Building a successful business in tour operating

It’s safe to say that January 2019 has been a moment in history for Travel Counsellors.

The month brought our best-ever sales day, topping over £5.1 million in 24 hours, 6 of the top 10 sales days in our history and saw over one-third of Travel Counsellors achieving their best-ever January too.

Tanuja's story

One of the month’s most talked-about stories was a 6-figure booking for a large group to the Indian Ocean, made by Travel Counsellor, Tanuja Sudra.

After being with the business for 15 years, Tanuja says she approaches every enquiry with a ‘never say never’ mentality and appreciates every single booking she makes.

What makes this booking stand out is the huge time pressure Tanuja and her head office colleague, TC Concierge Joe Bradley, faced.

With Tanuja needing 3 of the 4 remaining flights available and a selection of rooms at top-end hotels, plus sea plane transfers and special requests to confirm for the large group, the pressure was certainly on.

How did she do it?

Using our in-house booking system, Phenix, Tanuja and Joe had direct access to competitive rates at the Indian Ocean’s most desirable hotels.

Securing these rates allowed Tanuja to control her margin to find a price point which valued her time and expertise whilst remaining a good deal for the customer.

Making over 60% of her bookings in Phenix means Tanuja has built strong, trusting relationships with suppliers and our head office support team, something which is key to a successful business in tour operating.

Tanuja and Joe worked tirelessly to bring all the elements of the perfect itinerary together and managed to get it secured in under a week. No mean feat for a booking of its size and complexity.

Follow in Tanuja's footsteps

Tanuja says the key her success, like all Travel Counsellors, starts with understanding the customers’ wants and needs.

Then it’s a case of hand-selecting the perfect product and bringing all the elements together to create a tailor-made travel experience that can’t be found elsewhere.

With the support of our dedicated head office team and access to over 500,000 products all in Phenix, Travel Counsellors are given the platform to build a successful business in tour operating.

This support has helped us see double-digit growth every year since 2002.

If you'd like to build your own travel business, we'd love to hear from you.