I’m going to call them the McDirectors of Entire Travel Group. And it’s not just because they’ve got ‘Mc’ surnames either. Brad McDonnell and Greg McCallum seem to operate to a simple, but effective code, with some similarities to a certain Mc fast food chain: they want things to be easy for their customers.
So they built online systems, white labelled quotes, answered phone calls. All with the goal of taking some of the unnecessary labour from agents so that agents could get back to clients quickly with top-line product and real-time costings.
“Our basic rule is that we want travel agents to look like rockstars in front of their clients,” McCallum (the one with the beard) told media at the last of Entire Travel Group’s inaugural Travel Showcase & Soirée events last night.
Travel agents, despite what their clients may think, can’t possibly know everything about everywhere, McCallum said. So Entire steps in and acts as a conduit of knowledge from destination experts to an agent’s client. And the agent gets all the glory.
Add to this, “clients can get looked after immediately”, the non-bearded McDonnell said.
“Our history goes back 50 years,” he said.
So when agents work with Entire, they’re “unlocking relationships” the company has built up over that time.
How listening led to putting on a massive event for 600 agents
How does Entire Travel Group know how to make things easier for agents? The McDirectors listen. They listen to their team, they listen to agents.
It was an agent survey that started the ball rolling in what would become a big week in the industry calendar: Entire Travel Group’s Travel Showcase & Soirée events.
600 agents from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne had the opportunity to connect with 37 exhibitors this week after the McDirectors heeded a call from agents for such an event. But when to put it on?
“We felt as though there was a gap in the industry, particularly this time of year,” McDonnell said.
“It’s right at the start of the peak booking period, particularly for Europe and a lot of operators and partners that are here.”
And because Entire Travel Group is fully independent, the company’s exhibitors and partners were able to come and “get access to the full industry”.
“Our goal is to create a platform for us and our partners and the agents to get together this time of year.”
The response from agents has been overwhelming, said McDonnell and there have been calls for it to be made an annual event — though maybe not on Valentine’s Day.
So pencil in 11, 12, 13 February 2025. It’s likely to be even bigger, the McDirectors warn.
Agents still want brochures
Another thing the McDirectors heard (even if they didn’t want to) was that agents still very much need brochures.
“We came out of COVID thinking and definitely hoping we wouldn’t print a brochure ever again,” McDonnell said, but agent feedback said otherwise.
“So we’re all in now.”
Entire Travel Group’s new Europe escorted group coach touring program is now out in glorious, glossy colour with an 82-page print brochure of 33 Group Journeys itineraries in nine destinations across the Continent and North Africa.
