Mudgee Travel & Cruise has celebrated 30 years of ownership by the Box family – and Travellers Choice says few Aussie travel businesses embody the spirit of community like the regional NSW agency.
Owner-manager Glenn estimates the company has been continuously trading since at least the early 1950s, making it no less than 70 years old. It has been a Travellers Choice member for around a decade.
Since Glenn took over the business with his mother Gayle back in 1993, the agency has not just provided top-notch service to customers across Mudgee, but has added to the community’s social fabric as well.
For instance, in 2018, Mudgee Travel & Cruise helped raise $600,000 through a charity it created called 200BALES, which focused on helping farmers survive a drought. Travel partners chipped in too, while there were events like the ‘Day in the Dirt’ country music festival that helped raise the massive donation.
To mark the 30-year milestone, Mudgee Travel & Cruise hosted more than 50 clients, suppliers, colleagues and fellow Travellers Choice agents to an afternoon of fun and frivolity that took in a local winery and gin distillery, before winding up at the iconic Oriental Hotel Mudgee.
With the event, Glenn said the business wanted to highlight just how important its partners are.
“Especially those who have been with us for much of the journey – including a few who’ve been with us for the entire three decades,” he remarked.
A bright future
Despite its long history, there’s little chance the business will be left standing still moving into the future.
For one, it embraces the technology and tools at its disposal.
“Technology has had an enormous impact on productivity,” says Glenn.
“Our business today turns over more than four times the revenue we did back in 1993, but with less than half the staff.
“It’s not all due to technology though. I think we’ve also reaped the benefits that flow from 30 years of continual ownership; from knowing what our clients and our community want, knowing what we can achieve.”
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the Travellers Choice member though, with Glenn forced to take on side hustles during the downturn following 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
But reflecting the resilience of the business and industry, Mudgee Travel & Cruise survived and even thrived.
“So many of the challenges we’ve experienced could have crushed travel agents, but we’ve come through,” he remarked.
“Not just that, most recently, we’ve rebounded in a way that has exceeded everyone’s expectations, despite a serious shortage of trained staff.
“That shows just how resilient we are, and always will be.”
Elsewhere, South Australian agency Inflight Travel is the latest business to join the Travellers Choice member network. Read more about that here.
For more information on Travellers Choice, click here.
