TravelManagers celebrate a record smashing 2018

Twelve consecutive months of record sales, reaching a milestone of 550 personal travel managers (PTMs) and launching individual PTM websites: is there anything TravelManagers didn’t achieve in 2018?

“These achievements, and many more, come as a direct result of the experience, expertise and passion to deliver excellence for which our people are renowned,” said Chief Operating Officer, Grant Campbell.

2018 was a year of personal and professional development for PTMs, with a big focus on training days and a whopping 814 one-on-one meetings between PTMs and BPMs and 479 cluster meeting in metropolitan suburbs and regional centres.

In addition to these face-to-face meetings, Campbell said 258 webinars were run by the National Partnership Office (NPO), providing updates on a range of topics, both internal and partner supplier-related.

“We also ran 26 specific corporate webinars that were supported by dedicated corporate classroom workshops in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide and at the annual National Conference in Hawaii.

Professional development also included 248 opportunities for worldwide product and destination famils, with 132 PTMs taking part in fifteen famils that were exclusive to TravelManagers.

“As a group, our PTMs already possess an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to selling travel, but they are still strongly focused on further improvement,” Campbell said.

“The benefits of which are two-fold: clients receive the best possible advice and PTMs are able to indulge their own passion for travel.”

Several new initiatives were also announced at the company’s annual National Conference, aimed at ensuring TravelManagers retains its place as the preferred travel company for its people and its clients.

“The conference brought together more than 200 PTMs, so it was an ideal venue in which to announce our new partnership with Luxury Escapes as their sole home-based network and inaugural retail partner,” said Campbell.

“Our exclusive partner status means that we are the only retail travel network with direct access to Luxury Escapes’ prominently advertised and promoted holiday content – it’s a real coup for both our PTMs and our clients.”

Also announced at the conference, TravelManagers’ new Network Assistance Program (NAP) is an initiative aimed at supporting its members’ health and wellbeing.

“Our PTMs can choose their own work hours and location, so it’s important they still have the support and camaraderie they would enjoy in a traditional office environment,” Campbell explained.

“The retail travel environment is not without its stresses and challenges, but NAP is designed to provide PTMs with access to expertise across a wide range of professional services, covering everything from anxiety and anger management to mediation and conflict resolution.”

According to Campbell, the focus on culture is paying dividends for the company, having scooped a variety of industry awards throughout the year.

“We started 2018 by being recognised as Scenic’s top performing national home-based agency network for the fourth year running, and concluded with PTM Jo Patton winning the 2018 Avis Scholarship of Excellence – the second consecutive year that a TravelManagers personal travel manager has won the award.”

However, not being content to rest on their laurels, Campbell said TravelManagers are looking to continue breaking records in 2019, and adds that they are off to a strong start.

“Our first full business week this year saw us welcoming six newly-signed PTMs for their induction training – a fantastic omen for the year ahead.

“Despite the record-breaking achievements by many areas of our business in 2018, we have plenty more planned for 2019, and we are looking forward to seeing what successes this year will bring,” he concluded.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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