NEWS ROUND-UP
Aito rewards top sellers at Starfest All Star awards
Ben Ireland
ben.ireland@
travelweekly.co.uk
Aito recognised its top-selling and most-improved agencies at The Specialist Travel Association’s All Stars awards at its Starfest conference in Leicestershire last weekend.
Beaver Travel, in Radlett,
Hertfordshire, won the national award for All Star of the year for the sixth year running, and All Star for the south of England. Journeys à la Carte, in Uttoxeter,
Staffordshire, and Worldwide Escapes, in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, took the gongs for central and northern All Star respectively. All 81 Aito agent members enter the All Stars incentive scheme and are judged by their bookings of participating operators. Forty operators, which represent 33% of Aito supplier members, take part. Seven agencies were nominated in the Most Improved All Star category, each of which had boosted sales of participating operators by more than 60%. The winner was The Travel oncept, in ayfield, Sussex, with a 96% sales increase. Bridget Keevil, of Travel Stop,
won the Shining Star award as the agent who “most embodies Aito”.
STARFEST: Aito agencies are honoured at the All Stars awards 11
Agencies topping £1m in sales of Aito holidays
Tour operators were also
recognised, with Matt Spiller of InsideAsia Tours given the Shining Star award for outstanding service, as voted for by Aito Agents. Aito Specialist Travel Agents chairman Gemma Antrobus, owner of Haslemere Travel, said: “Despite the long hot summer, Aito agents’ sales with the participating All Stars operators have been hugely encouraging. This confirms
Hear marketing and PR
experts Steve Dunne and Sarah Johnson discuss this year’s turn-of-year ads in Travel Weekly’s latest podcast – out on January 10.
go.travelweekly.co.uk/ podcast
Travel-PA says new system can create quote ‘in three clicks’
Homeworking agency Travel-PA claims its new £120,000 in-house system can help its agents make bookings “in seconds”. The reservations system
features a customer-relationship tool, enables the creation of quotes and includes a payment facility.
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travelweekly.co.uk10 January 2019
the fact that specialist travel agents enefit financially from the wide variety of carefully-curated themed and destination holidays created by Aito members.” In the 12 months to December
2018, 11 Aito agent members’ branches exceeded £1 million in sales of Aito supplier members, yielding commissions in excess of £100,000 each. High achievers were predominantly based in the south, but there was a more even geographical spread among the 19 branches that recorded Aito supplier sales of over £500,000 and the 28 agency branches that
sold more than £250,000 each. Haslemere Travel: A Day With..., page 42
Founder Hamish Kaumaya,
who launched Travel-PA, part of Sunset Travel, in 2012, said the system allowed the agency’s 73 homeworkers to create quotes with three clicks. “It is something we absolutely needed,” he said. “When you have multiple systems it is much harder to teach people [to use them]. “Now homeworkers can create
an offer with three clicks. “When you are using two or
three systems it takes a lot longer.”
Aito conference hosts more than 50 travel agents
More than 130 delegates, including 56 agents, attended Aito’s annual Starfest this year. The event featured sessions
on ‘The Power of Persuasion’ and presentation skills. A Mega Marketplace
networking session between agent and supplier members, which created up to 700 meeting opportunities, took place to help operators share 2019 sales messages to agent members at the start of the peak selling season. Aito executive director Kate
Kenward said: “Aito members look forward to continuing their important partnership with the best independent agents in the UK. Face-to- face networking, product training and solid business relationships remain at the core of Aito’s philosophy.” This year’s Starfest, which
used to be called the Aito Domestic Conference, was held on January 5-6 and was sponsored by Classic Collection Holidays and If Only.
KENWARD: Executive director
Kaumaya wants to train more aspiring agents. “Homeworking is a growing business,” he said, adding that Travel-PA hosts coffee mornings and provides social media training to help homeworkers communicate effectively with customers. Later this year, Travel-PA will
host its fifth annual conference, at Grand Palladium Costa Mujeres Resort & Spa in Cancun, for top-selling homeworkers and new recruits.
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