Strictly Business: Bluebird Travel's Toby Watfa

The agency's director shares his industry bugbears and proudest moments.

I got into travel… by circumstance. I always loved travel. At university I studied finance and did a year in industry for WPP, but it was such a massive company and I learned that something that big wasn't for me; I wanted something with more personal relationships.

I joined Bluebird Travel… in 2010. When I graduated university, my father, who started Bluebird Travel in 1968, was coming up to retirement. He needed some new energy in the company and asked me [if I'd consider joining]. I really enjoyed it and stayed.

I’ve grown the company… quite significantly. When I joined, more than 80% [of business] was flight-only – lots of diplomatic and corporate bookings. I started looking at how we could attach hotel and restaurant bookings and build in the full concierge service. In 2015, we joined Virtuoso, which completely changed our business model.

Before, 90% of our bookings were bringing people inbound into London – the company has always had its roots in the Middle East. Joining Virtuoso gave us amazing suppliers in places such as New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Sydney, so we could offer the same high-tech service in other cities. We started assisting clients worldwide and transitioned from doing 80%-90% corporate flights to 60% leisure and 40% corporate.

The area of the business growing the most is… wellness travel. Bluebird Travel remains luxury focused for corporate and leisure travel, and we have another brand solely devoted to our top clients who require another level of service. During the pandemic, we also started Health Travel, which is focused on the top wellness retreats in the world.

It’s become quite a big trend for us. People are seeking a complete disconnect; we find clients are looking for new experiences and want to come back feeling a better person.

The suppliers I have the strongest relationship with are… Four Seasons and Mandarin Oriental.

My proudest career achievement is… how the company came back from Covid. Last year we doubled the number of staff and turnover, compared with 2019. I’m proud of how the team recovered and came together. We’ve got many new employees and are now a company of 12.

My biggest industry bugbear is... the chaotic distribution of everything – airlines and hotels and so on. We’ll have a multi-state trip where we’ve got four hotels and three airlines – and you can do it 20 different ways and at 20 different prices. It leads to so much complexity and clients feeling overwhelmed. For me, having no choice and someone saying ‘this is the best option for you’ is a luxury.