Proactive and Innovative Thinking Brings Rewards for Personal Travel Managers
Entrepreneurial spirit brings success for Melbourne based personal travel managers
Mark Elevato, representative for Werribee and Amy Ferguson, representative for Tarneit who recently held their inaugural Wyndham Travel Expo at the Werribee Italian Sports & Social Club.
With no local expo to cater for their local community, Elevato and Ferguson both relatively new to the TravelManagers family, took the proactive opportunity to hold an expo with the view to connect with their community and grow their databases.
“After some brainstorming, the client mini expo idea was born and we haven’t looked back!
We opted for a smaller scale event that was more personal and intimate, which is reflective of the TravelManagers way. The expo also allowed us to explain the benefits and expertise we can provide clients as personal travel managers,” says Elevato.
Sixteen partner suppliers ranging from airlines, coach companies, cruise operators and land suppliers participated in the travel expo that was attended by 160 people, a mix of both new and existing clients.
“Suppliers each had their own booth offering a deal of the day to encourage client interaction, whilst we focused on networking and obtaining leads to follow up on. We recognise the opportunity for clients to meet and talk face to face with key product representatives is invaluable. We were thrilled with the response from our partner suppliers, being able to offer our clients such a broad and varied line up on the day was fantastic,” says Ferguson.
Seven partner suppliers were invited to provide a 20-minute client presentation.
“The presentations from our key partner suppliers were extremely well received, with 40 to 50 people in each session,” says Elevato.
The personal travel managers received the assistance of local business partnership manager Scott Hallo who emceed the evening.
TravelManagers’ Executive General Manager Michael Gazal applaud the way Mark and Amy work so well together including utilising the support of their local business partnership manager.
“Their relationship epitomizes TravelManagers’ philosophy of personal travel managers working collectively together to provide the ultimate travel experience for our customers. We recognize each personal travel manager has strengths in different areas and actively support and encourage their collective focus to further grow their businesses.”
Whilst some may consider working in close proximity to each other as being competitive territory, it is completely the opposite philosophy for the Wyndham based personal travel managers, who are representative of how TravelManagers’ personal travel managers across Australia interact.
“Living locally we understand the benefits of supporting each other to collectively grow own individual businesses. We find it’s a great way to brainstorm creative ideas, target a larger network of clients and share costs. There is no competition between us and we can ensure our customers are looked after the best we can,” says Ferguson.
With new clients and a significant number of bookings received subsequent to the expo, it can only be described as a resounding success.
“We plan to make this expo an annual event and envisage it will just grow bigger and better every year. The overwhelmingly positive feedback we have received from both clients and suppliers for our inaugural event has given us the confidence to hold more events like film evenings and we are also looking at holding a cruise expo,” says Elevato.
For more information or to speak to someone confidentially about TravelManagers please contact Suzanne Laister on 1800 019 599.
