In our first episode for 2024, Richard and AC meet man of many titles Anthony Goldman. He's the Joint Managing Director of the Goldman Travel Corporation by day, but is also a director of Link Travel Group and Chair of the Global Advisory Board for Virtuoso. He also serves on other advisory boards, ensuring there is never a dull moment.

This episode is about family. The origins of the Goldman travel story pre-date World War 2, when grandfather Alfons began selling rail tickets in Vienna. But Anthony also talks about the wider travel industry family and the importance of relationships that are so critical to the ongoing success of any modern travel business.

We talk about turning lawyers into travel advisors, the commoditisation of the word 'luxury' and the client who calls up Goldman Travel's office from Paris to find out what the weather will be that day, rather than open her hotel curtains.

We're also joined by the delight that is Helen Eves, National Sales Manager Australia of Tauck, who dropped in for our Sales Call to explain why Tauck is kicking goals in Australia with their unique experiences on tours, river cruise and small-ship cruising that you just can't find anywhere else. 

The picture of Anthony in the Minnie Mouse ears that is discussed in the podcast is located here: https://latteluxurynews.com/2021/02/12/guest-column-anthony-goldman/
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This is a Travel Community Hub production. More info is available at www.travelcommunityhub.com

Our series sponsor is Numinous Luxury Travel Representation. More info is available at https://www.numinousltr.com/

Find out more about our Tauck via https://www.tauck.com.au, and contact Helen via: [email protected]

LinkedIn Details:
Anthony's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonygoldman/
Helen Eves, National Sales Manager Australia, Tauck - https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-eves-1156528/
Richard's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-taylor-tch
AC's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-catherine-jones-158b3260/

Series 2 is here!

In this first episode Richard Taylor and Ann-Catherine Jones were joined by Sonia Jones and Shelley Brice, in their first appearance since featuring in multiple episodes Richard's Travel Community Hub webinars back in 'those times'.

Their advice during those webinars helped many hundreds of advisors and assorted travel people keep it together and plan for revival, so now feels like a good time to check in on how their own rebuilding processes have turned out.

Sonia has opened a retail space, Shelley is more choosy about the business she takes on, and AC has gone full recluse to focus on being the best version of her advisor self.

You'll also hear some interesting stories about exceptional customer service, such as Shelley's late night phone calls with a man dressed in nothing but a bathrobe. 

We hope you enjoy, and if that's the case please share with friends.

This is a Travel Community Hub production. More info is available at www.travelcommunityhub.com

Sonia's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/soniajonestravel/
Shelley's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelleybrice/
Richard's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-taylor-tch
AC's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-catherine-jones-158b3260/

In the final episode of the first series Richard and AC were joined by Tamara Kobiolke, to discuss hotel representation and why everyone should have a 'hero in their back pocket.'

TK illuminated us on how advisors can best utilise her and folks like her to 'sprinkle the fairydust' onto a booking to make magical things happen, and in turn ensure clients keep coming back. 

Her businessss is called Numinous Luxury Travel Representation (website), and is based in Melbourne.

Aside from learning a thing or two about hotel representation we discussed violinists at candlelit tables, arriving on a helicopter to rescue a fam trip armed only with cashmere blankets and hot chocolate, and why we should trawl coffee shops for potential staff members. She also tells us why she wants us all to bother her with phone calls and emails. 

Our series sponsor is Viking, and this is a Travel Community Hub production. More info is available at www.travelcommunityhub.com

Tamara's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamara-kobiolke-0b21601a/
Richard's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-taylor-tch
AC's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-catherine-jones-158b3260/
Jerry Kobiolke on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009423543360

Richard and AC were joined by journalists Myles Stedman and Honida Beram to discuss the rightful place of influencers within the travel industry.

Myles started all this off with an article entitled "Why The Travel Industry Should 'Cancel' Influencers", which led to Honida - aka Honey, of Cruising With Honey and an influencer in her own right - responding to it. And that has led to this podcast, where we wanted to get into this topic in greater detail. 

What transpired was a delightful conversation that we hope you'll enjoy. 

• Myles' original article, "Why The Travel Industry Should 'Cancel' Influencers" is located here.
• Honey's reponse article, "Cancel Culture Has Reached New Heights", is here. 
• Myles' follow-up piece on the subject, "What the Travel Industry REALLY Thinks About Influencers" is here. 
  
  

Myles is an Associate Editor at Travel Daily, also writing for other publications in the Business Publishing Group stable that includes travelBulletin, Cruise Weekly and the consumer-facing Travel & Cruise Weekly. 

Honida's blog, with a mere 375,000 subscribers, is Cruising  With Honey, and within the industry she's perhaps best known for her  Cruising With Honey Facebook page. She can also be found on Instagram and no doubt other platforms too, but we've run out of energy searching the links for you. Just Google it!

Our series sponsor is Viking, and this is a Travel Community Hub production. More info is available at www.travelcommunityhub.com

Myles' LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/myles-stedman-a056b1105/
Honey's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/honida-beram-0976806b/
Richard's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-taylor-tch
AC's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-catherine-jones-158b3260/

"If you don't do it, it just does not get done".

Richard Taylor and Ann-Catherine Jones were joined by  Nicola Strudwick for this episode that talks about the unique needs of regional travel agents and advisors.

Nicola's job title is General Manager Sales at Travellers Choice, a national retail travel group whose independent member travel agencies are the only shareholders. They represent travel agents located throughout Australia's capital cities, metropolitan and regional areas, and it was the uniqueness of those regional agents that we wanted to delve further into.

Nicola also talked of her extensive work she's done with tourism students, guiding them towards travel with an enthusiasm that we thing you'll be hard pressed to equal elsewhere.

Along the way we heard stories about professional bed-testers and being helicoptered onto warships with briefcases full of cash.

You can find out more about Travellers Choice here: https://www.travellerschoice.com.au/

Our series sponsor is Viking, and this is a Travel Community Hub production. More info is available at www.travelcommunityhub.com

Nicola's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicola-strudwick/
Richard's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-taylor-tch
AC's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-catherine-jones-158b3260/

Richard Taylor and Ann-Catherine Jones meet Travel Agent Achievers (TAA) founder Roslyn Ranse about elevating the profession of the travel advisor.

As the first frontline travel advisor to come onto the show, we were interested in Ros’ take on the current state of play in the industry and the new dominant force that is the mobile travel advisor.

Ros also tells about her motivation to start her learning and development platform Travel Agent Achievers and what support she can offer travel advisors to become more polished, more professional and more successful.

She lets us in on the secret of how she juggles being a mum, running a million dollar travel business, hosting a podcast, mentoring other advisors and running the Travel Agent Achievers community.....and apparently it doesn’t take a time machine in the lounge room to be able to fit it all in!

You can learn more about Travel Agent Achievers here : https://www.travelagentachievers.com/

Our series sponsor is Viking, and this is a Travel Community Hub production. More info is available at www.travelcommunityhub.com

Ros' LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/roslynranse/
Richard's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-taylor-tch
AC's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-catherine-jones-158b3260/

Richard Taylor and Ann-Catherine Jones speak to CLIA's Head of International Training & Development , Peter Kollar.

We wanted to get Pete's take on the cruise industry and his rather large influence on how cruise is positioned and sold to consumers. Whilst doing that we found out he is a former primary school teacher than ended up traversing the globe on cruise ships dressed in leotards. We also discussed the increasing diversity in cruise passengers, why much of the travel industry are introverts, and why you can't judge new clients by their handbags.

More officially, Peter is a seasoned voice for the cruise segment, designing professional development programs on behalf of CLIA - the representing trade body of the cruise industry. He's had a career of more than  25+ years in the industry, from onboard roles of servicing guests and training crew through to his current role.

Peter's list of achievements would take too long to type, so head to his LinkedIn profile (listed below) if you'd like more intormation. 

Our series sponsor is Viking, and this is a Travel Community Hub production. More info is available at www.travelcommunityhub.com

Pete's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-kollar-425b2954/
Richard's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-taylor-tch
AC's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-catherine-jones-158b3260/

Richard Taylor and Ann-Catherine Jones are joined by travel industry doyenne Fiona Dalton for a discussion on, well, a great many things.  Fiona is the General Manager Australia & New Zealand for Virtuoso Travel, the 'leading global network of travel agencies specializing in luxury and experiential travel', in their own words.

For all our episodes, visit https://podcast.travelcommunityhub.com/

Our series sponsor is Viking, who are wonderful people with a product you need to experience!
https://www.vikingcruises.com.au/

This is a Travel Community Hub production, and more info, including options to contact us and sign up for our newsletter, is available at www.travelcommunityhub.com

Fiona's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fiona-dalton-7830356/
Richard's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-taylor-tch
AC's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-catherine-jones-158b3260/

"A Problem Shared"

Richard Taylor and AC Jones speak to Platinum Travel Group CEO Andy Buerckner, for very frank discussion on the trauma the industry is still carrying, and how he's rebuilding his business after the pandemic.

In June 2020, Andy made a post on LinkedIn entitled 'It's Time To Say I'm Struggling', that received huge feedback and led to the piece being run by KarryOn, here: https://karryon.com.au/community/its-time-to-say-im-struggling-andrew-buerckner-platinum-travel/

It was a piece of writing that showed many others that it was OK to not be OK, and led to hundreds of important conversations.

Richard and AC ask what happened afterwards, and how Andy and his sister Sarah began to rebuild their business. 

You can follow Andy on LinkedIn here, where the highlighted post is the Andy's 'Address To The Nation' on Sky News that we talk about in the podcast: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-buerckner

AC openly questions whether we should all be pumping social media for business, and finally we're joined by Emily Porter of Sno n' Ski for a chat about the state of play for agents selling ski to travellers. More information on Sno n' Ski can be found at https://snonski.com.au/

Our series sponsor is Viking, in case you weren't paying attention.
https://www.vikingcruises.com.au/

This is a Travel Community Hub production, and more info is available at www.travelcommunityhub.com

Richard's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-taylor-tch
AC's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-catherine-jones-158b3260/

"There IS such a thing as a free lunch"

Richard and AC are joined by the founder iFlyFlat, Steve Hui, to uncover the secrets of his unique business that helps travellers effectively collect and use airline and credit card points to fly in business class.

Steve gives us an industry insider lesson on both status and points, and explains why he has the highest booking fees of any travel agent in Australia.  We plunder the best trips and tricks, and ask Steve whether he pretends to be someone else while travelling in taxis.

You can follow Steve on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenhui/

AC covers her 10 Golden Rules of How To Behave On Fam Trips (copyright Ann-Catherine Jones) that she made up a few minutes before the show.

And Richard is joined by Anna Jones (no relation to AC Jones, even though her name is also AC Jones) from Ormina Tours for this week's Sales Call. Anna speaks on how the company has adapted its modus operandi to adjust to the overwhelm experienced by travel advisors, and offers advice for them on effective  and efficient selling.

Our series sponsor is Viking, in case you weren't paying attention.

This is a Travel Community Hub production, and more info is available at www.travelcommunityhub.com

Richard's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-taylor-tch
AC's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-catherine-jones-158b3260/