Holiday Lounge has hosted its second overseas conference in Tenerife as it notches up sales so far this year in excess of £12 million.
The three-night conference, for 37 staff, including directors, and suppliers, included a ‘Race Across Tenerife’ teambuilding exercise based on the popular TV show Race Across The World as well as hotel visits, a guest speaker and social events.
The four-branch Leicestershire agency has enjoyed sales of more than £12 million for the first 11 months of this year, with turnover up by around 40% on 2019.
Managing director Paul Moss said the conference aimed to improve working relationships under the conference theme of Stronger Together.
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“Our conference was to bring our staff, directors, and elite suppliers together to work closer together and be stronger together,” he said, adding the strong figures were “down to the team having a strong work ethic and great support”.
The conference created its own TV-inspired Race Across Tenerife team building exercise, made up of five teams who were tasked to get to various check points on the island and find their way back to the Hard Rock Hotel, where the conference was held, using clues provided and a limited amount of cash. Staff were encouraged to ask locals for help and spend as little as possible.
“It was good to see people working together and a way to get the team and our suppliers together. Each team had a supplier, a senior member of the team and younger member of staff,” added Moss.
The conference also included presentations by Holiday Lounge directors, apprentices, its social media and operations team, and guest speaker Dean Thomas, an ex-professional footballer and former manager of Hinckley United and now a swing singer. A question and answer session was held between agents and tour operators as well as speed dating sessions.
A rock star fancy dress party and a white-themed party including a staff awards ceremony. Delegates also toured The Hard Rock Hotel and Spring Hotel Vulcano in Playa de las Americas, where the agency has a group departure in January 2025.
The conference was hosted by Palladium Resorts, with Jet2holidays the headline sponsor. A selection of supplier sponsors which also attended the conference included Riviera Travel; Wendy Wu Tours; If Only; Balkan Holidays; JTA Holidays; and Abercrombie & Kent.
Jet2holidays sales manager Emma Broad said: “Holiday Lounge is one of our key partners here at Jet2holidays and we wanted to cement the relationship even further and to show our support by being headline sponsor at their 2024 conference in Tenerife.
“The conference gave a great opportunity to really get to know the whole team over the three nights with the fantastic itinerary planned making sure we all really made the most of our time together including the conference day at the Hard Rock Hotel. The highlight of the trip had to be the ‘Race Across Tenerife’ and being in the winning team made it unforgettable!”
The agency has already announced the venue for its 2025 conference, which will be held back at the Athena Beach Hotel in Paphos, where the first conference was held in 2023.