Malcolm Hingley

Travel Counsellors has launched a new Olympics themed incentive for its international family of agents to tie in with the launch of the events this week.

The team challenge, hosted on the company’s intranet system, will see over 1,200 Travel Counsellors across six countries competing in 32 teams against one another to win the ultimate luxury trip to a Kalkan in Turkey. Teams will compete in virtual ‘arenas’ and take part in multiple events each day, swapping sales for gold medals. The team with the most medals by the end of the competition will take to the winner’s podium in line with the close of the 2012 Olympic Games taking place in London.

“We have seen Olympic fever sweep the globe so what better way to celebrate than to get into the spirit ourselves and use it as a great tool to motivate our global team of agents,” says Sales Director Malcolm Hingley. “We expect the competition to be a great success and an effective way to encourage our Travel Counsellors to get those all-important sales whilst having fun and creating a strong sense of camaraderie.”

Over the past month the company has reported a nearly 50% increase in the number of people departing within seven days of booking and it expects sales over the Olympic period to improve further due to this increasing late booking pattern. 

The Olympics incentive is just one of a number of fun incentives that Travel Counsellors has organised for its agents this year. For example the company ran a Red Centre Challenge in March for agents making bookings through Sunlover, which saw the winning team enjoying an exclusive 5 star famil. The agents also enjoyed a host of prizes on completing various task based on the company’s own in-house wholesale system Phenix.

Hingley adds; “We find these incentives are a great way to bring our agents from around the globe together, which is even more important as they run their businesses from home. Ironically the fact they work from home means they won’t face the difficulties many in the London area will when commuting during the games. We are certainly seeing positive sales so far as the vast majority of consumers are still booking a holiday this year, highlighting the underlying strength and resilience of the travel market.”