Tipto has hailed a “fantastic” start to the year with an expanded membership and is already planning more agent training days in the autumn.
The organisation overhauled its constitution at the start of its financial year last September, allowing more members to join. It now boasts a membership of 19 tour operators. Last year it had 15 but this initially dipped to 13 following the changes.
Tipto also introduced Super Roadshows for travel agents from the multiples for the first time and announced agent training days. These aim to give a smaller number of agents classroom-style training with a select number of Tipto operators and experts on subjects such as social media.
Chairman Zena Hill, speaking at Tipto’s third annual afternoon tea event at The Savoy, attended by 54 key trade partners and members, said the training days had been introduced after feedback from agents for different events, outside of the existing roadshows.
With positive feedback from the first of four planned agent training days in Tipto’s current financial year, more will be planned, said Hill. “I would like to think that with the extra investment [as a result of new members joining] that we will do a lot more training days. We will try to do more in the autumn and next year as well.”
Hill said the organisation was reaping the benefits of increased membership. She added: “We have had a fantastic start to the year. We have got a lot more money in the pot as a result of new members, so we will be doing more events this year.
“We want to open Tipto up to more agents. We have seen more agents in the last four months than we have during the same period in the last five years.”