It’s Friday, you’re itching to get out the door, and it’s about that time when you escape to a long lunch.

We get you – that’s why we’ve wrapped up all your last minute news before the weekend, tied a bow around it, and voila.

Let’s get you to Friday drinks and get you out of the office. Here’s the hard work made easy.

Enjoy your fabulous weekends!

Helloworld store opens

A great number of travel industry colleagues, clients, and team members turned out to attend the grand opening cocktail party for Sydney travel agency, helloworld Eastgardens. The local agency has partnered with helloworld to re-brand and re-launch, sporting a brand new name and a fresh office space.

 To celebrate this transition, helloworld Eastgardens hosted an impressive grand opening cocktail party which was attended by special guest Roy Billing – Award-winning Actor who featured in helloworld’s #SaySorryLater social media video for the Silver Fox and Foxettes AAT Kings Campaign.”

Pictured left to right: Roy Billling (Actor and helloworld AAT Kings #SaySorryLater ambassador) and Linda Taylor (Eastgardens Store Owner)

An offer you can’t refuse

Samujana villas in Koh Samui is offering a special package full of complimentary inclusions for guests staying five nights or more.

Starting from $1,644 per villa per night (3 bed), guests will receive a host of inclusions like daily breakfast served in your villa, a Thai massage, cooking class, a full day private yacht charter and more.

The package also includes return transfers from Koh Samui airport, wireless internet access, daily housekeeping and villa tax and service charge.

PromPeru know how to party

PROMPERÚ, Peru’s national tourist office, has embarked on a range of activity in Australia this week from 5-13 September including the largest Peruvian delegation to ever participate in Luxperience as well as media and travel trade events.

From 6-9 September, the group exhibited at Luxperience in Sydney to showcase unique luxury experiences in Peru to high-end travel specialists and suppliers. In addition, a series of events have been coordinated in Sydney and Melbourne to educate the travel industry and media, bringing ‘the land of hidden treasures’ to life Down Under.

Sydney events included an exclusive cocktail soiree for media at Bondi Beach’s South American hotspot, Luis Tans and a VIP trade industry breakfast at O Bar and Dining. Activity also included a Melbourne stop for a VIP dinner for South America wholesale specialists.

Southern gets new faces

Southern Discoveries continues to expand by adding new roles to its marketing team. With the new additions, the company is focusing its marketing operations into online and offline, PR and partnerships.

Libby Baron has been appointed the new marketing and partnerships manager where she’ll be implementing marketing strategies across predominantly offline platforms and activity. She will be joining the team on September 14.

Libby joins Southern Discoveries from Destination Queenstown, where she worked as its communications and media executive. From her time at DQ, she’s gained a strong understanding of the tourism industry domestically and internationally.

Creative Cruising celebrates record month

Creative Cruising has celebrated the first anniversary of its online portal with a record month of sales.

General manager Peter Forsyth said, “Our goal over the past year has been to restore agents’ faith in the Creative Cruising brand and to once again be their preferred partner when fulfilling the ever-growing demand for cruising.

“They say the proof is in the pudding and in our case that’s a record month of sales in July and an overall 2,000 percent increase in sales for 2015. We’re confident that percentage will continue to rise ahead of what looks like a bumper summer cruise season.”

New Cal puts on a show for agents

Qantas Holidays, New Caledonia Tourism and Aircalin recently joined forces to host a 4 day famil to New Caledonia, enabling a group of selected travel agents to experience the destination firsthand and increase their knowledge of New Caledonia’s landscape, culture and diverse experiences available to Australian travelers.

The group had time to explore the diverse tourism offering of the domain of Deva visiting Green Island and enjoyed snorkelling with colourful tropical fish before continuing to the capital of Noumea where they enjoyed a delicious French cooking lesson and discovered the bays of the city by Segway.

Pictured is, left to right: Elise Fuller, Mossvale Cruise & Travel; Manuela Nielsen, New Caledonia Tourism; Sarah Harris, Helloworld Bonnyrigg; Yvette Gray, Sylvania Travel & Cruise; Ella Reece, Bathurst Travel Centre; Alicia Black, All Australian Journeys; Lauren Stuchbury, Qantas Holidays; Jason Cooley, Helloworld Sy Ives.

Doors closing on Oman Megafam

Registrations for the 2015 Sultanate of Oman Tourism Agents Educational Famil flying Qatar Airways
are still OPEN. But agents only have ONE MORE WEEK to register for this once-in-career opportunity!

STEP ONE: Agents are invited to register their interest by completing a registration form accessed at the this link.

STEP TWO: Simply complete Sultanate of Oman’s online training modules (if you haven’t already), and you will make yourself eligible for selection on the famil.

Mobile at Luxperience

Mobile Travel Agents were out in force at the Luxperience travel exhibition that wrapped up on Wednesday evening.

Pictured at Luxperience is, from left to right: Beate Carr; Debra Gray; Linda Kiernander; Kerrie Kaesler; Maxine Adams; John Adams; Carine Griffiths; MTA Luxury Product manager, Margaret Lange (centre front) ; Marian Stanley;  Sonia Jones; Alycia Papadopoulos; Patricia Gordon and Chris Hopton.

Swiss Travel Pass Superstars announced!

Rail Europe, Switzerland Tourism and the Swiss Travel System have announced the winners of their Swiss Travel Pass SuperStar Program who will be participating on the year-end famil in Switzerland from 29 Nov – 5 Dec 2015.

Six GSA consultants and 10 retail agents will join Mark Wettstein, Director of Switzerland Tourism ANZ, and Ingrid Kocijan, Manager Australasia of Rail Europe, on a fully hosted trip to see why Switzerland is becoming increasingly popular among travellers.

The 16 lucky participants on this famil include: Josie Hanney from Goldman Travel Corporation; Melissa Blessing from Flight Centre Katoomba; Chris Riou from Newport Travel; Naomi Hill from Qantas Holidays; Maxine Thomas from CIT holidays; Janine Mallon from The Travel Brokers; Kacey Sowman from Go Holidays; Elaine Seuao from Rail Plus NZ; Melissa Healy from Flight Centre West Perth; Ranka Mileusnic from GTS Travel Management; Rhonda Paice from Williamstown Travel & Cruise; Yvette Van Urk from Outdoor Travel; Nina Marchioli from RACT Kingston; Cassandra Zayonce from TravelManagers; and Clement Tringale form Rail Plus Aus.

A taste of Taiwan down under

Taiwan Tourism Bureau presents its annual Roadshow in Australia this September to showcase Taiwan – a fusion of tradition with new trends. From understanding the latest updates on Taiwan tourism to mini workshops, the roadshows are open to travel trade industry partners in Australia, including airlines, travel agents and online travel partners.

The series of roadshows will be held in four cities: Sydney, Auckland, Melbourne and Brisbane on September 14, 15, 16 and 17 respectively. Events kick off at 5.30pm for cocktails.

For more information and to RSVP your attendance, please contact event coordinator Nichole Madin (nichole@ndmtravelmarketing.com.au) or Pearl Lee (pearl@taiwantourism.org) asap with your company name, number attending, and which roadshow/date you are interested in.

#APTtheBest first winner

Competition is hotting up for the #APTtheBest trade campaign, whereby award winning luxury travel operator APT is offering two exciting industry incentives throughout September.

The first winner to be announced for the travel agency incentive is helloworld Camberwell. They receive a $1500 marketing voucher with APT.

Meanwhile consultants have been busy sending in their #APTtheBest photos and entries in a bid to win one of five luxury river cruises. Scarlett Trewavis from Flight Centre Watergardens (pictured) is the first winner and receives an all inclusive luxury Mekong cruise for her picture and entry.

To enter the photo competition, agents simply need to take a photo incorporating the campaign hashtag #APTtheBest and send it, along with an explanation as to why they think APT is the best (must be 25 words or less), to competitions@aptouring.com.au. Entries should include entrants’ contact details.

The #APTtheBest incentive campaign and photo competition runs from 1-30 September 2015 inclusive.

Asian savings with Cosmos

Cosmos has announced earlybird savings of $300* per couple across its newly released range of 2016 Asian holidays, including two new tours exploring extraordinary sights and ancient landmarks of China.

The new 2016 Cosmos Asia brochure features 11 exotic holidays in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, India and Sri Lanka, priced from as little as $111 per day.

Ranging from seven to 16 days, each tour promises the same value and care that Cosmos has delivered since it first began operations in Europe more than 50 years ago.  They combine the ease and convenience of guided travel with all the colour and vibrancy of Asia.

From now until December 1, 2015, Cosmos is offering $300* per couple off any 2016 Asia tour.  Plus, travellers can save an additional $100 per couple when they book a second tour, and receive a 2.5 per cent discount for early payments (four months or more before departure).

Win a GoPro and camera!

There are only a couple more days for agents to be in with a chance to win a GoPro HERO3+ Silver Edition Camera, worth over $470AUD, thanks to the launch of the Utah Badge on Brand USA’s Discovery Program.

Agents who complete the Utah specialist badge after first completing the Regional Expert Badge will qualify to go in the draw.

Once users have completed the Utah badge, agents can then take other Specialist modules, which focus on various experiences and holiday themes. With the addition of the Utah specialist badge, there are a total of 15 badges available for completion.

The lucky winner will be announced on Monday 14th September. For more information, please visit www.usadiscoveryprogram.com.au.