Travel Counsellor’s Australia ‘Good to great’ Conference held at luxurious Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast on the weekend has been hailed a resounding success.
This year’s two day conference was the home based Travel Group’s biggest ever with 200 Travel Counsellor’s, staff and suppliers from all over Australia and Head Office in the UK in attendance.
And KarryOn was there exclusively to report on all the action.
Over the two days and nights delegates got the opportunity to catch up with Travel Counsellor’s old and new as well as enjoy precious time with the support team and re-energise and inspire themselves by hearing from an array of speakers and suppliers in the uber stylish surroundings.
Etihad got the party started with an Arabian Friday night…
Not to mention have plenty of fun and celebration in the process of course with a shimmering ‘Arabian Night’ welcome dinner on Friday night sponsored by Etihad Airways and The main drawcard – the Awards Ball on Saturday night which was held in the stunning ‘Le Medusa’ ballroom at Palazzo Versace.
The Awards ball in the Le Medusa ballroom, Palazzo Versace
“I am not interested in the past, except as the road to the future.”
Gianni Versace
Taking its cues from Gianni himself, the ‘Good to great’ theme starred front and centre throughout the weekend, embodying the ‘awakening of the sleeping giant’ journey that GM David Hughes painted a vibrant picture of in his opening keynote presentation on Saturday morning.
Hughes said that Travel Counsellor’s massive $2bn untapped opportunity lies with growing their current customers and referral’s and that “People who shop around are not your customers, just as Flight Centre, helloworld or OTA’s (Online Travel Agencies) such as Expedia are not your competition. Your customers want to deal with you and get the incredible personal service that you offer and they love dearly. And they want to tell others about it too”.
David Hughes – MD Travel Counsellors Australia
With announcements of substantial cash injections from private equity company ‘Equistone Partners Europe’ across all Travel Counsellor’s business including a dynamic new mobile app, vast upgrades to their website and booking platform ‘Phenix’, enhanced training, additional talent, support staff and a boosted digital and data development team, the mood was an extremely excited and united one.
But even more impressive is Travel Counsellor’s determined single-mindedness to move away from being pigeon holed as ‘Travel Agents’ to one of superlative care and customer service combined with a universal culture of ideas and innovation.
Hughes added, “We are a sleeping giant and our supplier partners are now recognising what we are going to be – not what we are now. They’ve seen our growth potential and want to connect with us so that we can partner for long term success”.
Group MD Steve Byrne who had travelled to Australia with other senior team members from the groups Head Office in Manchester gave one of the most passionate, no-nonsense presentations I’ve certainly seen in a long time that had the audience hanging off his every word.
Steve Byrne – Travel Counsellors Group MD
In it he pointed out that a recent study in Australia had said, “73% of businesses could disappear and no-one would care”, then asking the question “What’s our why? Our why is that we do care and that it’s in our DNA. Caring is at the heart of everything we do.”
Following on he firmly challenged the group to guarantee that their focus will always be to put the customer first rather than make short-term financial gains that deliver more commission but not value to the customer. “Why? Because we care and because they’ll come back if we do. You shouldn’t be in the room if you think otherwise” He said.
Closing the conference on Sunday afternoon, Australian GM David Hughes said;
“Two years ago I was working from home as a consultant too and know how hard it can be sometimes to stay motivated. So remind yourself often of how good you are. Everyone has got your back here at Travel Counsellor’s. Trust yourselves in what you do and trust us to help get you there because we’re going to the moon together”.
“You are all exceptional people and I am extremely privileged to be a part of this business and to get to work with you every day.” Hughes said.
TC_Australia will be famous for the most caring business in the world. #TCConfAus #WeCare pic.twitter.com/KOkWX2uAip
— Travel Counsellors (@TC_Australia) May 21, 2016
Byrne in his closing address powerfully added, “We’re not Travel Agents. If you think like a Travel Agent you’ll be out of business in 5 years. We will win by caring more than anyone else”.
Travel Counsellor’s will next year celebrate their 10th year in business and now have over 1,500 Personal Travel Counsellor’s across seven countries (UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, UAE, and most recently, Belgium. If this year’s updates are anything to go by, they will be celebrating much more than just their tenure in the industry at next year’s conference.
The ones to watch? Most definitely.