetravel.co.uk BE170080 his concluding comments, this only means more opportunities to grow and succeed. “The biggest challenge the firm has faced in recent years is the internet. Some people took the opportunity to book their own travel arrangements, however we have found that customers want the benefit of the full protection for their booking when using an ABTA Bonded Travel Agent. We also find that for quality holidays customers want the benefit of dealing with experienced travel agents who have contacts in those destinations. “Additionally, we benefit from better rates at many properties that we use regularly for our clients Another key challenge for our firm is that we have to compete against multiple agencies and much larger organisations. We have dealt with this by ensuring our customer service and attention to detail is the best, and we rely on our customers recommending us to their friends. Ultimately our clients are the most vital aspect of our business, and therefore moving forward we plan to extend our client base throughout the country through our websites whilst retaining the same level of service for which we have come to pride ourselves.”