Australia's home-based consultant sector remains very much in its infancy with huge potential for growth, according to House of Travel chief executive Joe Araullo.
Speaking at the TravelManagers National Conference in Sydney, Araullo told delegates that although the sector is growing rapidly, there are still only an estimated 2,000 home-based agents accounting for less than 10% of the market. In the US home-based agents account for 33%.
"So the potential is huge," he said.
Araullo identified specialisation as the key to the success of home-based agents.
“Creating a niche is very important, whether it is cruising, group travel or families, it doesn’t matter," he said "What does [matter] is being passionate, an expert and source of knowledge for that particular area of travel.”
Meanwhile, TravelManagers general manager, Michael Gazal, highlighted technology, brand and relationships as the core pillars of the company's strategy for 2014.
Significant investments in technology will free up time for personal travel managers to build stronger relationships with their clients while also giving them more flexibility to spend time with friends and family.
"We will be investing significantly in our brand in 2014 with a lot of good research done already," Gazal said.
He described his first year in the role as "huge".
"During that 12 months, turnover is at an all-time high, we have surpassed 400 personal travel managers and taken advantage of 105 educational seats with four of them being exclusively for TravelManagers.”
