Skill up on all you need to know with bite sized travel news designed specifically to help you, the Travel Agent, be your best today and tomorrow.
1. What happens when Agents sell A LOT of Infinity Holidays year-round?
Flight Centre Travel Group retail Agents literally have 12 months from today to sell, sell, sell Infinity Holidays and earn their way into next year’s incrowd ULTRA famil.
Kicking off today, the annual incentive runs for a complete year and gives consultants 365 days to sell off as much Infinity Holidays product as they possibly can.
The best of the best – aka the top 25 sellers for the year – will then be “spoilt rotten” and “treated to the party of a lifetime” in… Hawaii and New York City.
2. Where will the Travellers Choice 40th celebration be held?
Travellers Choice will return to its roots next year, with the national retail group announcing that the new 500-room luxury hotel Crown Perth Towers will host its 2017 Annual Shareholders’ Conference.
The network, which also unveiled a new logo celebrating its milestone, started life in Perth in 1977 when a handful of specialist retailers came together under a cooperative structure. Today the group’s 150 members are distributed across every state in Australia and remain the company’s sole shareholders.
Managing Director Christian Hunter says the new logo will feature across the organisation’s marketing materials in 2017, including newsletters, point-of-sale displays and consumer advertising.
3. Emirates is taking the biggest plane on the shortest flight
It’s the largest passenger airliner in the world and it’s going on its shortest ever scheduled journey with Emirates.
Chances are, if you’ve flown on the A380 it’s been on a mid-to-long haul service, because it was designed specifically to cover vast distances (apparently it can fly Sydney to Istanbul non-stop), and as the largest passenger airliner, it can squeeze in more passengers and in turn make airlines more money.
However, Emirates, one of the largest operators of the jumbo jet with 87 in its current fleet and 55 on order, has decided to utilise one of its A380s on the Dubai-Doha route, which only covers around 379 kilometres and last for 1 hour and 20 minutes (maximum).
4. 3 reasons why the new Qantas learning hub totally rocks
Shouldn’t learning be fun and engaging? And shouldn’t it be possible to learn at your own pace and in your own time, whether that’s on your daily commute, a spare five minutes at home, or face-to-face?
Yes, it should, and thankfully Qantas totally gets it.
The new Qantas Learning Hub makes it easy for Travel Agents around the country to learn everything there is to know about the Flying Kangaroo: from support, sales, and fares, right through to product, networks and partner alliances – all accessible 24/7 on your desktop, mobile or tablet.
5. STA Travel & CanTeen partner together in the spirit of Christmas
In the spirit of giving this December, STA Travel will match all donations made to CanTeen from 1st December to 31 December 2016.
STA Travel help millions of young travellers explore the world. Yet every year, 23,000 Australian youths are impacted by a cancer diagnosis. These people are friends, family and colleagues of the STA Travel Community; who require expert support form the moment they hear the word ‘cancer’.
This is why STA Travel have formed a partnership with CanTeen Australia. Canteen are focused on providing practical solutions to help them deal with the roller coaster. You can help us by adding just $2 to your booking in store or over the phone, or by clicking here.
6. Cheers to the Sunshine Coast Airport for crackin’ a mil
It was all smiles and celebrations over in the Sunshine Coast this month when the destination’s gateway hit the one million passenger mark – the first time this has been achieved in a 12-month period.
The milestone, 55 years in the making, continues an incredible period of growth and development for the region’s air traffic gateway, and Mayor Mark Jamieson welcomed the one million passengers achievement, saying it further highlighted the strong progress the airport had recently made.
“In the last 18 months, the airport has broken passenger growth record after record,” he said. “We have consistently been the country’s fastest growing airport since the middle of last year.”
7. They’re small, but they’re perfectly-formed Aussie adventures
You know the saying, it’s not the size that matters. That’s why over at AAT Kings the company is focusing on affordable, easy going, small group adventures across Australia in its new Aussie Adventures 2017/18 brochure.
New for 2017/18, each Aussie Adventures escape will now be escorted throughout by a Driver Guide who will provide the stories, insights and knowledge to bring each destination to life. There’s also a new four-day Sydney Escape tour taking in the city’s beautiful surrounds starting with a walk along the stunning Sydney coastline, soaking up the panoramas of the Harbour Bridge.
Due to the success of Aussie Adventures Top End Escape as a fully-guided experience, the complete range of Aussie Adventures trips has been enhanced this season to include a Driver Guide escort throughout. Guests will benefit from the experience and knowledge of these experienced and passionate Driver Guides who will share their tales and trivia throughout the entire journey and give clients even better value for money than ever before.
8. Travel industry gets a taste of spicy India
The Australian travel industry was given the opportunity to try one of the top five cuisines of the world, during an India Tourism Sydney, Australia India Travel & Tourism Council and Wendy Wu Tours event in Sydney.
Held last week at waterfront Indian restaurant Manjit, some 75 Travel Agents, airline staff, hoteliers and industry personalities tickled their taste buds with several dishes from various regions of India while also hearing from Indian Consul General Sydney’s B. Vanlalvawna, India Tourism Sydney’s Director, Kanchan Kurkeja, and Wendy Wu Tours’ Laura Cuthbert.
According to AITTC Chairman Sandip Hor, the idea behind this initiative is simple and straight forward – to pass on enhanced knowledge about Indian cuisine and to motivate Australians, who love Indian food like rest of the world does, to visit India and experience a pleasing encounter with variety of food while savouring others touristic charms of the vast nation.
9. Delta, Virgin, Los Cabos, Agents & Mexican food
What do you get when you mix Los Cabos with Delta, Virgin Australia and Sydney? A Baja California feast at Mad Mex – arriba!
Delta and Virgin treated a group of lucky Agents to a Mexican dinner earlier this month, to celebrate the recent Mad Mex ‘Deadly Days’ promotion, which saw five lucky Mad Mex customers win a trip to the Mexican paradise thanks to DL/VA and Los Cabos Tourism.
Along with the festive feasts the Agents were treated to margaritas, tasty tacos, Cabo-inspired burritos as well as a lesson on the art of tequila tasting (apparently you’re supposed to sip it?). There was also a destination update on Los Cabos’ hotels, attractions, beaches and real-life tequila swilling fun, as well as announcing Delta Air Lines’ new double daily service from LAX-SJD launching 17 December, making the Sydney to Los Cabos connection seamless.
10. Trip to NYC anyone?
How much do you wish you were part of this group of lucky Travel Agents who were flown out of Australia by Air Canada and treated to a tour of the Big Apple by NYC & Company.
The famil was organised to showcase Air Canada’s new Business Class on flights from Brisbane and Sydney to Vancouver via NYC and give consultants the chance to experience the ‘city that never sleeps’, including its Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, Empire State Building and 9/11 Museum and Memorial.
There was also a viewing of the new Broadway show Paramour from Cirque du Soleil, views from One World Observatory and an exploration of Lower Manhattan on a tour of Wall Street.
Click here for more pictures.
THIS WEEK’S COMPETITIONS
Vote for your favourite pimped-up ride!
TravelCube’s challenge was to pimp-up a luggage scooter and the results have been… well, a little disturbing, with more than 40 creative consultants adorning their rides with everything from elephants and ducks to scuba gear, pirate hats and Darth Vader. Now it’s time to vote for the most fabulously funky two-wheeled masterpiece!
Click here to view all the wacky entries then go to the voting section at the bottom of the page and select your favourite entry numbers. Make sure you also provide your agency ID and full name, and remember, you can vote for as many entries as you like but only one vote per entry will be counted.
Voting closes at midnight on 4 December, with the agents behind the top six most popular entries riding off into the sunset on their own nifty, light-weight luggage scooter, valued at $400 each.
In addition, everyone who votes will automatically go into a draw to win one of two additional luggage scooters – just in time for Christmas!
While you’re deciding on where to place your votes, make sure you check out TravelCube’s new branding!
