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. The winners of the TravelCube ‘pimpmyscooter’ competition are…
They printed, they photo-shopped and they even pimped a little, all in the hopes of winning one of six luggage scooters.
The TravelCube competition closed last night with the final votes submitted and calculating and the entries that garnered the most votes were…
Isabelle Tremblay, Flight Centre Sunshine Plaza; Mathieu Cadart, Ucango Travel & Cruise Centre; Marnie Cowan, Helloworld Wangaratta; Cassandra McCollum, Flight Centre Bendigo Mega A; Stephen Smith, Flight Centre Clifton Hill; and Michelle Xie, Flight Centre Epping.
Plus, an additional two winning Agents who voted and therefore went into the random draw were Jess Knight, Cruise About Burnside and Patricia Kilroe- Smith, Ucango Travel & Cruise Centre Maroochydore.
2. Virgin Australia ‘races’ through its newest safety video
Virgin Australia is tapping into Australia’s love of sports, specifically race cars, to promote inflight safety in its newest safety video.
Released this week, the five-and-a-half minute clip recruits Supercars driver, Jamie Whincup, for a race around Australia’s famous Mt Panorama racetrack.
The clip opens with a flight attendant taking up Jamie on a challenge – that he can complete a lap around Mt Panorama before she finishes the safety briefing.
3. Travel Counsellors wins prestigious award
A big congratulations goes out to home-based travel consultancy group, Travel Counsellors, on being named ‘Growing Business of the Year’ at the 2016 Amazon Growing Business Awards.
Held this week, the award recognises the impressive growth of a business in the ‘larger company’ category as well as acknowledging the business’ market leadership, continued global growth, industry-leading standards of service and innovation around the customer experience.
According to latest figures, Travel Counsellors now has some 1,600 Agents operating across seven countries and posted a turnover of $283 million during the last financial year.
4. QBT certified ‘Carbon Neutral’
Looking out for the environment is important to QBT, so-much-so, that the company has gone out and become the first Carbon Neutral travel management company in APAC.
Announced this week, QBT received a ‘Carbon Neutral’ status after working hard to reduce its carbon footprint and operate as an environmentally responsible organisastion.
How was this achieved?
5. Cathay Pacific is giving Brisbane its first…
Brisbane, keep an eye out for newly re-styled cabins, seats with tablet holders and greater cabin humidity as Cathay Pacific sends the first A350 to the city.
The carrier announced today it would replace current aircraft on Brisbane-Hong Kong services with the technologically advanced A350-900, which will not only introduce new levels of comfort but increase capacity on the route by 12 percent.
Commencing March 2017, the aircraft will fly daily on the route offering guests the classes – Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy.
6. Key enhancements to oneworld events unveiled
The airline alliance has unveiled key enhancements to oneworld events, its one-stop, easy-to-use travel service for conferences, conventions, meetings, exhibitions and special events markets.
Key improvements include:
– Lowering by half the minimum requirement for the number of delegates flying internationally to an event, to just 50.
– A simpler and more generous incentive for event organisers.
The changes are being made on the back of a record year for the programme, with more events and conventions selecting the alliance as their official air travel partner.
7. The 2017 Spain & Portugal travel brochure is here
Spain & Portugal Travel Connection has released its new 83-page brochure packed with a wider range of tours and packages for the Iberian Peninsula.
The program features new destinations such as the Canary Islands with accommodation in Tenerife, Fuerteventure and Lanzarote; there’s Game of Thrones filming locations and walking tours of Girona; as well as more packages in Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon and Porto.
Other highlights include additional private tours with carefully-selected local operators and walking and cycling tours in Spain such as Zahara de la Sierra-El Gastor, Picos de Europa, El Torcal de Antequera, Monfrague, Redes, Sierra Nevada and more.
Click here to download the brochure.
8. 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.
9. Agents get friendly with Mickey in L.A.
Five helloworld Branded and Associate members recently had the opportunity to experience United Airlines Economy Plus on the Dreamliner on their way to Los Angeles.
The group of Travel Agents were also treated to two days at the Disney Institute training on Quality Service and Leadership Excellence.
The consultants described it as an amazing experience to discover Disney’s touch points across their parks and products with a great time had by all.
Click here for more pictures.
This week’s competitions
Christmas Travel Gift Guide Bonanza Giveaway
Those who love to travel are always looking for the latest gadgets to make the journey just a little easier and more fun. Enter our Christmas Gift Guide for your chance to WIN!
