What a year 2018 has been for Travel Counsellors! A record-breaking year filled with award wins, new directions, fresh initiatives, and a whole lot of travel (did we mention that we love to travel?), Travel Counsellors has gone from strength-to-strength.
Here are the top 18 moments of 2018
- Travel Counsellors Australia welcomed Kaylene Shuttlewood as Regional Managing Director. With over 25 years of global travel industry experience, Kaylene’s track record in holding several senior leadership roles across multiple markets makes her a great fit for Travel Counsellors Australia.
- A shining example of what it means to be a Travel Counsellor, Matt Schmitz was awarded Top TC in Australia at the Travel Counsellors Global Conference held in Glasgow in November.
- 8 lucky Travel Counsellors from around Australia jetted off to live it up on a reward trip to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The trip included nights at Atlantis the Palm and the ultra-luxurious, One&Only Resort.
- Our best ever annual conference was held in Cairns. The activities before and after the conference (all organised by our wonderful local partners) were a highlight for many.
- Travel Counsellors Australia were finalists in 3 major categories at the NTIAs this year including Best Broker Network, Best Travel Agent Technology Innovation and Best Travel Consultant – Retail (Matt Schmitz strikes again!)
- For the first time ever, the Australians united with their Dutch counterparts on a TC multi-nation famil in Cambodia hosted by our DMC partner, Wide Eye Tours.
- Travel Counsellors secured a secondary buy-out by Vitruvian Partners (a private equity company of Skyscanner fame).
- We raised over $5,000 in support of Drought Angels. The devastation of the drought in NSW really hit home for many Travel Counsellors, particularly ones located in rural areas. TCs near and far dug deep and made generous contributions to the cause.
- Ben Quinn joined Travel Counsellors Australia as Training and Business Development Executive, to strengthen our local training programs for new and established Travel Counsellors.
- Donna Jones, Karen Coates and Suzanne Watson were all nominated at the Women in Travel Awards, huge individual recognition for these amazing Travel Counsellors.
- Kaylene Shuttlewood was recognised as one of the Top 10 Most Influential Women in Travel at the Women in Travel Awards.
- We road-tripped around Australia for a month to capture the unique stories of a few of our Travel Counsellors. From a sheep farm in rural WA to a beautiful seaside town on the Central Coast of NSW, and a few places in between, we laughed, cried and celebrated what is so special about Travel Counsellors - its people of course!
- Samantha Slattery, Christine Jenkins, Nadine Kutz, Trish O’Brien and Liz Van Boxal all reached Gold Status in 2018 - an enormous achievement! We also rewarded all our top performing agents with an exclusive trip to Vilamoura on the sun-drenched coast of Portugal.
- Travel Counsellors were finalists in the Best Corporate Agency and Best Technology categories at the Australian Travel Awards.
- The MyTC app saw quote conversions jump from 35% to 40% this year.
- 10 TCs flew to the Glasgow Conference and travelled around Scotland and England on a super-famil, courtesy of Royal Brunei. The also spent time at the head office in Manchester.
- Cruise Takeover Day at the Melbourne Head Office was a success, with 9 of our most favorite cruise suppliers joining in.
- Digital Accelerator (a learning course in COACH) was launched to help Travel Counsellors scale their business using digital tools.
There’s no doubt about it, 2018 was a blockbuster year. Let’s keep the momentum going into 2019, and beyond!
If you want to start your travel business with a company that puts people at the heart of everything they do, take a look at our Opportunities page to find the right start for you.
