Luxury Travel: Our Partnership with Signature Travel Network
Our partnership with the luxury travel provider, Signature Travel Network, is integral to supporting our national network of personal travel managers (PTMs) in creating bespoke luxury travel solutions for their clients.
Australia’s luxury leisure travel sector has been reported to be worth close to ten billion dollars from 2024-2025. We asked our Operations Manager, Troy Coelho, to explain how TravelManagers’ partnership with Signature enables our PTMs to meet this rising demand for bespoke luxury travel.
What does TravelManagers’ partnership with Signature Travel Network offer for personal travel managers and their clients?
Our partnership with Signature provides us with access to their extensive luxury hotel and resorts program, along with a huge library of destination specialities. As a not-for-profit luxury buying group, they are always working for us and for their members, rather than the other way around.
TravelManagers was the first Australian affiliate to have access to Signature’s online booking portal: an innovation that has resulted in a significant increase in bookings due to its ease of use.
Signature is better known in the USA. What makes it a good fit for Australian travel advisors in general, and for TravelManagers in particular?
Signature has a lot in common with TravelManagers. Our PTMs are the centre of their brand, their relationships with clients are key to their success. Signature enables them to provide value from them, this is the added value you receive by booking through me, rather than a standard benefit available elsewhere.
Signature has an impressive 18,000 members globally and an expansive 1480 properties; as Signature’s largest member in Australia and New Zealand, our partnership has really put TravelManagers on the map with luxury suppliers around the world. Luxury is subjective, and Signature has the capability to tailor its program to include a wide range of luxurious properties.
Over the past few years, our relationship with Signature has blossomed, this has been well received by our hotel partners, who have opened their luxury programs to us as a result. Our National Partnership Office (NPO) team is consistently building on this, providing our PTMs with access to the best hotel programs on offer.
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- Six PTMs were chosen to represent TravelManagers Australia on a recent famil to Los Cabos, hosted by Signature
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- Los Cabos Famil: A private art walk and historical tour, followed by some boutique shopping, in the charming village of Todos Santos
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- TravelManagers attended Signature Travel Network’s global conference at The Venetian in Las Vegas, 2024
What are some common misconceptions that Australian travel agents might have about Signature?
Signature’s luxury offering is as extensive and valuable as its biggest rivals. With their not-for-profit structure, Signature doesn’t have the brand recognition of its competitors. This is because the value is presented as a benefit of the advisor rather than the brand they are a member of.
Does Signature support PTMs in areas like marketing, tech platforms, or supplier relationships? If so, how, and how does this differ from its competitors’ offerings?
Our partnership with Signature also provides fantastic marketing tools that provide our PTMs with a wealth of resources, from online travel mags to destination portals.
Every piece of documentation the client receives is from their PTM, rather than being Signature-branded. We love this point of difference, as it reinforces to our clients that their bookings are with their trusted PTM and not with a third party. All the marketing resources supplied by Signature are also white labelled, so they can be personalised with the TravelManagers brand.
There’s also an online property portfolio that makes it easy for clients to view Signature’s hotels and their amenities, but their special rates and value-adds can only be accessed by booking through our PTMs.
Are there any differences in Signature’s approach to commission structures and supplier negotiations, compared with competitors?
Signature is great at helping us chase commissions owed by hotels. We’ve even had cases where Signature has removed properties from their portfolio due to late payment of commissions.
The annual STN conference is a fantastic event, held in the USA. Our PTMs who attended can hear world-class speakers, participate in the latest business, destination and product workshops, and attend social networking functions. The trade show features more than 780 suppliers from around the world gather for the big event.
If a PTM was considering joining TravelManagers, what else would you want them to know about our partnership with Signature?
You’re not just a number– every PTM is treated like part of the Signature family. We’re incredibly lucky to have Lisa Harrison (GM of Signature Travel Network Australia) as our on-the-ground contact, she’s there for our PTMs at a drop of a hat, and nothing is too much for her and her team.
Header image: National Operations Manager, Troy Coelho, joined the Accor Luxury Advisory Collective Board in Singapore as a representative for APAC recently. Troy was one of just three members invited to represent luxury-focused travel brands from Australia, and was joined by representatives from across the Asia Pacific region.
