Club Med's Michelle Davies has a new and quite lengthy title of General Manager - Pacific & New Emerging ESAP Markets. 

Hired in June 2020 as Marketing Manager, Michelle later took on the General Manager role with a mission to lead Club Med's Australian office out of the pandemic and into the unchartered territory of a new industry landscape.

This episode is a story of navigating new challenges and getting the very best from a dynamic team, whose collective efforts led to the brand picking up Most Popular Accommodation Group/Chain at the 2024 NTIA awards. 

As AC says during the episode: " I always love to hear stories of women in leadership because we've got so many fabulous women in the industry who lift up and inspire each other, and I'm hoping that this podcast will do that for a few of our listeners."

In other news, AC offloads on hotel commisions, and a listener finds themselves even more On Notice than they were before. 

You can connect with Michelle via her LinkedIn profile. 

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This episode is brought to you buy Rosewood Hotels and Interline Travel. We hope you enjoy, and if you'd like to support us you can sign up for our newsletter at www.offloaded.com.au where you'll receive insider details, first notification on new episodes, occasional competitions and much more.

You can also follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook. We'd like that.

Oh, and if you haven't already, subscribe to the podcast on any podcast platform!

David "Dave-o" Kolner, Virtuoso's Executive Vice President, joins Offloaded to offer what AC describes as a health check for the luxury travel industry. 

"I want to be so much more than just the data guy", says Dave-o. 

And he is. He most certainly is. 

In this episode you'll learn about the trends that Virtuoso are currently seeing through the unparalleled sales data that the global luxury behemoth has unique access to. Richard and AC uncover why cool destinations are hot, why cancelling bookings on short term political dramas is a bad idea, how four in five travel advisors see AI as an opportunity rather than a threat that will replace them, and so much more that includes Saudi Arabia, adventure cruising, Lorazepam, 'set-jetting', thoughts on Gen X's limited time in the sun and why you'd be a fool to ignore cashed-up 80 year-old-plus females. 

It's another brilliant interview that we know you'll enjoy. 

Following Dave-o, AC offloads on surveys and a 'listener' joins our rogues gallery of people 'On Notice', with no obvious route to ever have that status removed.  

In each episode we like to share highbrow recommendations for our listeners, and this time AC recommends the 'Pet Painter' AI app that, according to their website, 'turns pics of your pet into art'. 

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This episode is brought to you buy Rosewood Hotels and Interline Travel. We hope you enjoy, and if you'd like to support us you can sign up for our newsletter at www.offloaded.com.au where you'll receive insider details, first notification on new episodes, occasional competitions and much more.

You can also follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook. We'd like that.

Oh, and if you haven't already, subscribe to the podcast on any podcast platform!

As the child of a father who was a founder of the US Tour Operators Association, it would come as no surprise for Matthew Upchurch to enter the travel industry and become one of it's iconic leaders. 

The founder of Virtuoso in the 1980's, as CEO Matthew has overseen the company become the leading global network of agencies specialising in luxury and experiential travel. Today Virtuoso comprises of more than 20,000 advisors across 58 countries who between them transact in the region of $54 billion AUD. 

Among his many accolades, Matthew was named to the American Society of Travel Agents Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Cruise Lines International Association Hall of Fame in 2010. 

But aside from all that, perhaps his most meaningful contribution to our industry is that there has been no greater champion of the travel advisor. 

In this episode we talk to Matthew about his backstory, along with Virtuoso's growth and how it operates in Australia. We discover the leading profession who are making the switch to become advisors, the increasing prioritisation of expenditure on experiences by travellers, and why the human interaction of a travel advisor can never be replaced by advances in technology.

And a lot more, including some elite-level Offloading. 

However we have run out of space and what's left goes to Matthew's Book Club. He mentions the following books for you to consider:

Will Guidara: Unreasonable Hospitality - The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect
Simon Sinek: Start With Why. - Learn how great leaders and organizations inspire action and create a lasting impact
Prof. Scott Galloway: No Mercy, No Malice - (podcast)

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This episode is brought to you buy Rosewood Hotels and Interline Travel. We hope you enjoy, and if you'd like to support us you can sign up for our newsletter at www.offloaded.com.au where you'll receive insider details, first notification on new episodes, occasional competitions and much more.

You can also follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook. We'd like that.

Oh, and if you haven't already, subscribe to the podcast on any podcast platform!

80.5

That's the number of years experience of selling cruises on today's episode, as we invited the icons that are Robyn Sinfield and Megan Caterall into The Room Residence in Sydney, which is a brand new space recently opened by Room Res that Co-Founders James Mooring and Nic Bryant were on hand to explain the space to us.

With an eye towards helping both new and existing travel advisors sell cruise more effectively, it was the perhaps the words of Robyn that captured the interview - "it's the ships of life - the partnerships, the friendships and the relationships". 

This episode is essential listening for anyone hoping to learn a thing or two from two of the most celebrated travel sellers in Australia. 

You can view photos of The Room Residence and the the interview with Robyn and Megan, here. 
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We hope you enjoy, and if you'd like to support us you can sign up for our newsletter at www.offloaded.com.au where you'll receive insider details, first notification on new episodes, occasional competitions and much more.

You can also follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook. We'd like that.

Oh, and if you haven't already, subscribe to the podcast on any podcast platform!

Melanie Whyte is a single parent with two special needs children who also happens to be one of Australia's most successful and highly decorated home-based travel advisors. 

In this episode Mel joins Richard and AC to share her story of how helping with the travel arrangements for parents adopting children overseas and those of 'neurospicy' families (her words) became the bedrock of her fledgling business. 

"It's not that hard", she says. 

We say that if you keep a list of people you admire in this industry, you'll need to dust that off and add another line to it. 

We hope you enjoy, and if you'd like to support us you can sign up for our newsletter at www.offloaded.com.au where you'll receive insider details, first notification on new episodes, occasional competitions and much more.

You can also follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook. 

Oh, and if you haven't already, subscribe to the podcast on any podcast platform!

Its 2025, and Richard and AC are back with a special episode to get you through those long Summer days.

AC was asked to host a highly esteemed and very international discussion panel at the recent Goldman Travel Group Conference, and we have exclusive access to the audio right here for you!

Following the panel, AC and Richard about the proliferation of travel industry events. All 5,627 of them.   

The panel features:
- François Delahaye, COO of Dorchester Collection and GM of Plaza Athenee in Paris
- Lisa Pile, Vice President Sales & General Manager, Asia Pacific of Regent Seven Seas Cruises
- Kate Atkinson, Vice President, Global Sales ASPAC of Hyatt Hotels and Resorts
- Caroline Goux, Senior Vice President Sales for Peninsula Hotels, based in Hong Kong

The quartet shared their insights into the new luxury traveller and guest, how agents are the cornerstone of their business, the social impact of travel and what they are excited about for their brands in the future. We're grateful to Anthony Goldman for supplying the audio. 

We hope you enjoy, and if you'd like to support us you can sign up for our newsletter at www.offloaded.com.au where you'll receive first notification on new episodes and more.

Oh, and if you haven't already, subscribe to the podcast on any podcast platform!

In this episode we present part two of a live session from ATIA's 'Beyond Borders' summit held at the ICC in Sydney.

This session covers the second part of the discussion around ATIA's 'A30' announcements, where ATIA CEO Dean Long speaks to several more of the association's directors. This time he's joined by David Hosking, Peter Muller, Rohan Moss, Katrina Barry and David Smith.

The session is introduced by Roslyn Ranse, Founder of Travel Agent Achievers and who has a podcast of the very same name.

The group discussed why they choose to particpate on the board, and detailed how some of the future-focused announcement will affect their particular segments of the industry. In particular there's some fascinating stuff about business insurance, and how mergers and acquisitions are affected by regulation.

Audience questions followed.

We hope you enjoy, and if you'd like to support us you can sign up for our newsletter at www.offloaded.com.au where you'll receive first notification on new episodes and more.

Oh, and if you haven't already, subscribe to the podcast on any podcast platform!

In this special episode we present a live session from ATIA's 'Beyond Borders' summit held at the ICC in Sydney.

In the first release from Beyond Borders (BB), this session covers the first hour of  and specifically the key areas of focus that will lead the industry towards 2030.

The project is called A30, and you'll hear from ATIA CEO Dean Long, Chair Christian Hunter, Vice Chairs Skroo Turner and Danielle Russom, and Director Brett Mitchell.

The group outlined future-focused announcements around industry protection, business compliance with 'modern slavery' regulations, attracting young people into our industry, and why the ATAS brand has been renamed to become 'ATIA Accredited' for the benefit of both the industry and consumers.

Following the annoucements, they sat down for a discussion on these subjects and took questions from the audience.

This is the first of several sessions you'll hear on Offloaded.

But while it's a different kind of episode, our regular features remain. Towards the end of the episode, Richard puts webinar queen Charlie Trevena 'On Notice', and AC offloads about overtourism.

We hope you enjoy, and if you'd like to support us you can sign up for our newsletter at www.offloaded.com.au where you'll receive first notification on new episodes and more.

Oh, and subscribe to the podcast on any podcast platform!

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Offloaded Season 3 is supported by Interline Travel. For more information, visit www.interlinetravel.com.au

Offloaded is back for Season Three!

To kick things off, Richard and AC are joined by possibly the most senior industry leader to appear on Offloaded thus far in the shape of James Kavanagh, Flight Centre Travel Group’s Global CEO of Leisure. 

We begin by covering leadership, change and the importance of having mentors and good people around you, before moving onto two of FCTG’s longer-term strategies of growth into luxury travel and forming new partnership options for independent agents to ensure a healthy travel sector. 

“We work in a wonderful industry and I think there's so much potential for what's to come,” he says. 

Hot on JK’s heels comes a chat with NCL’s Damien Borg and Angela Middleton, who speak of empowering agents via co-branding, a rapid growth in NCL’s group programme and increased options for travellers in Europe who are increasingly cruising as part of a wider holiday. 

JK also has some book club recommendations, which we are linking here. They are: Legacy, by James Kerr and The Leadership Pipeline, by Ram Charan. We expect all listeners to have read these in time for the next episode of Offloaded. 

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Offloaded Season 3 is supported by Interline Travel. For more information, visit www.interlinetravel.com.au

The final episode of Series 2 broke the mould before we change things up again for Series 3 that's coming in September. 

Erina Pindar, COO and Managing Partner of SmartFlyer, became our first international guest, our first live in-person podcast held at a luxury hotel, and the first guest who hijacked our Offloaded section with an Offload of her very own.

Erina joined SmartFlyer when there were just 6 travel advisors connected to the brand. Celebrating it's 10th anniversay in 2025, the numbers are currently at 250 across the US and Europe with another 35 here in Australia.

We asked how Erina glues an international network together and what Australian advisors can learn from their international counterparts. She also spoke about 'recommendation culture' and the tightrope a modern advisor has to dance between recommending everything on social media versus holding some of that back to avoid contributing to overtourism and the possible saturation of those cute, secret little finds that give advisors their value in the first place. 

If that topic isn't fascincating enough Erina also talked about the increasing trend of putting clients on a retainer, an entirely new concept to at least one of our hosts.
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The winner of the Numinous Moments competition that includes 3 Nights in the Maldives at JOALI BEING for two people with half-board and return seaplane transfers was announced during this episode as Sarah Webster of Wayfinder Travel, with this entry!

Our enormous congrats to Sarah as we put claims in to be her plus-one. Pick me! Pick me!

We must also make honourable mentions of three terrific runner-up entries from Deanne Scanlan with this one, Peta Godfrey with this one and another from Emily Sonley who entered with an email that we read out during the episode. 

Charlie Trevena's new and exciting Travel Agent Takeaways podcast was mentioned, and is an instant contender for the second-best podcast in our industry. You can find that here, and there's links to subscribe on your favourite podcast platform on that page.
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A heartfelt thanks to our series sponsor Numinous Luxury Travel Representation for their support and encouragement, without which this series would never have happened. More info on Numinous is available at https://www.numinousltr.com/

And we've been exceptionally proud to partner with the iconic Hong Kong Tourism Board to raise awareness of the magic of Hong Kong during the series that has included hidden treasures that you'll never have heard about. Their website is here: https://www.discoverhongkong.com/anz/index.html

Finally our sincere thanks to all the guests who've appeared in Series 2, the organisations who've appeared as Sales Calls, our stand-in hosts Nicola Strudwick and Sonia Jones, our marketing team of Lisa Maroun and Anya Vokhmyakova, our editor Chris Finesa......and most of all to you, our listeners xx

You're all on a retainer for Series 3.
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Social Details

Follow Erina Pindar, Managing Partner and COO at SmartFlyer, here on LinkedIn and here on Instagram. The Insta is pretty cool - just saying.