1000 Mile Travel Group premiere plans coming out of the pandemic

1000 Mile Travel Group (1000MTG), a member of Helloworld Business Travel, made 5 big announcements to their network of corporate business owners at their 4-day conference held on Hamilton Island over the weekend.

The group announced that they secured 1000MTG’s first investment partners, plans to launch into the U.S in the second half of 2023, a new technology partnership with Corporate Travel Management (CTM ), an exclusive 1000MTG famil for 5 of the network, and the unveiling of next year’s conference in Las Vegas.

1000MTG is the first Australian travel company to hold a conference since the pandemic started 23 months ago.

1000MTG crew at staff cruise last Thursday | Supplied

The conference coincided with the group’s 7^th birthday this month and the theme for the conference was 7 pillars for 7 years. Two of these pillars focused on technology & the future of travel.

The announcements came from CEO, Ben Ross, director of people & culture, Nicola Veltman, and COO Craig Constable on Saturday.

(CTM) can see that we’re pretty innovative. They see a really great synergy in the entrepreneurial way that we operate and they’re also extremely entrepreneurial,” Veltman, said in an interview with Travel Weekly.

“CTM is partnering with us, and they’re providing all their technology to us. It’s the first time they’ve done that outside of CTM.”

Among the new travel tech includes CTMs exclusive Fare Forecaster, COVID Hub, carbon emissions offsetting solutions, travel analytics, and much more.

While the group operates primarily in Australia and the U.K, by 1 July 2023, 1000MTG plan to be established in the North American global superpower.

“We want to continue what we’ve done in the UK, focusing purely on small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and we’re going to launch with CTM,” Ross said.

The CEO of CTM, Greg McCarthy, added, “We are excited to see what 1000MTG has achieved and look forward to supporting them as they continue their expansion across the globe with the CTM Agency Partnership Program.”

1000MTG’s announcements came alongside the reveal of its first private equity investment.

Before and throughout the pandemic, Ross and Veltman had been approached by several travel management companies who were interested in a sale.

“These didn’t feel right at the time,” said Ross. “They either didn’t have the same focus or entrepreneurial spirit as 1000MTG so we said no.”

This took them on the route of looking at a private investor

“As of this week, we have confirmed private equity into 1000 Mile. We’ve got investment, and what we’re doing is putting back into the company and getting new roles to support the network’s growth and success into the future,” Veltman said.

Among these new roles include Veronica Curran, the group’s new travel acquisition manager, as well as plans for 15 new travel experts in Australia and 10 in the UK in 2022.

1000MTG staff at dinner | Supplied

“It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality travel experts who share our vision and values,” Veltman said.

1000MTG will also bring on another business development manager to support new corporate business into the network and an additional dedicated marketing professional.

1000MTG is a start-up travel group that began 7 years ago. The group has about 50 people across Australia and the UK.

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

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