Itravel’s internal growth

ITRAVEL has seen double-digit growth over the past 12 months, MD Steve Labroski told Travel Daily at the group’s conference, held in Sydney over the weekend.

The network currently has 19 franchises, 64 mobile and six affiliates, totalling over 150 consultants.

“We’re not growing in numbers externally, we’re growing internally, so our individual agents are getting stronger at what they do,” Labroski said.

Growth for itravel has never been “just about adding numbers,” Labroski told TD, “it’s about finding the right partners that fit within our business”.

The right partner for itravel, Labroski said, came down to an individual’s attitude.

“It’s understanding that becoming a home-based consultant isn’t easy, understanding that because you’ve changed your name on the door, doesn’t mean that you’re going to be successful, there’s a lot of other things behind the scene that have to happen.”

Labroski said the network was still seeing growth despite the headaches caused by recent collapses and coronavirus.

He said the network was less affected by the coronavirus outbreak than some groups.

“We’re still quite safe in that we’ve still got other areas that continue to grow,” he said.

Key suppliers presenting on Sat cited growth in sales from itravel, including Intrepid which congratulated members on ending 2019 with 65% growth in sales, and year-to-date, the group was up 20%.

MEANWHILE, itravel has launched a cash guarantee called itravel agents assurance, which Labroski said provided further security for the network.

itravel agents assurance covers cash payments made for trips with preferred partners, meaning agents will be covered to a maximum value of $10,000 per booking in the instance of supplier failure