Travel with Katie Butler: Proud to be a Jet2holidays top performing agent

Katie Butler writes: Jet2holidays invited over 200 top performing travel agents from across the UK on a journey through time at the 10th anniversary of agent conferences and so of course we were once again delighted to be ‘on the list’. The conference, themed ‘Time Machine’ took us on a journey from the past, whilst looking into what the future holds for the industry. Jet 2 revealed five new destinations at the conference – three Greek Islands – Poros, Aegina and Leros, of which we were extremely delighted with. We are often asked by customers for the smaller and more traditional islands of Greece and finally we are able to offer them as part of a package holiday. Palermo in Sicily was also added to the programme, along with winter Christmas market breaks to Estonia’s capital of Tallinn. Other recent additions that were released just weeks before conference include Bratislava, Malmo and Seville city breaks, which of course were another welcome addition.

As an independent agency we find conferences invaluable as they offer us the opportunity to attend sessions often way beyond our remit and we were engrossed listening to Google’s Ailish English who gave us an insight into market trends for the industry, consumer habits and purchasing choices and how Google trends and data see the industry in 2025 (and it looks to be another fabulous year). Another highlight too was a session from Jet2 director of digital James Malyon, who talked in depth about AI (artificial intelligence) and the huge benefit of this technology going forward.

Of course, it would not be a Jet2 conference without a guest speaker and this year we were honoured to meet Andy Whyment, also known as Kirk from Coronation Street. Despite being an award winning actor, we found Andy to be extremely down to earth and humble and he took the time to mingle with every one of us.

Jet2holidays chief executive Steve Heapy was in attendance too and was asked if the efforts to reopen Doncaster Sheffield airport meant that Jet2 might use the airport as a new base.

"We will go and have a look at Doncaster," he said. "We've not met them yet, they’ve only just appointed the airline operator. We get approached by airports all around the UK. So we'll meet them and see what the opportunities are."

Overall an amazing conference at a fantastic venue and the chance to meet hoteliers, many of which we book on a weekly basis. An invite to this event is an absolute honour and of course is not a bad achievement for our little agency in Heckmondwike to be one of Jet2holidays’ top selling agencies.

Next week I will be able to update on our second conference, again in Cyprus, where I have been lucky enough (and proud as punch) to send our management team from Heckmondwike, Brighouse and Ossett, to meet key suppliers and develop our commercial relationships.