Travel agents failing boat holiday companies

By Holly Barder

Narrowboat holiday operators could increase business if travel agents had more confidence to sell their packages, according to a major self-catering holiday company.

Hoseasons has started taking its sales staff out on boats in the hope they will be more inclined to promote this type of holiday.

The company’s head of sales, Zena Calderbank, said: “If travel agents don’t know enough about a specific market, they tend to shy away from it.”

“We are training them to be able to say that a canal-boat holiday is a great way to spend a weekend. It’s in the UK and it’s different.”

Sales of canal-boat holidays are booming in the economic downturn and Hoseasons hopes to take advantage of that.