March 2020 | Aft
LOOKOUT
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The latest pictures from industry events The cruise industry joined Carnival for the UK Cruise Awards at the Roundhouse in London in February. Big winners on the night included ROL Cruise (2 Sarah Wikevind pictured centre with Tony Roberts from Princess Cruises and Angus Struthers from Cunard); Iglu (3 Dave Mills and Simone Clark pictured with Alex Delamere-White from P&O Cruises), Cruise.co.uk and Hays Travel, which picked up the award for Retailer of the Year (4 John Hays pictured right with Delamere-White). Below we speak to John and Irene Hays, joint owners of the company. In October 2019, they bought the entire Thomas Cook retail portfolio and have since employed 2,300 former Thomas Cook staff. cruise adviser: What do you put your success down to during what many have perceived to have been a difficult year? John: We have fantastic people working for us who are passionate about the travel industry, highly skilled and empowered to help people choose the right holiday for them. As an independent, we can offer free choice of any product from any company – we’re not restricted to any particular operator. We pride ourselves on fantastic customer service, being able to understand what our customers need, help them find it and then make sure they’ve got the best quality and best value for money. We have every faith in the British travel industry and all the hugely committed people who work in it and we had no doubt that expansion by taking on the Thomas Cook stores was the right route for us.
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How important is the high street? Irene: For many people the high street is a lifeline and they support their local shops because they get exceptional personal service and CRUISE-ADVISER.COM
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