If Day 1 of the 2024 Travellers Choice Conference in Sydney, the first in the Harbour City for 25 years, was filled with laughter and cocktails then Day 2 of “Travelution” was an emotional roller coaster.

Travellers Choice MD and new ATIA chair Christian Hunter opened the three-day conference by announcing two new initiatives.

In a time when securing staff in the travel industry is at an all-time low, Hunter announced the free ProStart program, an extension of the existing Travellers Choice Pro training program, developed in partnership Cornerstone Learning and Development.

“ProStart is a specifically targeted at new-to-industry consultants. It runs for a three-month period … supporting members in bringing new talent into their business but relieving them of some of the training requirements,” he told delegates at the Hilton Sydney ballroom. Several in the audience were also in the room at the last time was held in Sydney a quarter of a century ago.

“To me, it feels like we are on the experiencing transformational change, almost like we are witnessing the start of a revolution for the travel industry – or a Travelution as we’ve called it,” he said. “Made up words are always interesting, and that is one, but I think this really encapsulates where the industry finds itself today.”

In coming out of the pandemic, Travellers Choice had to be ready to adopt change quickly, he said.

“Our service offering has had to remain adaptive, ensuring members have access to the services they needed at the time that they needed them, and this is constantly evolving,” he said. “We needed to stay connected with our members to ensure that we continuously understand the challenges and pain points that exist for members and positioning support accordingly.”

Hunter also filled in the audience on financial landscape over the past year.

“Looking at 2024 there is a lot to be proud of,” he said. “Firstly, from a financial performance perspective, the group has announced a record profit – one that as I mentioned, exceeded the Board’s forecasts and expectations – but was in fact the best results in our 47-year history, and this result that was achieved with around 20 per cent fewer people across our members’ respective businesses.

“This result is a testament to the resilience, tenacity and creativity of our members in securing incredible volumes of business to ensure that Travellers Choice continues to punch above its weight, even under difficult circumstances – as I’ve mentioned – in relation to staffing.

“Whilst the headcount has increased, and will continue to grow progressively, it currently remains at less than two-thirds of 2019 levels, yet the output has been exceptional.”

Rescuing a moon bear!

Hunter sings an ode to the bears and to Robinson to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Here’s to Mrs Robinson”.

The second big announcement by Hunter was that Travellers Choice, ATIA’s 2024 winner of the Most Outstanding Travel Agency Network for the fourth time, is also officially adopting a rescued moon bear!

The adoption was announced after Animals Asia founder and CEO Jill Robinson spoke in an emotionally charge presentation about her experiences over the last 30 years rescuing the bears from bile farms across China, Vietnam and Korea. Her first-hand account of her organisation’s work eliminating bear bile farming and improving the long-term welfare of animals across the region had half the audience in tears

Following Robinson’s address, Hunter surprised delegates by playing a video (see below) – filmed at the Tam Dao Animals Asia sanctuary in Vietnam – in which he declared he was “beyond thrilled” to reveal that Travellers Choice had committed to becoming guardian to Bong Bong, one the organisation’s rescue bears.

Animals Asia rescued Bong Bong (Vietnamese for ‘bubbles’) from a bear bile farm in 2015, and she is now one of 192 bears thriving at the sanctuary. Hunter told delegates that Bong Bong was perfect for Travellers Choice because, “like our members, she is independent and happy” and proceeded to sing an ode to the bears and to Robinson to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Here’s to Mrs Robinson”.

Hunter also announced a competition that will see the Travellers Choice member who raises the most funds for Animals Asia between now and March 2025 receive an Adventure World Northern Vietnam trip for two. The prize trip will include a visit to Tam Dao Sanctuary to meet Bong Bong.

Animals Asia founder Jill Robinson took the audience through her journey.

More change ahead

In addition, in his opening remarks, Hunter reminded the audience that one of the few constants in travel and tourism – that can be relied upon – is change.

“Whilst travel has recovered extraordinarily from the depths of the pandemic, it feels as though the waves of change are continuing to reshape the industry and seeing these come through with increasing frequency,” he said.

That was mirrored by ATIA CEO Dean Long who filled in delegates about the recently announced changes to the peak travel body in becoming a single entity, removing ATAS from the equation.

Fresh from launching the partnership with Australian Museum’s new Machu Picchu blockbuster exhibition was Neil Rogers from Adventure World who fronted a panel alongside Intrepid’s Yvette Thompson and Royal Caribbean’s Dave Humphreys in a discussion about travel and sustainability – printed brochures among the topics.

“Travel provides amazing experiences, but there is a growing desire for consumers to achieve it sustainably through deliberately selecting where and how they travel. Or travelling more purposefully to consciously leave the destination richer than when they arrived,” Hunter said.

The panel was followed by My Adventure Group founder and keynote speaker James “Cas” Castrission who took the audience through his arduous, 62-day cross-Tasman Sea journey, from Australia to New Zealand in a moving presentation that had the audience gasping in a combination of shock, horror and amazement.

My Adventure Group founder and keynote speaker James “Cas” Castrission.

Travellers Choice is no different to any other commercial enterprise in operating on a for-profit basis, with profit going back to our shareholders – but the difference being member-owned means that profits go directly back to members as the only shareholders.”

“At the end of September, we distributed almost $3 million back to our members, and I have to say that this is one of the most exciting times of the year from a corporate office perspective,” he said. “The organisation has a real buzz and I love getting the emails and phone calls just to say thank you – and also to say wow, I had no idea i was going to get so much! Or – ‘Are you sure there isn’t a mistake?

It is a special time but also aligns with our organisational purpose, the very reason we exist, to sustainably create, protect and return value to members, it’s what we do.”

He said that booking patterns have been all over the place for quite some time, with sales coming in highly unpredictable waves and making forecasting very difficult.

“There have been some small shifts towards what we would know as traditional patterns, but it is far from where it was,” he said. “I do believe that there is an opportunity in the supplier landscape to wrestle some normality back through pricing initiatives although I sense that unpredictable lead times may be with us for a while to come.”

He said one of the major evolutions globally is in relation to ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance factors – to assess the sustainability of a company.

“We want to elevate that conversation throughout this conference. The global response to sustainability is driving some of the biggest changes we’ve seen in a generation,” he said.

“There is absolutely a role that members can – and should play in this space as it comes with great opportunity.”

Increased international passenger movements

As we move into 2025, he said the industry landscape is positioned “in quite a delicate place”.

“We are seeing sustained consumer confidence in travel. We are also seeing greater demand for supported products and this is supprted by the latest Government forecasts. These suggest that international passenger movements will increase on average by around 2.2 per cent per annum right through until 2049/50, but with larger increases in the early periods,” he said.

To put some context into those numbers, the forecasts suggest that outbound passengers will increase from 14.61 million in 2023, to 26.36 million in 2030.

“That a whopping 80 per cent increase in seven years, that is huge!”

Hunter finished by saying it had been and will continue to be an extraordinary period change in the sector.

“We need to continuously adapt to stay ahead of the game. Members can be reassured that you will always to be supported like no other as we face not just the issues of today but navigate the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

Travellers Choice will present a variety of awards at Sydney Town Hall at a Gala Dinner tonight.