Our story
From our roots in the North West of England to an international travel business, our story is one of incredible growth and success. And we’d love you to be part of our next chapter.
From day one we’ve followed a pioneering model
We were founded in 1994 by David Speakman, who anticipated the shift towards travel professionals running their own leisure or corporate travel businesses from home.
His pioneering model meant franchisees could provide an unrivalled level of personal care and attention for their customers when creating bespoke travel experiences.
Our entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to offering a truly personalised travel service, underpinned by the values of trust and customer intimacy, remain as true today as they did back then. As we approach 2,000 colleagues in seven different countries, these principles continue to guide us to new heights.
Expansion follows
1999
We welcome our 100th Travel Counsellor to the family
2003
We’re the very first travel company to win the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category
2005
Our growth continues apace, as we launch Travel Counsellors in Ireland and the Netherlands
2006
Our bespoke-built, in-house booking platform, Phenix, is launched, enabling our people to create truly tailor-made travel itineraries
2007
We welcome Travel Counsellors in South Africa
2008
Our 1,000th Travel Counsellor joins the company
2011
Travel Counsellors is named in The Telegraph 1,000 Britain’s Brightest Businesses
2012
Our global expansion continues, as we expand into the UAE
2013
and again in 2013, when we open in Belgium
Travel Counsellors celebrates 10 years of being in the UAE in 2022 with a record breaking year with 100s of satisfied customers travelling to many destinations around the world.
Jim Eastwood, Global Sales Director at Travel Counsellors, said: “It is wonderful to see such high demand for travel again globally, with our UAE business continuing to be a leading light in Travel. We are extremely proud of our achievements, and we believe these record-breaking sales are testament to the caring, expert and personalised service our UAE Travel Counsellors provide for all their leisure customers and corporate clients. Our Travel Counsellors create inspiring journeys, crafting bespoke travel itineraries and provide hand-held support from inspiration to destination and beyond! UAE Travel Counsellors continue to be there for their well-established base of super-loyal customers, as well as providing trusted travel advice to increasing numbers of new customers. Thank you to all who choose Travel Counsellors.”
General Manager of Travel Counsellors UAE, Holly McCann, said: "This is another fantastic milestone for Travel Counsellors here in the UAE. As the desire for travel continues to increase, we are delighted to be supporting more customers than ever before. Our unique business model and the exceptional levels of customer care provided by our UAE Travel Counsellors has helped us secure record numbers of new customers over the last 12 months. We anticipate this upward trajectory of bookings to continue, with demand still rising. We are also continuing to recruit new Travel Counsellors here in the UAE and we are very much looking forward to the remainder of 2022.”
A New Chapter
2014
With our 20th year celebrations comes a significant financial investment from private equity firm, Equistone Partners Europe.
2015
We move Travel Counsellors headquarters from its birthplace in Bolton to stunning new £2m premises at Trafford City in Manchester.
2016
As we continue to scale and grow, we recruit the 300th member of our global support team.
2017
The myTC app is launched. With a 4+ star rating on the Apple and Android store, over 15,000 users a year enjoy the paperless experience of having their travel documentation all in one app, and connecting to their Travel Counsellor at the tap of a button.
2018
Vitruvian Partners back our high-growth, tech-enabled platform, as our community numbers near 2,000 Travel Counsellors.
2019
We’re awarded ‘Best National Travel Retailer’ at the British Travel Awards, and will retain that title in 2020 too.
2020
We scoop the ‘Queen’s Award for Enterprise’ for the third time in the same year that our first corporate travel MD is appointed.
2022
We’re proud to be named ‘The Best Place to Work in Travel’ at the 2022 Travel Industry Awards by TTG, and climb the rankings in the Sunday Times PwC Top Track 250 for the sixth consecutive year.
Fast-forward to the present
We celebrated a record-breaking year in 2022, with sales topping the AED3.7b mark. We also enjoyed the biggest sales month in our history in January 2023, with the value of bookings exceeding AED530m.
