Clients at the TravelManagers Wyndham Travel Expo
Melbourne-based personal travel managers Mark Elevato, representative for Werribee and Amy Ferguson, representative for Tarneit, recently held their inaugural Wyndham Travel Expo at the Werribee Italian Sports & Social Club. The event was attended by 160 people, comprising a mix of new and existing clients.
With no local expo to cater for their community, Elevato and Ferguson, who are both relatively new to the TravelManagers family, decided to hold the event with the view to connect with their community and grow their databases.
“After some brainstorming, the client mini expo idea was born and we haven’t looked back! We opted for a smaller scale event that was more personal and intimate, which is reflective of the TravelManagers way. The expo also allowed us to explain the benefits and expertise we can provide clients as personal travel managers,” said Elevato.
The happy group of partner suppliers
Sixteen partner suppliers, including airlines, coach companies, cruise operators and land suppliers, participated in the travel expo.
“Suppliers each had their own booth offering a deal of the day to encourage client interaction, whilst we focused on networking and obtaining leads to follow up on. We recognise the opportunity for clients to meet and talk face to face with key product representatives is invaluable. We were thrilled with the response from our partner suppliers, being able to offer our clients such a broad and varied line up on the day was fantastic,” said Ferguson.
Seven partner suppliers were invited to provide a 20-minute client presentation, which were extremely well received, with 40 to 50 people in each session.
The personal travel managers received the assistance of local business partnership manager Scott Hallo, who emceed the evening.
Executive general manager Michael Gazal applauded the way the PTMs work so well together, including utilising the support of their local business partnership manager.
“Their relationship epitomises TravelManagers’ philosophy of personal travel managers working together to provide the ultimate travel experience for our customers. We recognise each personal travel manager has strengths in different areas and actively support and encourage their collective focus to further grow their businesses.”
The two PTMs do not see one another as competition, rather they see working together as a way to enhance their individual businesses.
“Living locally, we understand the benefits of supporting each other to collectively grow our own individual businesses. We find it’s a great way to brainstorm creative ideas, target a larger network of clients and share costs. There is no competition between us and we can ensure our customers are looked after the best we can,” said Ferguson.
New clients and a significant number of bookings were received following the successful expo.
“We plan to make this expo an annual event and envisage it will just grow bigger and better every year. The overwhelmingly positive feedback we have received from both clients and suppliers for our inaugural event has given us the confidence to hold more events like film evenings and we are also looking at holding a cruise expo,” said Elevato.
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