TravelManagers 2024 kicks off in Cairns with record attendance

TravelManagers 2024 kicks off in Cairns with record attendance

The 15th annual TravelManagers conference has kicked off in Cairns today with more delegates attending than ever before.

A total of 435 attendees signed up for this year’s 3-day extravaganza including PTMs, NPO staff and suppliers. Held at Cairns Convention Centre this year’s theme is “working smarter” with a special focus on earning more by doing less and avoiding mental burnout and fatigue.

The conference had an early start on Wednesday evening when a selection of VIP guests were invited to an excusive dinner at NuNu’s restaurant in Palm Cove. The dinner, sponsored by Collette, was a chance to celebrate high-performing PTMs and those who have been at TravelManagers for more than 15 years.

Five managers – Nicole Edgar, Maria Miller, Teresa Reyes, Alma Araullo and Jane (Petal) Fowler – even picked up a special honour for having attended all of the TravelManager conferences to date. An enviable honour!

Day one of the official conference began with a passionate performance from Australian singer-songwriter Christine Anu. Anu had the crowd on their feet dancing to renditions of her most-loved songs including Island Home.

Her performance was followed by a brief welcome from Mark Olsen, CEO at Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) who emphasized the importance of tourism in Cairns where 42 local businesses are dependent on it. Olsen also revealed that he had recently been to LA in a bid to boost tourism from further afield so that numbers can recover to what they were pre-Covid.

The welcome from TravelManagers was provided by CEO Joe Araullo and executive general manager Michael Gazal who – in the spirit of working harder – condensed their two 10-minute information sessions into a 15-minute joint presentation.

Araullo and Gazal take o the stage

The duo revealed that the conference is the largest to date with around 200 PTMs in attendance. Despite negative headlines about the cost-of-living crisis, performance results and average commission was significantly up in 2023. The numbers were especially positive at the top-end with the top 50 PTMs bringing home an average commission of $310,000 a year!

How to use technology to improve efficiency is set to be a top theme of the conference, as well as how to stay mentally fit.

Chelsea Pottenger

Building on the conference theme, wellbeing expert Chelsea Pottenger took to the stage with a candid share about how her life had changed after she experience postnatal depression following the birth of her daughter. Following the dark period in her life she gave up her successful corporate career and shared a number of tools to help people stay mentally healthy.

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