In the news

A visit to Charleville is a very different holiday experience to a week of beaches, shopping and culture in Bali, but for personal travel manager Aileen Collins, whose 69th birthday celebration in Bali was ruled out by COVID-19, a recent road trip on Queensland’s inland touring route was a rewarding alternative to the holiday she had originally planned

“Since joining the TravelManagers family, I have been constantly in awe of the knowledge of individual PTMs and their ingenuity, perseverance and inventiveness to make a success of their business. Add the invaluable assistance of National Partnership Office staff and the enthusiasm of other PTMs to share their expertise and business acumen willingly.”

“We all need something to look forward to in these crazy times,” she explains. “I wanted to create something special and surprising that would deliver that amazing, refreshing, recharged and inspired feeling you get when you arrive home from a great time away.”

It may sound like a plotline worthy of a Nicole Kidman blockbuster, but it is in fact a true story, with TravelManagers’ Vikki Southern filling the all-important role of travel agent

For two Western Australia-based personal travel managers (PTMs), this pivot has entailed refocusing their existing “Travelling Femmes” brand of escorted group holidays for women. They are now offering tailored itineraries that explore their own backyard: Western Australia’s southwest region

During the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, travel agents were kept busy repatriating clients from all around the world. In the case of TravelManagers’ Kerry Cleasby, this included a number of 18- to 20-year olds at risk of becoming stranded in Europe while on study and exchange programmes

Planning a wedding in an offshore location invariably adds another layer of complexity to the event, never mind the disruptions to those carefully laid plans caused by the arrival of a global pandemic.

Although many Australian businesses now have a green light to move toward their version of post-COVID normality, the travel sector is still largely unmoved on red. Borders remain firmly closed and talk of a trans-Tasman or Pacific bubble is, at least for the time being, just talk.

The travel industry has been sideswiped by the sudden halt in sales caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the House of Travel group is welcoming in a new era with the announcement of two new long-term equity investors