A celebration for 50 years of hard work, a few tears, and plenty of deserving honourees.
TravelOnly marked its 50th anniversary with a blowout gala at the glamorous Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto on 20JAN.
With 150-plus dignitaries and special guests on hand, more than three dozen awards were given out at the 7th annual TADA Gala. 27 advisors were named to the 2023 TravelOnly Presidents Club.
It was a cause for jubilation, but also a time to mark the loss of one of pioneers in the Canadian travel business, Patrick Luciani, who passed away in 2020.
TravelOnly was founded by Luciani and his wife, Ann, in 1974 in Brantford, Ontario with a skeleton staff of three. Today there are more than 800 agents coast to coast to coast.
The anniversary “is a bit of a double edged sword,” Ann Luciani told members of the media. “I’m thrilled but I miss my husband.”
“To think back, it’s almost unreal. 50 years,” she said with a smile. “Because I only feel 50.”
It was a wildly different business when TravelOnly set up shop in 1974.
“It was hard to get agents,” Luciani said. “We didn’t want to raid other agencies like some people do, so we started appealing to everybody. We would hold our sessions, and anyone who was a sales person could join. We got people from all sorts of professions; actors, nurses, accountants, firefighters. Even a judge.”
Selling tickets also was very tricky before software came along that allowed advisors to work with computers and tap into airline booking systems, said CEO Greg Luciani.
“We had these little stickers that we’d put on a plane in the office to show if seats were taken on a particular flight. We’d call the airline, and they’d say, ‘Oh, we have seven seats left.’”
Ann Luciani said one of the major developments she remembers on the journey was changing from a storefront group to a host agency in the days when that wasn’t a big trend.
“People couldn’t understand working from home,” she said.
In fact, TravelOnly had to go to court in British Columbia to get at-home work accepted by the B.C. government. And that was in 2004.
Through it all, TravelOnly “just kept growing and growing,” Ann Luciani said. “It was a natural thing after a while.”
Greg Luciani said TravelOnly had a record-breaking year in 2023, literally doubling their pre-pandemic business. He said he expects the company to grow 20-25% this year, which will be another record breaker.
Still, he said, there’s no way to fully recover what was lost during the pandemic.
“We lost amazing people, amazing agents who left the industry. For sure that is the biggest negative, and that still hurts. The industry needed them and now they’re gone.”
The challenge now is to bring in new people who are passionate about the industry.
“People don’t get into travel to become Jeff Bezos, but they want to help people and they love to travel and they want to travel more.”
Luciani said growth through acquisition is likely to be a TravelOnly trend in the next 50 years. The company also has embraced Artificial Intelligence.
“We’re heavily invested in A.I.,” he said. “We were the first agency to launch A.I for our agents, specifically designed for travel agents.”
Luciani said an A.I. virtual assistant saves travel advisors valuable time. A.I. also can create blog posts, web pages and social media posts for agents “in a very structured and professional way.”
“We’re giving our agents more tools to be innovative, that’s the next 50 years. We want to give them the tools to be leaders, innovators and of course to make their lives easier.”
Agents work so hard, he said later in the evening.
“There’s no nine to five for agents, there’s no Monday to Friday.”
“I can’t begin to express my gratitude to the Luciani family and TravelOnly,” said Erminia Nigro, General Manager, Air Canada Vacations, a platinum sponsor of the event. “They are truly the reason for my success throughout my career and I’m happy to be here to celebrate.”
Nigro said TravelOnly was instrumental in the launch and support of the ACV @ Home program.
“We witnessed the inception of the TravelOnly model which clearly has been successful. The care they have for their advisors, suppliers and industry; it’s no wonder how they got to 50 years. Thank you, TravelOnly. and cheers to amazing firsts to be created in this industry.”
“All Travel Only agents are very supportive of the Hyatt Inclusive Collection, part of World of Hyatt,” said Carolina Bellina, Senior Director of Canadian Sales at Hyatt Inclusive Collection, also a platinum sponsor. “It’s an honour to be here.”
During a speech prior to the awards ceremony, Greg Luciani thanked his late father.
“He was a very special person. He loved travel, he loved you. He loved travel agents more than any profession on the planet. He’s the reason we’re all here today.”
“We didn’t do this alone,” Ann Luciani said in her remarks, which included fun photos of she and Patrick on their honeymoon in Europe and family pics with her nine grandchildren. “It’s been a collective effort, and we owe so much to our travel partners and suppliers.”
The most notable award of the night was the Patrick Luciani Community Award, which went to Barbara Scrocco and Robert Rizzo.
Here are some other award highlights:
Top Preferred Supplier in Cruise – Norwegian Cruise Line
Top Preferred Supplier in River Cruise – AmaWaterways
Top Preferred Tour Operator – Sunwing
Personality of the Year – Krista Rothfuchs, Air Canada Vacations
Most Supportive BDM – Brian Joseph, Hyatt Inclusive Collection
Most Engaged Partner – WestJet
Top Breakout Partner – Viking
Top Overall Preferred Partner – TravelBrands
TravelOnly MVP – Shannon Smith
TravelOnly Personality of the Year – Robert Pittelli
TravelOnly Rookie of the Year – Daniel Slupeiks
TravelOnly Top Rising Star – Sandi Liang
TravelOnly Top All Star – Meaghan Petz
