AAAs preview Q&A: Gold Medal's Simon Applebaum shares his fondest memories of event

Gold Medal’s Simon Applebaum looks forward to next week’s Travel Weekly Agent Achievement Awards and reveals why the Outstanding Contribution accolade is always one of his favourite moments

 

Q. Why has Gold Medal decided to sponsor this year’s AAAs?
A. The AAAs are the industry’s number-one event for recognising the brilliant work done by travel agents across the UK and we thoroughly enjoy supporting and taking part in the evening. Agents are the focus of everything we do at Gold Medal and there are never too many opportunities to see them recognised. We appreciate all the work that goes into bringing agents together in one place for such a special occasion, and we love celebrating with them.

 

Q. How has 2025 been so far?
A. Despite the many macro-factors that impact our industry, we’ve been able to exceed all of our targets in the year so far and feel really optimistic about the year ahead. There are so many exciting initiatives coming from our brands, with an array of fam trip opportunities, training events and new technology being delivered – 2025 is shaping up to be one for the ages. We also recently hosted our flagship annual event, Gold Medal Big Day Out, in partnership with Travel Weekly, which was a huge success and connected more than 90 agents with our valued supplier partners and Gold Medal colleagues.

 

Q. What are your hopes for the rest of the year? 
A. As always, we want to continue to bring market-leading products, offers, incentives, service and holidays to our agents and their customers. We are starting to prepare for what is sure to be another successful mini-peaks and peaks period, seeking new ways to inspire our customers during their busiest times. I am confident the rest of the year will continue to be as successful as our first six months.

 

Q. How are you supporting agent partners?
A. We are always introducing new ways to support our agent partners. Recent changes and successes include improving our Curated Offers so it features multi-centre marketing; the addition of Europe to our Gold Medal portfolio, with trips fully bookable online; the popularity of our Out-of-Date Range product; and our investment into touring agents through our new Incredible Journeys training programme, ‘Master the Market’. Additionally, we are delighted to have expanded our Trade Partnerships Team, further supporting agents across the UK.

 

Q. What are your fondest memories?
A. It’s always the Outstanding Contribution award that ends up being what I remember from the night. I love the slow reveal and the wild guesses in the room as the bio is read out. The last few years have been excellent choices, with Phil [Nuttall], Sandra [McAllister], Amanda [Matthews] and Karen [Pocock] all deserving winners.

 

Q. Where did you go on your last holiday?
A. We visited the Greek islands last summer. As our family has just expanded by one, we’ve not managed to go on a proper family holiday since then.

 

Q. What was your first holiday?
A. Ibiza in 1988. I was only four years old, though, so I wasn’t yet on the Pacha dancefloor.

 

Q. What is your next trip?
A. I have lots of exciting travel lined up for this year across both family breaks and work trips. I’ll be in Belfast hosting agents in a few weeks, then at a conference in Mykonos. Over the summer I’ll be taking some time with the family in Turkey and Portugal, before work takes me later in the year to Dubai and to Miami where I’ll be joining Celebrity Cruises for the launch of Xcel.

 

Q. Which destination surprised you most and why?
A. I would definitely say South Africa. It is an amazing destination that has the food, views, wildlife, wine and an incredible history. What really shocked me, though, was how much the past is still evident in everyday life there. It really fascinated me, and I am excited to one day return to explore even more of the destination.