Perhaps I'm just in need of a holiday ...

Then you should reach out to a travel agent ... :)

It's" normal" AE speak; a bit of hyperbole, but then, AE tends to love hyperbole. I forget which telephone company (Verizon, maybe?) used to have the slogan "reach out and touch someone."

Edith says it was AT&T. :-)

I remember being told by an expository writing teacher in the 1960s that I should avoid using "contact" as a verb.

But even as early as 1966 Wilson Follett, an established usage guru at the time, wrote: "Persons old enough to have been repelled by the verb contact may as well make up their minds that there is no way to arrest or reverse the tide of its popularity."

I believe the alternative they had in mind was to make contact with. Certainly not to reach out to. Little did they know what was in store for them ...