The Travel Franchise gets boost from Thomas Cook buyout

Sister companies Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise, which trains people to become self-employed travel consultants, look set to benefit from Hays Travel buying all 555 of Thomas Cook’s retail stores. 

John Hays, who runs the Sunderland-based Hays Travel with his wife Irene, has sat on the advisory board of Not Just Travel and acts as a mentor to its founders Steve Witt and Paul Harrison.

Paul says: “We are very proud of our strong alignment with Hays Travel. Not Just Travel won the Hays Outstanding Achievement Award in 2017.

“The fact that Hays is buying Thomas Cook’s high-street stores is fantastic and makes it the standout player in the retail sector. Thomas Cook going bust was a sad event in the travel industry, but this makes up for part of that, as hundreds of families will benefit from this fantastic news.”

Hays Travel’s decision to buy the collapsed tour operator’s shops was welcomed by more than 2,000 former Thomas Cook employees, who will be offered jobs as part of the deal.

Steve adds: “This investment by Hays shows commitment to personal service. Not Just Travel uses the Hays booking platform, and now that Hays is an even larger buying group, Not Just Travel customers benefit from having a greater choice of holidays. This is great news for our travel consultants as well as independent travel consultants across
the country.”

John comments: “Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise are a delight to work with. We’ve built a dream team to take things forward and to continue this exciting journey.”

Not Just Travel currently has more than 750 travel consultants who work from home.