More than 150 agents, suppliers and sponsors attended the organisation’s annual conference at the Constantinou Bros Asimina Suites Hotel in Paphos, Cyprus, last week, where the initiatives were revealed.

The homeworking arm of Midcounties Co-operative Travel, which celebrates its seventh anniversary on Thursday (April 4), also announced it had reached £50 million in annual sales.

Sales from repeat customers – its main source of bookings – increased 7% year-on-year, with referrals also climbing 6%. Social media-generated bookings grew 17%, accounting for £4.6 million of the group’s sales – up from £2 million two years ago.

The conference, themed “Destination Future”, aimed to “ensure the future success of members’ businesses”, according to head of The Personal Travel Agents at Co-operative Travel, Sheena Whittle.

Speaking to TTG this week, Whittle said agents had been asked to focus on elements of their business they could improve now and in the future.

“It has been a challenging year, from regulation changes to new entrants in the market, so we wanted agents to focus on future-proofing,” said Whittle.

Among new tools for agents unveiled by marketing and social media manager Kiri Dulay was the offer of head office-managed social media via Hootsuite and a range of marketing collateral, including postcards to send to clients at various stages of the booking journey, as well as new-look referral postcards.

The three-day event also featured a toga party and gala dinner, during which a number of top-performing agents were presented with awards recognising their achievements over the past year.