InteleTravel hosts 150 agents at first Xcelerator motivational events in UK

InteleTravel hosted 150 agents at its first Xcelerator events in the UK over the weekend, as the motivational conference programme expands from the US.

 

About 100 homeworkers attended the London event on Saturday (April 25) at One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, followed by 50 in the Lowry Hotel, Salford Quays, Manchester, on Sunday (April 26), to hear from Bethany Grant, InteleTravel’s US-based sales and advisor engagement vice-president.

 

With a background in sales stretching back almost 25 years, Grant joined the US-headquartered agency in June 2023 to help boost agents’ selling and entrepreneurial skills.

 

She hosted the agency’s first Xcelerator event in January 2024 and the programme is now regularly held at venues across the US.

 

Grant told Travel Weekly: “Xcelerator was the missing piece. It was that entrepreneurial training that people need to grow their business. It sets InteleTravel apart.

 

“Nobody in the travel industry is doing this except InteleTravel.

 

“Entrepreneurship is up and down. If [agents] are struggling, there is no better place for them to be than in a room full of people who are excited about their travel business and growing.

 

“They don’t lack the passion for travel. Sometimes what people lack is the actual skills to be an entrepreneur.”

 

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Tricia Handley-Hughes, UK and Ireland managing director at Inteletravel UK, said: “Advisors found Bethany and her presentation inspirational. We spoke with many advisors after the events, who felt supercharged to transform their business and introduce new disciplines.

 

“They learned how to identify and sell to different personality traits, recognising the differing behavioural styles.

 

“The seven steps to becoming a CEO were related to their current positions. We achieved the excitement and motivational objectives.”

 

She said the agency is now looking at the possibility of holding other Xcelerator events in the UK later this year.

 

Grant said: “Going from an employee to an entrepreneurial mindset, there is a switch that has to flip.”

The events feature music and a DJ to “bring the energy”, she added.

 

“Xcelerator is designed to be very high energy, because the biggest thing we want to shift is mindset. It’s about belief. It’s about letting these advisors know that they can do this,” she said.

 

“One of my favourite sayings is that you’re either growing or you’re dying.

 

“If you are an experienced travel advisor or new to the industry, Xcelerator is for everybody, because your mind can always grow more.”

During the events, agents took a personality test that Grant co-created, to help understand their own characteristics – and those of their clients, to help them sell more effectively.

 

Also on the agenda was time management – because many homeworkers are juggling their agency business with another role – and importance of finding a niche.

 

The events are not watchable online because “the energy is not even remotely close to what it feels like when you are there personally”, added Grant.

 

“Some training can be done online [but] to home in on their entrepreneurial spirit and to grow their business, nothing compares to [live]. It’s very hard to transfer virtually,” she said.

 

Furthermore, attendees were encouraged to get to know each other and even find an “accountability partner” whose business is at the same level “to hold each other accountable”.

 

Experienced agents – who are known as ambassadors and offer mentoring advice to newer homeworkers – were also at the events to learn fresh skills and share them with others.

 

Grant said agents who attend Xcelerator events regularly in the US are seeing “growth unlike anything they’ve ever seen before”.

 

One retired high school principal attends regularly and, for the second year in a row, she hit InteleTravel’s Presidents Club, for those generating $100,000 or more in commission every year.  

 

Another agent who attended the Xcelerator in Florida had previously made just $200 in commissions. She then finished the year as a Pinnacle advisor, with $10,000 in commission in 2024.

 

In 2025 she hit ‘double pinnacle’, which is between $25-50,000 in commissions.

 

Another was a prison guard at a women’s prison who attended the first Xcelerator in January 2024.

 

“She came very close to $200,000 in 2024 and in 2025 her travel commissions were at $350,000,” said Grant.

 

“She sold well over $3.5 million worth of travel and she still regularly attends Xcelerator.”