The Travel Village Group has business owners, agents and support staff working from bases all over the UK, so it can be hard to bring parts of the business together for networking, other than at Conference and trade events.
As a family business we recognise that it’s important to integrate all areas of the Group as often as possible, especially when we have a network of over 70 Holiday Village business owners, all working remotely. So, in March, the Nuttalls (Phil & Paula), and members of our senior leadership team, headed out on the road to spend quality time with as many of the team as possible – from The Holiday Village, Travel Village and our Cruise businesses – so we could “Network & Nosh”!
Our Network & Nosh events were set up to reach as many of our business owners as possible in the spring. We met up in London, Cardiff, Birmingham and Manchester, giving the Group convenient options to get to.
Amanda Taylor – Business Development Manager
Meeting up in person is more relaxed and informal, but it brings lively and inspired chat. Everyone shares knowledge and insights, and the events enable direct contact with some of our tour operator partners – who value the opportunity to meet our business owners.
As owners of the business, we love getting out and about meeting and engaging with our Holiday Village business owners, members of the Travel Village Group and our business partners. It’s what our family business is all about – strong and lasting relationships & partnerships which, ultimately, benefit our valued guests, without whom we’d have no business.
Phil Nuttall – Travel Village Group CEO
London
First stop… the UK’s capital! Phil and Paula, joined by Richard Cross (Group Commercial Manager) and Amanda Taylor (Holiday Village BDM), headed to Rubens at the Palace, where Uniworld BDM Dawn Quinn was waiting. Once the team assembled there was a wonderful afternoon tea, allowing opportunity for networking between business managers, and chats with the senior leaders. Dawn was able to showcase not only the Uniworld product, but, as the Rubens is also part of the Red Carnation Hotels group, she was also able to show the team the fabulously luxurious hotel!
Fantastic to meet some of our business owners and sales team in London at our Networking and Nosh event! It was an excellent opportunity for us to head down south and catch up in person to discuss and share business ideas, all served up with a champagne afternoon tea kindly sponsored by Uniworld.
Richard Cross – Group Commercial Manager
Cardiff
With Holiday Village Business Owners heading to Wales, Amanda and Susan Forsdike (Group Training & Support Manager) journeyed to meet them at the Botanist in Cardiff. Here they were welcomed by Ikos/Sani BDM Andrea Keeble, who also delivered a product knowledge session, giving our business owners opportunity to get better acquainted with the properties.
Manchester
We joined forces with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays and had a thrilling day at Manchester’s Urban Playground, enjoying lunch and taking on The Cube! We noshed… we networked… and, most importantly, we had FUN!
This was a great opportunity to spend time with individuals from different departments within the Travel Village Group and also our friends at Jet2Holidays.
Phil Nuttall – Travel Village Group CEO
It was a great team building exercise organised by Jet2Holidays and it was great to see how the team worked together to overcome challenges.
Paula Nuttall – Travel Village Group Director
This was great fun and brought out everyone’s competitive side!!!! These events are great to get to know other people in the business – I met some lovely homeworkers who without this event I wouldn’t of met. I felt very lucky to have such a nice day out provided by the Travel Village Group and Jet2 – another reason why the Travel Village is such a wonderful company to work for!
Becky White – Travel Village Consultant
Fab day with equally fab people! This was a massively valuable event for me.
Lesley Macdonald – Luxury Cruise Liaison
This industry is all about people and we have a great team at TVG. How fab is it that a leading tour operator recognises that, and wants to host us for a fun and memorable day. Definitely the best team building day I’ve been on!
Lovely to catch up with management (the Gaffers) and colleagues on a day out of the office. It was a great opportunity to socialise, ask questions and network in a fun environment. The Cube was a great bonding exercise, with everyone facing the same challenges, experiencing something new and pushing comfort boundaries while helping each other succeed – just like an average day working in travel!
Birmingham
Our final Network & Nosh event took us to Birmingham’s Cosy Club. Hosting the day were JTA’s Zoe Holt (Business Development Manager) and Dave Green (Managing Director). As one of our flights consolidators and packaging tour operators there was plenty to learn from, and discuss with, JTA.
Huge thanks go out to our tour operator partners that supported these events, and who we look forward to growing our business with.
At the heart of it all, we’re a family-run travel agency, and spending time together is crucial to creating a fabulous environment to work within. All eyes now move to our Business Networking sessions in December, followed by the Group’s 65th birthday bash at Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom!
