Hays Travel opens Weatherfield Branch

Coronation Street viewers will have their first sight of Hays Travel’s new branch on the cobbles of Weatherfield on 4 December 2023.

Hays Travel has officially revealed its partnership with the world’s longest-running television soap opera to coincide with HM The King’s Coronation in May. Since then, a storefront on the famous cobbles has been produced and eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted a ‘coming soon’ hoarding from October 24th.

Dame Irene Hays, owner and chair of Hays Travel, visited the Coronation Street set where she met Peter Fergusson, ITV Business Development Controller and Anthony Privilege, Branch Manager of Hays Travel Prescot – who was selected to be ‘Honorary Manager for the Day’ of Weatherfield’s Hays Travel.

Dame Irene Hays:

“Our thanks to the team at ITV who worked with our in-house property team on our shop’s design and production. The on set branch had to look just like all our Hays Travel shops on high streets across the UK; we are proud of the finished result and look forward to seeing it on TV in December.”

The outlet was first seen as a Costa Coffee, alongside the remaining ‘Coop’ supermarket, in 2018.

In 2021 the Costa was replaced by an EE Phone Shop

Jason Spencer, Business Development Director ITV:

“We are really proud of our ongoing partnership since Hays Travel returned to TV advertising at the start of the year and we’re now delighted to see the opening of the Hays Travel store in Coronation Street, enabling Weatherfield’s residents to have a travel agents on their doorstep for the very first time! We’re all looking forward to seeing Hays Travel frequently on the cobbles from December, helping make a fabulous brand even more famous across the UK and beyond.”

The unit was first seen as part of a set extension to ‘Weathefield’ at the ITV Studios in Salford in 2018. This new area also saw the frontage of a Coop Supermarket added along with plot functional locations such as the Weatherfield North tram station and a garden area.

ITV Granada and ITV Studios relocated from the original production centre in Manchester at Quay Street a decade ago, this move saw the Coronation Street backlot and surrounding area recreated at the new ITV Base at Salford Quays. The studios as well as producing Corrie also produce the regional Granada Reports news programming and series such as Deal or No Deal and Judge Rinder.

Hays Travel isn’t the first travel agents to feature in Coronation Street, although it is the first real-world brand to feature. In the 1990s Alec Gilroy (Roy Barraclough) and Deirdre Barlow (Anne Kirbride) worked for Sunliners Travel Agency.

Anthony Privilege:

“I thoroughly enjoyed being Honorary Branch Manager of Hays Travel Weatherfield for the day! I am a huge Coronation Street fan and remember my Nan taking me to visit the set when I was a young lad. Being back on set brought back lots of memories and was quite an emotional experience. I think this partnership is brilliant; we have Hays Travel branches across the UK, so of course there should be one as part of the UK’s most famous street.”