NEWS — CONFERENCE REPORT
The Global Travel Group’s annual conference was held this week at the Carden Park Hotel, near Chester. LEE HAYHURST reports
Gateways2travel celebrates winning Global’s top-performing agent north award
Global’s focus group expands to 15
The Global Travel Group has increased the size of its new agent focus group from 10 to 15 due to the level of interest shown from members. The inaugural meeting of the Global Advisory Panel was held during Global’s annual conference at Carden Park Hotel on Monday. Andy Stark, Global’s managing director, said: “We increased it to 15 agents in the panel because of the volume. There’s also a waiting list.” Stark said the focus group
to technology and service levels. The panel will meet regularly and share the initiatives with the full membership.
We set out to have
10 agents but, because of the
volume, we took that to 15
Global saw a 15% increase in turnover last year, said Stark, with average gross commissions earned by members up 15%. Average selling prices were also up 15% and average commission achieved after discounting was up
by 13% on last year. Global now has 143
preferred suppliers, having
would discuss all aspects of the consortium’s work, from the commercial deals it is offering,
taken on an additional six from last year and added 23 members in the same period, including some well-established agencies. Bookings for Dubai increased
Global Travel Group award winners
Top Performing Agent North: Gateways2travel Top Performing Agent South: Cartwright Travel Top Performing Call Centre: Holiday Gems Best Increase in Sales: Retail Agent North: Excelle Travel Retail Agent South: Savvi Travel Home/Office Agent North: Value Visits Home/Office Agent South: Travlonic Business Development North: Oneworld Travel Business Development South: Silver Compass
16 •
travelweekly.co.uk — 12 March 2015
Long Service North: Global Travel, Durham Long Service South: Diamond Travel Highest Booking Value: Travel Four Seasons Outstanding Achievement North: Pillinger World Travel Highly Commended: A2Z Travel Outstanding Achievement South: Global Coach Tours Highly Commended: Fifty One Degrees Newcomer North: Christie’s Travel Newcomer South: Your Travel
by 23% across the group, whose parent company, Stella Travel Services, was acquired by Dubai- based dnata Travel last September. Cruise sales also rose significantly
last year, up 31%. Stark said Global agents sell enough cruise holidays to fill Silversea Cruises’ Silver Cloud 16 times – equivalent to 4,730 passengers. Silversea and Travel 2 have
teamed up to offer 10 Global members the chance to win a place on a VIP trip on one of its cruises later this year.
Paul McKenna: Agent gives me peace of mind
World-famous hypnotist and self-help expert Paul McKenna books his holidays through a travel agent friend because he values peace of mind. Speaking to Travel Weekly as he prepared to address this week’s Global Travel Group conference, McKenna said all retailers sell “good feelings”. “Tourism is the biggest industry in the world. It’s a good business to be in, but what you are buying as a consumer is good feelings and peace of mind. “If I go for the cheapest
Andy Stark
holiday every time, there’s a chance I might be unhappy. One of the reasons I use a travel agent is because he has never let me down,” he said. “You need a direction in
life. You have to think about how things can go right. Thinking about everything that can go wrong becomes a self- fulfilling prophecy.”
Paul McKenna
CONFERENCE REPORT
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