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7 things we learnt at The Magellan National Conference

The 2015 Magellan Group National Conference has been hailed a success by all that attended. Here's 7 things we discovered over the three days that tell the Magellan story.

The 2015 Magellan Group National Conference has been hailed a success by all that attended. Here’s 7 things we discovered over the three days that tell the Magellan story.

Held at The Sofitel in Melbourne from Wednesday 16th Sept to Saturday 19th Sept the conference was attended by 300 delegates including members and suppliers from all over Australia. It was the biggest turnout in the companies history and included a first in inviting travel media to attend.

The annual event began with a networking golf day on the Wednesday, followed by two days of conferencing on Thursday and Friday. Evening events were held at Zinc Bar on Wednesday and the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday with a Gala Awards dinner closing the conference at The Sofitel on Friday night.

So what did we learn? Read on.

 

1. Passion and depth reigns

Magellan Karryon

New Members Kay Franklin, Stuart Coffield & Andi Von Zeppelin

Formed in 2008 by three well respected Travel Agents (Andrew Jones, Trevor Jones and Kevin Dale) who were concerned about the number of takeovers and network ownership changes at the time, together they shared a vision to develop a new group to cater for the needs of strong, independent, successful Travel Agents.

Seven years on and now with 122 members they’ve done just that, bringing together an extremely passionate and aligned group of independent corporate and leisure travel business owners.

Looking around the room and seeing a lot of familiar (and prominent) agent faces that were previously with other groups such as Penny Spencer from Spencer Travel or Greg McCarthy from Platinum Travel, it’s a clear sign of the Magellan magic they’ve created.

With a positive buzz in the room around shared success, the family feel of this now award winning network was most definitely there.

 

2. Trust and Transparency is king

Magellan Andrew Jones karryon

Andrew Jones opens Conference and tells it like it is

It was Google that famously came out and said ‘don’t be evil’ many years ago in describing their company mantra on what they would and wouldn’t promote or how they would operate as a business.

So whilst the Silicon search gods may have lost some of their integrity mojo along the way in recent years, the Magellan Group by comparison have remained resolutely open and honest in everything they do as a truly member driven group that pays returns for all.

Founding Partner Andrew Jones and CEO Andrew Macfarlane both talked to the fact that the Group could only exist and be successful by constant feedback and a collective approach from the members to rapidly changing market needs.

“From 20 members to 122 – it’s still a great feel. We’ll never lose focus or the culture of this brilliant group”

Andrew Jones, Founding Partner

Seven years on since their inception, it’s clearly working with that trust there for all to see.

 

3. Local store marketing works

qantas karryon magellan

Working together to bring supplier experiences to life locally is key

Often passed up as the less sexy form of advertising, turns out it’s actually one of the most effective when it’s executed well.

In a digital world where customers are becoming less trusting of brands, actively marketing in your community and growing your own personal brand is absolutely critical to your success.

So it’s back to the old skool (or new skool?) for Magellan when it comes to providing superior service and being the true community heroes.

According to Magellan CEO, Andrew Macfarlane, it’s simply all about personalisation.

“Treat me like an individual not the mass market. Play to my dreams. Listen and serve me alongside technology. No algorithm can still create an amazing travel plan like an agent can”

There’s no gazillion dollar ad campaigns going on here. Magellan run zero national marketing activity outside of their website presence leaving it all for their supplier partners to work closely with their members to directly promote local activity and repeat and referral business.

 

4. If you’re not happy with the status quo, do something

MAGELLAN GALA ANDREW JONATHAN BEST DRESSED WINNERS

Thinking differently – Magellan Best Dressed Award at the Gala Dinner – Andrew Cross & Jonathan Donoley of Wings Away Travel VIC

Whilst the Group supported AFTA’s – ATAS initiative, collectively they didn’t feel it covered their customers effectively to the level they felt comfortable with or adequately reflected their group values in offering.

So instead they created their own 100% money back version – BookSmart.

Working in conjunction with Global Insurer Willis, their simple policy covers all travellers against the unlikely event of any losses due to insolvency on the part of airlines, suppliers or their own agents.

 

5. Only selling preferred suppliers – a work in progress

GALA - APT AWARD - SUSAN HABERLEY, JENNY KATER COOPERS TRAVEL, ANDREW MACFARLANE

APT award winner- Jenny Kater with Susan Haberle (APT) and Andrew Macfarlane (Magellan)

Andrew Macfarlane in his CEO update made the point that the group still need to focus on ensuring they all continue to sell preferreds to drive growth for everyone.

Equally too though he reiterated, was the potential danger of ‘blurring the lines’ around Supplier partners going direct and the ongoing ‘who owns the customer?’ conversation.

The answer being – no-one owns the customer. The customer owns us.

Whilst the group enjoys strong supplier partnerships and open lines of communication it was a reminder to continually work together to ensure long term growth for all.

 

6. The model is a compelling one

APT Dinner MCC karryon magellan

APT Founding legend and owner Geoff McGeary said he supported the idea from day one

The Magellan Travel Group’s sole mission is ‘to empower independent travel agents to control their own destiny while maximizing the rewards for their success in collaboration with a network of like-minded high-performance agents co-operating and learning from each other’.

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Their annual results last financial year of AUD$880m in TTV and profits of AUD$8.8m of what is still a modest network number of around 122 is a testament to the power of openness to feedback, transparency and maintaining a low bottom line.

Adding to this, what’s even more remarkable is that their head office team total just four staff including CEO Andrew Macfarlane.

 

7. Magellan means business

Magellan Travel Group

The Magellan team pick up the AFTA best non-branded group award in July

Since well and truly putting Independent agents back on the industry map with the best non-branded group win at the AFTA awards back in July, the group is going from strength to strength with new member numbers rising and increased interest from suppliers wanting to join as preferred partners.

If this conference was anything to go by, The Magellan Group is going to be a continued force to be reckoned with in the next twelve months.

Indeed their biggest challenge yet could be handling the level of interest they receive and how they’ll manage it without losing the founding ethos, integrity and family like approach of the group.

The Magellan Group will hold their annual conference next year in Auckland, New Zealand. Dates TBC.

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