Kuoni recorded its strongest weekend sales performance of the decade in January. 

Derek Jones, chief executive of Kuoni’s parent company Der Touristik UK, said the second and third weekends of the month were particularly fruitful as he hailed a stable start to the year at Monday’s annual Worldwide Travel Report event. 

“For us, January has seen some of our strongest ever weekend sales performance - certainly the strongest of the last decade,” he said.

“The second and third weekends of January were as big as any weekends we’ve seen over the last 10 years, so [there’s] a real resurgence of interest in product and people going ahead and booking holidays.”

Jones said Kuoni’s retail model was going from strength to strength despite the failure of Thomas Cook last year.

Over 40% of retail customers now come back and book with the tour operator again, he revealed, a figure that has doubled in the last 10 years since Kuoni launched its own stores. 

“People really value that face to face personal connection with a travel expert,” he added.