Member Article

Expanding Manchester company tipped for top travel award

A fast-growing travel management company, based on Manchester’s Portland Street, has been confirmed as a finalist in one of the industry’s most prestigious awards.

Diversity Travel has been shortlisted in the Business Travel Agency of the Year category in the TTG Travel Awards, organised by the industry’s leading trade magazine – Travel Trade Gazette – to take place in September.

To reach the finals, Diversity Travel was required to demonstrate innovation, financial stability, outstanding trade relations, staff development and training, and a commitment to the principles of corporate social responsibility.

Managing director at Diversity Travel, Christopher Airey said: “It’s fantastic to have been named as a finalist at the TTG Travel Awards, highly regarded as the universal benchmark of quality because they’re judged so rigorously by a panel of elite industry experts.

“We’ve enjoyed a phenomenal year’s growth, delivered outstanding levels of service to clients in the charity and not-for-profit sectors and attracted substantial levels of new business in the academic sector and from overseas; putting us in a good position to win another award.

“From May 2013 to May 2014, we increased turnover by 39% to £34.4 million and employed a further 24 members of staff, taking our total to 82. In addition, we’ve opened an Australian office to serve clients in other time zones and launched a host of innovative, new products and services.”

Earlier this year, Diversity Travel was awarded the title of “Best Travel Management Company with Sales of Less than £50 Million” at the 2014 Business Travel Awards.

Serving the specialist requirements of the charity, academic and not-for-profit sectors, Diversity Travel uniquely offers in-depth knowledge of the often remote destinations to which its clients travel, finding travel solutions that are both safe and cost-effective.

It recently launched a new emergency support plan protocol, which alerts registered clients within 30 minutes of incidents that could potentially affect their travel arrangements, such as last week’s bombings in Cairo and Abuja (25th June 2014).

Mr Airey added: “Our clients are at the forefront of everything we do, from continually innovating to meet their needs, keeping costs low and helping them stay safe, to investing in our staff to ensure exceptional levels of customer care from a team of expert travel consultants.”

Managing director at TTG Media, Daniel Pearce said: “The TTG Travel Awards really are the blue riband of the travel industry, celebrating those businesses that are truly on top of the world when it comes to travel and tourism.

“I’d personally like to extend my congratulations to Diversity Travel for making it into our hotly-contested shortlist.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .