Travel Counsellors star-studded Annual Conference was held in Glasgow, Scotland, this month, with a record guest-list of over 1700 delegates, including 16 Australian Travel Counsellors, Regional Managing Director Kaylene Shuttlewood and members of the Melbourne-based support team.
During the action-packed three-day event, conference guests were entertained by celebrities, inspired by motivational speakers, and networked with nearly 300 suppliers including headline sponsors Emirates, Celebrity Cruises, APT, Rocky Mountaineer, Rentalcars, Club Med and Travelport.
Travel Counsellors enjoyed a glittering awards ceremony themed with Scottish thistle and tweed, plus special guests over the weekend included six-times Olympic champion and track cyclist Sir Chris Hoy MBE, who left delegates feeling energised and inspired to reach their goals in 2019.
Travel Counsellors and travel suppliers were entertained by Scottish stand-up comedian Des Clarke, wowed by an intimate performance from singer/songwriter Marti Pellow, and danced the night away to a DJ set and performance provided by multi-number one selling artist, Craig David.
The theme of the weekend, ‘TC Experience’ (TCX), focused on the experiences that Travel Counsellors provide for their corporate and leisure travel customers, as well as exploring the business growth opportunities that individual Travel Counsellors can enjoy with the support of the tools, technology and community that the company provides.
Travel Counsellors CEO Steve Byrne confirmed that the TC Experience means putting people first, creating personal, positive memories for travelling customers and selling travel in a human-to-human way.
Byrne said: “Customers buy based on the experience they had, and we are committed to making people feel special during every interaction with us. We’re continuing to invest in recruiting talented people who are passionate about creating great experiences for their customers and their colleagues, expanding our training and coaching programmes, and maintaining the human touch whilst enhancing the travel experience through continually developing the latest technologies.”
During the weekend, delegates also heard about the latest developments including an advanced marketing system that enables Travel Counsellors to create and send highly personalised communications to customers, further enhancement of the company’s ‘myTC’ app, and an updated, more user-friendly version of the in-house quote and booking system Phenix, that includes automated, daily reminders for Travel Counsellors to contact their clients – from sending a Happy Birthday message to reminding them of their travel itinerary close to departure. Byrne added that Phenix has received over £6m in investment in the last 12 months alone.
Individual Travel Counsellors were recognised with awards and prizes totalling over $212,000, including two Audi cars for those achieving top customer satisfaction scores. Victorian-based Travel Counsellor Matt Schmitz won Top Performing TC Australia in recognition of his annual sales figures and commitment to customer experience.
Kaylene Shuttlewood said, “What a thrill to be able to attend the annual global conference, along with the Travel Counsellors and support staff from Australia. I am so proud of our Travel Counsellors and it was fantastic to see our award winners recognised on the global stage. Travel Counsellors Australia is going from strength to strength and I am really looking forward to what the next 12 months will bring”.
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