TravelManagers chief operating officer Grant Campbell said 2016 was “another year of outstanding achievements” for the company, including signing up its 500th personal travel manager.
“February 2016 saw TravelManagers achieve its best ever sales month and when you add in the significant raft of supplier awards, our growth and development as a company has been nothing short of exceptional.”
“We are extremely proud that our personal travel managers on average, have 21 years of industry experience. It is this knowledge and expertise, combined with their genuine love and passion for travel that ensures their clients receive tailor made and co-created itineraries the majority of which are based around personal experience,” said Campbell.
Campbell highlights the company’s focus on its Australia-wide geographic coverage and strong physical support and recognises that the seven locally state based business partnership managers have been critical in its success.
“Our focus on training and facilitating networking opportunities for our personal travel managers via strong national and state-based support through the national partnership office and business partnership managers remained strong.”
- 2016 saw record personal travel manager attendance at the company’s locally based state meetings in November and the annual conference in Bangkok was deemed the most successful to date
- 500 plus supplier product and training cluster meetings were held in suburban and regional centres throughout Australia
- 700 one-on-one meetings were held between business partnership managers and personal travel managers
- Personal travel managers individually and collectively worked together to organise and co-ordinate 40 local travel expos and film evenings
- 193 national webinars were organised by the national partnership office, 121 of these facilitated by partner suppliers
- Fares and ticketing adapted traditional webinars into fortnightly ‘short and sharp’ webinars
Campbell was pleased with the increase of consumer brand awareness, with marketing support remaining a significant focus.
“September saw TravelManagers launch its first consumer focused video commercial highlighting the benefits and services of booking with a personal travel manager. We understand the unique needs of each and every personal travel manager, just like their clients they are individual in their own niches and business focus. As such it remains a priority that we provide our personal travel managers with the tools to communicate and market effectively to their clients in a way that suits them.”
- Forty-eight centrally produced personalized eNewsletters were provided to each personal travel managers’ client database with an additional 20 customised eNewsletters produced with individualised calls to action
- 59 consumer website blog articles were published
- Consumer website was completely overhauled and re-launched resulting in page views increasing by more than 23%
- Facebook page fan base grew by 36%
Campbell said the dedicated famil program continues to be a success story.
“Many key airline, cruise and wholesale supplier relationships have been built over many years with support from our partner suppliers being absolutely key to our business model. The ability for our personal travel managers to experience a wide range of dedicated worldwide famils is a large part of this support,” said Campbell.
- Two hundred and ninety personal travel managers participated on worldwide product/destination famils, an increase of 14% on 2015
- Thirteen famils were exclusively dedicated to personal travel managers compared to only seven in previous years
Technology advancement and training, with the aim of providing superior client service, continues to be a priority for 2017.
“The release of the TravelManagers app was a major milestone allowing clients to access their itineraries in the palm of their hand. With personally sensitive information secure, the app also allows travellers to book additional arrangements locally at their destination generating additional commission for their personal travel manager,” said Campbell.
The personal travel manager dividend payment and conference bonus payment was well received by PTMs.
“The announcement of dividend payment in August 2016 recognises the individual personal travel manager growth and the one thousand dollar conference bonus payment was introduced to acknowledge and reward the incredible loyalty we have amongst our personal travel managers.”
Campbell is confident 2017 will see the company enjoy further success.
“From experience we know by supporting and investing in our people, increased sales and business success will naturally follow. The future of home-based consulting has never looked brighter.”
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