Hosted at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore with over 500 delegates in attendance, Helloworld Travel’s Frontliners Forum for 2024 included a glimpse into the company’s 2025 plans.

Cinzia Burnes, chief operating officer, executive director, and also Head of Wholesale for Helloworld Travel Limited took to the stage to update delegates on all the news from the HLO Wholesale division, encompassing Viva Holidays, ReadyRooms, Cruiseco and Creative Cruising.

Always a crowd pleaser, she had many announcements and exciting news to share.

She opened by thanking everyone for their support of Viva Holidays in being awarded the Most Outstanding Wholesaler at the NTIAs for the second year running. An achievement the Viva Holidays team are all very proud of and grateful for.

Then it was onto the update. There was plenty of news to share including; new destinations, new brochures and even a NEW brand. Launched at the conference, VIVA Gold is the new edition to the suite of brands that will specialise in luxury product offerings with a dedicated brochure to come in 2025.

Other new brochures and destinations include France, Spain & Portugal; Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos; and Japan – all coming in 2025. As well as a new exclusive Ultimate Journeys brochure for Escorted Group Journeys.

There was plenty of Cruise News to be heard as well with announcements and exciting cruise news, including a new partnership with the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection in AU and NZ, delivering this exciting product to Helloworld’s Retail and Wholesale channels.

She then confirmed the exciting details for the 2025 Cruise Stars reward program. In partnership with Princess Cruises and Fiji Airways a 7-night sailing along the US Pacific Coast from Los Angeles onboard the Royal Princess in late 2025.

She also outlined the work the team is undertaking on new cruise packaging and plenty of marketing activity to promote cruise far and wide. This includes exclusive packaged offers through Cruiseco and Creative Cruising combining river cruising on Ama Waterways and land touring with Collette.

“We know that Australian travellers like to stay longer, delivering combined offers like this is a way for us to help agents meet that need” said Burnes.

“We are always working on new cruise content for our agents. We know packages are more popular than ever, so we are hard at work creating highly desirable programs that include cruise. We also know luxury is hot right now, and through our existing partnerships, and with the addition of the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, we deliver this in spades”. she added.

The news then turned to technical advancements as Burnes outlined upgrades to ReadyRooms including a new transfer feature partnering with the world’s leading transfer business, and a dedicated 24/7 support phone number coming in January 2025.

New connections in the Mango booking system were announced including Marriot Bonvoy that will include over 8000 properties worldwide! Plus, more than 20 Aqua Aston properties as well as Disney dynamic ticket connection, both coming very soon.

With the tech news out of the way, Burnes then turned to the ‘fun stuff’ and the famil and reward trip announcements were plentiful!

First recapping the amazing famils hosted in 2024 including to New York, Global Stars in Southern California and Cruise Stars with Disney. Then came the new trips on offer in 2025.

Global Stars will head to Vietnam in October/November! In a new partnership with TMG, this destination is also featured in a new brochure for 2025 so it’s great timing all round.

Cruise Stars 2025 will be presented in partnership with Princess Cruises and Fiji Airways for a 7-night sailing along the US Pacific Coast from Los Angeles onboard the Royal Princess in October.

And to wrap it all up she announced not one but TWO incredible famils on offer in 2025.

A collaboration with Air Tickets, there is a famil to Canada on offer. Supported by Air Canada, Destination Canada and Destination Ontario travelling in March 2025 and visiting Toronto and Niagara Falls.

And last but not least a famil to Italy! Coinciding with the Italy Jubilee 2025, this is a once in a lifetime experience (technically once in every 25 years!) to experience Rome during this special time. Flying Qatar Airways with a stopover in Doha, this famil is sure to impress.

As Burnes noted, the qualifying period for all the famils is now open so she encouraged all agents to ‘get onto it’!

Helloworld Travel Frontliners Forum wraps up in Singapore