Tour firm’s hard work pays off
A MAJOR Gold Coast tourism company has announced plans to go international after taking home a major award.
LeisureCom Travel Group, which owns several brands including Discover Queensland and Hightide Holidays, won the Tourism category of the Australian Young Entrepreneur Awards on Thursday.
Its newest brand, Global Explorer, is a project nine months in the works, according to founder Jon Tarrant.
“As a company, we’ve spent the past 10 years building our business to where it is now and to take it to the next level, we’ve taken on a major overseas investor,” he said.
“Our main focus in 2019 is going to be this launch. It’s a hybrid of our existing business models in the retail, online travel agency market and destination-based marketing.
“So on the back of Destination Queensland, we also market the top ‘travel to’ destinations for Australians, these being New Zealand, Bali, Fiji, Thailand and Hawaii.”
Having only recently celebrated the company’s 10th anniversary, Mr Tarrant said the new brand and the award is a chance to see their hard work come to fruition.
“We weren’t expecting it mainly because this is our first year being nominated,” he said.