Posted 28 February 2018
Following an impressive start to the year, with global sales reaching £77.4m in January, a record number of our Travel Counsellors have achieved our ‘Gold’ standard, an award reserved for our highest performing franchisees. The total number of ‘Gold Travel Counsellors’ now stands at 180, an increase of 11% in the last 12 months.
Our 1,800 Travel Counsellors, who run their own travel businesses from across seven countries, can qualify for ‘Gold’ at two times during the year based on sales they have accomplished over a rolling 12-month period. Those who achieve the accolade benefits from a number of incentives to recognise their achievement, including a place on one of two fantastic trips. This year’s Gold Trips will be taking place in Cyprus and Ras al-Khaimah.
Last weekend, we hosted our annual Gold Dinner to recognise and celebrate the special people who exemplify what makes Travel Counsellors the success story it is. Hosted at the luxurious Titanic Hotel and Spa in Liverpool and sponsored by Regent Seven Seas Cruises, British Airways, APT, the event was attended by 120 Gold Travel Counsellors from across the UK who enjoyed an evening of fine dining and entertainment to recognise and reward their hard work, focus and dedication in running their individual businesses.
We were joined by 10 Travel Counsellors who had achieved Gold status for the first time, who were recognised and presented with their award. We share a little bit about some of those Travel Counsellors below...
Kathryn Glen, Travel Counsellor since 2016
Kathryn Glen was a top seller for a leading TMC where she worked for 16 years before becoming a Travel Counsellor. Within her first 12 months she achieved impressive sales of over £1million. She had set her sights on Gold from the very beginning and six months later, she was one of the fastest to achieve it. Kathryn was shocked and thrilled to find out she had won ‘Best Newcomer’ for Corporate at her first Global Conference last year.
With family in Abu Dhabi and South Africa, Kathryn is loving the flexibility of running her own business which enables her to visit her family more frequently and working from there.
Greg Caras, Travel Counsellor since August 2016
Greg worked for a leading tour operator for 17 years before joining Travel Counsellors and has visited over 100 countries and all 7 continents! He is a real family man and joined Travel Counsellors to have a better work/life balance with his supportive wife Anita and daughter Rosie. As a keen golfer, he thought he’d be spending more time on the golf course since starting his business, however, his customers haven’t stopped referring him.
85% of Greg’s business is booked through our in-house booking system, Phenix, which has allowed him to achieve a fantastic average margin. Huge congratulations to Greg who achieved Gold within 18 months of joining the company.
He says;"Achieving Gold status means I am proud to have become one of the top 10% of Travel Counsellors globally. I love being part of the Travel Counsellors family and now I feel part of its succes even more, as well as my own. The Gold dinner was awesome; I was made to feel so special by management, fellow Gold Travel Counsellors and our suppliers. The effort put in to recognise this achivement went beyond anything I imagined."
Vikki Coe, Travel Counsellor since 2005
Vikki is married to Mike and they have a little boy called Charlie, and Vikki also has an older daughter called Charlotte. She has been slowly growing her business in the 12 years she has been a Travel Counsellor, and Gold has always been in her sights. Vikki thanks fellow Travel Counsellors, Zoe Herbert, Karon Edmunds and Kath Williams who has pushed her to exceed her goals, as well as Jason and Gemma in Business Development for keeping her motivated and believing in her that she could achieve Gold.
Helen Vincent, Travel Counsellor since 2016
Helen had her own tour operations business for 18 years and used to offer her customers something different, not the usual one or two weeks in the Med, she sold her business though and wasn’t sure whether she would stay in travel. But she saw Travel Counsellors and thought it could work for her as she likes to work with products and people she knew, tailor make itineraries and truly look after clients. Helen really believes in keeping in touch with her customers and creating value for them.
She says: "The event was lovely. My overriding feeling was that it really felt like a celebration of us Travel Counsellors who were 'new to gold', which was so nice. It makes it seem really speicial to achieve 'Gold' and a pat on the back for all the hard work that goes into getting there. I met so many Gold Travfel Counsellors and feel I have made some more friends in the TC family."
Our Global Sales Director Jim Eastwood, said: “Celebrating the success and hard work of our Travel Counsellors is so important to us. The gold dinner is our chance to congratulate our top performers on their fantastic achievement, hard work and dedication, and recognise those that are new to Gold.
It’s also an opportunity for our people to come together and celebrate in one another’s success. The fact that we have achieved record levels of Gold this year is reflective of our ongoing growth and our people’s focus on providing exceptional levels of service and care to their customers.”
We're extremely proud of of the achivements of all of our Travel Counsellors and we're excited for what lies ahead for their businesses and the comapny as a while. There really are no limits to what you could acheive with the right attitude, focus and dedication. Could you follow in their footsteps and become one of our top-performing business owners?
