06 June 2018
Here at Travel Counsellors, we really believe in the importance of celebrating the hard work and commitment of our dedicated travel professionals along with our trade partners, and our annual two-day Travel Counsellor’s Conference is a time to celebrate the company’s successes and achievements. This year’s conference was held in April in the stunning 5-star Powerscourt Hotel, Autograph Collection in Wicklow.
The conference theme of “A Future Without Limits” inspired great team building events, which helped the attendees grow personally and professionally as well as providing lots of fun for everyone. There was a positive, relaxed atmosphere around Powerscourt Hotel throughout the course of the two days with smiles all round from the Travel Counsellors.
As always, there was great networking opportunities with trade partners, benefitting both preferred suppliers and Travel Counsellors by strengthening their product knowledge and range as well as building strong relationships. Over 150 travel professionals were in attendance. Some of the event major sponsors included G Adventures, Cathay Pacific Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Travelport. Both days of the Annual Conference are action-packed, filled with inspiring talks from key members of management and guest speakers such as Steve Byrne, CEO at Travel Counsellors, Waseem Haq, Digital and Innovation Director and Jim Eastwood, Director of Sales.
The famous Pow-Wow exhibition takes place each year where 50+ suppliers set up stalls and network with our Travel Counsellors who put faces to names and learn more about the vast range of suppliers and discover new products, such as new cruise sailings, airline routes or hotels.
It’s not ‘all work and no play’ though... this year’s Asian-themed Welcome Party was sponsored by Cathay Pacific and both the TC’s and their trade partners enjoyed a great night of delicious food, drinks and networking. The Gala Dinner and Awards Night is the highlight event each year. Over the course of the glamourous black-tie gala event, 14 awards were given out to individual Travel Counsellors for their outstanding achievements and performances over the past year.
Cork-based Sarah McCarthy won the award for ‘Best Travel Counsellor’ for the ninth year in a row. She also won an award for most sales through Phenix, our state-of-the-art in-house booking system. Her good friend and fellow Cork based TC, Mary Foyle won ‘Best DMC’ sales, while Meath travel specialist Sharon Tiernan-Murphy won ‘Most Helpful Travel Counsellor’ as voted by her peers. Limerick native Claudia Lane was awarded ‘Best MyTC’ – for top usage of the Travel Counsellors app which provides users with personalised information about bookings. Two Dublin Travel Counsellors were awarded for their excellent use of online media for business; Sarah Appleton won ‘Best Travel Blog’ for her account of a recent trip to The Galapagos, while Karen Pugh was awarded for ‘Best Use of Social Media’. Co. Clare Travel Counsellor Gearóid Mannion won ‘Best Corporate TC’; while Mayo based Emer McDermott was named ‘Best Newcomer’ and Rachael Higgins, also from Mayo, won ‘Best Business Increase’. Sinéad Lonergan, Westmeath scooped ‘Best Cruise’, and Nadine Farrelly took home an award for ‘Best Margin’. Travel Counsellors’ ‘Business Partner of the Year’ went to Columbus Tours, the company’s Destination Management Company (DMC) in Sri Lanka.
Commending the TC's on their wins, General Manager of Travel Counsellors Ireland, Cathy Burke said: “Every year it is important to celebrate the hard work and commitment of our dedicated travel professionals. The gala awards are a perfect opportunity for such celebration, and I’d like to congratulate the achievements of all of our Travel Counsellors. Each and every one of them have such passion for travel and are always focused on achieving the very best for their customers.”
We are looking forward to next year already.
