InteleTravel has restructured and expanded its UK and Ireland head office team as it reports October was a record sales month.
The changes include the appointment of a director of partner relations and an Ireland country manager, both new roles, and are aimed at helping the group achieve its 2025 targets, including its new training and reward programmes.
Office manager Geraldine Nolan has been promoted to become director of partner relations, as InteleTravel’s 2025 partner engagement programme confirms a full calendar of activity for preferred suppliers.
For the group’s Republic of Ireland office, Ann-Marie Durkin has been appointed to the new role of country manager to bolster commercial activity, reporting into UK & Ireland managing director Tricia Handley-Hughes. She previously worked at Holiday Experts and Sunworld.
More: InteleTravel forecasts 2024 sales will be up by 70% on 2023
Two new appointments have also been made in the UK head office team with Barbro Kurkov joining as marketing communications executive from global payments solutions company Privalgo, reporting into Nolan, and Pearl Vora as finance executive support following a master of sciences degree. She will report into head of finance Chris Walsh.
The changes mean there are now 11 staff in the head office team and come as the homeworking company reports a record month of trading in October in the UK with sales up 95% and agent commissions up 138%, compared with the same month last year.
For the year to date, sales are up 66% and average booking values are up 5% compared with the equivalent period in 2023.
Handley-Hughes said: “Our growth over the last five years has been beyond expectation, so the time is right to review the current structure.
“This expansion will help us achieve our 2025 vision and deliver our new training, recognition and reward programmes.”
This year InteleTravel introduced a series of training sessions to increase homeworkers’ commissions.
The ‘Beyond +’ sessions gave agents support and advice to make them more productive and reach their first £1,000 commission threshold, followed by £5,000 and £10,000.
In 2025, the group will introduce its Excelerator programme, a full day aimed at boosting sales, getting agents in the right mindset right and optimising their sales potential while maintaining a healthy work life balance.
“The ultimate aim is to motivate advisors and increase their earnings,” said Handley-Hughes, who added: “These achievers will receive recognition starting with certificates, then rising to reward gifts at various tiers.”
The plans follow the launch of InteleTravel’s IntelePerks loyalty scheme in April this year to reward its homeworkers and stimulate sales.
This allows agents to earn points to be redeemed against rewards for a range of activities including completion of training modules, attending industry events, participating in surveys and supporting preferred partners.
The InteleTravel group overall has enjoyed a record year of growth globally and is on target to achieve sales of £1 billion for 2024.