David Speakman, Chairman of Travel Counsellors, has won a prestigious World Travel Market 2014 World Travel Leaders Award in recognition of his work in pioneering the travel agent homeworking model.
The award was presented today to David Speakman by Editor Travolution, Lee Hayhurst, at the WTM World Travel Leaders Award ceremony.
The Awards give WTM’s Official Media Partners – which represent key travel industry media around the world – an excellent platform to congratulate and recognise those companies and individuals that have made significant and groundbreaking contributions to travel and tourism in their region or sector.
Three nominations from each of WTM’s media partners were judged in September by a panel of three, consisting of an independent body, a representative of WTM and the relevant media partner.
Speakman’s award recognises not only his achievements in the UK, but his success in expanding to other markets around the world.
He established Travel Counsellors 20 years ago. In recent years the group has seen rapid international expansion with operations set up in seven other countries, with a total number of 1,300 agents and 270 staff.
Travel Counsellors offers a support structure to ensure skilled agents not only survive, but thrive at working from home. It utilises modern technology and has built its own in-house dynamic packaging system.
Reed Travel Exhibitions, Senior Director, World Travel Market, Simon Press said: “David Speakman has reinvented and reinvigorated the industry, bringing the concept of homeworking to the UK. He has created a firm with an ethos all about the people it employs and giving them the tools to succeed.
“He has proved there remains a place for human-to-human interaction in the travel retail sector and for selling on value rather than just price.”
Every year, World Travel Leaders Awards are presented at WTM. The full list of 2014 winners is:
Brazil: Eduardo Nascimento, President of Nascimento Turismo Operadora
China: James Liang, Chairman and CEO of Ctrip.com
India: Jehangir Katgara, Chairman & Managing Director of TBI Trail Blazer Tours India Private Limited
Italy: Venetian Villas
Portugal: André Jordan, Founder of the André Jordan Group
Russia: Association of Tour Operators
Spain: Turespaña
Travolution/technology: David Speakman, Chairman, Travel Counsellors
UK: EasyJet
Middle East: The Gulf Hotel Bahrain
USA: Roger Dow, CEO, US Travel
Canada: Air Canada
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About World Travel Market
World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.
More than 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL – London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.
WTM, now in its 35th year, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.
WTM 2013 generated more than £2 billion of travel industry contracts, revealed independent research by Fusion Communications.
WTM is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a other portfolio’s of travel industry events including IBTM Events, the world’s leading showcases for the meetings and events industry and International Luxury Travel Market events.
In 2013, RE held more than 500 events in 40 countries bringing together more than six million people from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.
Reed Exhibitions
Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading provider of exhibitions in the travel and tourism industry, with a wide-ranging portfolio of 21 international events in 14 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa.
Its market-leading, business-to-business events cover all elements of travel and tourism, including leisure travel, luxury travel, meetings, events, incentives and business travel, as well as golf, ski and spa travel.
RTE is part of Reed Exhibitions.
www.reedtravelexhibitions.com