Gold Medal
Q. Gold Medal is one of the sponsors of this year’s Agent Achievement Awards. Given last year’s awards were cancelled because of Covid, how important is this year’s event on the travel industry calendar? It’s a huge date in the diary, particularly to recognise the efforts of the travel agent community and also for suppliers to celebrate their successes on the evening with them too. This year, of course, will be more important than ever for different reasons and to see each other face to face will be a huge boost from a wellbeing perspective.
NICK HUGHES sales director, tour operations, Gold Medal
Q. The AAAs are the biggest travel agent awards in the UK. How important is the channel to Gold Medal, and what have you been doing to strengthen trade relationships over such a challenging period throughout the pandemic? With our long-standing commitment to champion the agent, it’s natural – and really important – for us to support the AAAs each year. We’re delighted to do so again after such a difficult period. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been really proactive with regular calls with key head office accounts to keep all lines of communication open. Our exclusive offers have driven demand for those customers who are determined to get their holiday booked. Our team of nine trade partnership managers will continue to support trade partners as we see bookings increase and demand realised in the next six to 12 months.
Q. With travel rules and protocols becoming more complicated, how important are agents in helping Gold Medal make those vital sales in the recovery? Travel agents mean absolutely everything to us. They are our sole focus as the UK’s largest trade-only long-haul/luxury operator and critical to our path out of the pandemic. We’ve seen some partnerships strengthen as a result of the last 18 months and we see no reason for this to change. I believe that any partnership should be of equal support, where we work together so we both prosper and I’m sure this will be the best way forward for our trade partners too.
Q. Pandemic aside, what has been the big news at Gold Medal since the last Agent Achievement Awards in July 2019? We emerge from the pandemic with an incredibly strong family of brands under a single Gold Medal umbrella that really reinforce our expertise and product depth in long-haul travel, cruise, luxury and touring. Coupled with a new and improved website, unrivalled marketing and exclusive offers, I don’t think there is a stronger proposition out there.
Q. Are you promoting any particular products and/or services at the moment? We have a lot going on! We have our ‘more for less’, ‘social showstoppers’ and ‘sooner or later’ offers specially designed to create demand and give partners red-hot, exclusive offers to promote through their marketing channels. These have proved really successful over the last 12 months. We’ve also been
agentachievementawards.co.uk
Nick Hughes
Nick Hughes
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