The marriage of host venue, The Star Gold Coast, and theme for the 2023 Travellers Choice Conference, “Shine”, has a nice ring to it. So what came first: the venue or the theme? Signs point to the latter.
This year, the Travellers Choice conference aims to show that the travel industry has entered a new and enlightened era.
“Not only are we seeing incredibly strong and sustained demand for travel, but consumers are now more aware than ever of the unrivalled expertise and enormous value that travel professionals deliver,” Travellers Choice Managing Director Christian Hunter says.
“Our future looks brighter than ever. This is our time to shine.”
Taking place from 10-12 November, this year’s event will look to enable members to “seize opportunities and outshine the competition”.
To inspire attendees, Travellers Choice have recruited customer service visionary Geoff Ramm to headline its speaker line-up.
UK-based Ramm has helped forge new customer service concepts with some pretty high-profile brands, including Warner Brothers and McDonalds among others, while Forbes magazine even described him as a “game changer” within the service field.
The author of Celebrity Service Superstars, Ramm will share his ideas to the more than 250 members and preferred partners predicted to participate in this year’s event.
Travellers Choice has also announced that Australian broadcaster and travel presenter Christina Morrissy will be the new master of ceremonies for the conference.
What else is happening?
Elsewhere, the conference will feature interactive workshops, networking sessions, a preferred supplier expo, and the return of the National Awards Gala Dinner, where members will be urged to embrace “a new level of luminance”.
Held in Melbourne, last year’s conference was based around the theme, Never Normal, which looked beyond the idea of a “new normal” existing for the travel industry in the post-pandemic world. Clever.
In April, the Travellers Choice 2023 Member Survey found travel advisors unanimously reported being ‘satisfied’ or ‘more than satisfied’ with their membership of the national travel group network.
Last month, Travellers Choice welcomed back Paula Moylan as its newest Business Development Manager, bringing the national BDM team to three and expanding the group’s agency sales support capabilities.
Travellers Choice won the award for Most Outstanding Non-Branded Agency Group at the 2022 National Travel Industry Awards (NTIA).
Read our interview with Hunter following the awards.