BETTER TOGETHER
From agency owner to Travel Counsellor, Emer McDermott outlines how she found a partnership that has helped her grow and evolve.
Eureka moments can spin your life compass in a whole new direction. That sudden idea, solution or realisation can strike a chord that potentially will be life changing. For Mayo-based Travel Counsellor Emer McDermott, her eureka moment meant a new career path, as she evolved and moved her business in 2017 from the highly-regarded agency McDermott Travel to being part of the leading independent travel company Travel Counsellors.
“The big ‘aha moment’ for me,” explains Emer, “was that you are not closing, changing or going backwards. You are actually moving forward with a Travel Counsellors partnership, and in a much better way. You have the support of a global company behind you, partnering with you every step of the way, whilst you move your business across and beyond.”
With over 20 years’ travel experience, specifically in honeymoons, cruises and tailor-made holidays, Emer is now one of the 75 self-employed Travel Counsellor franchisees operating across the country. Travel Counsellors offer travel specialists access to the most advanced technology and booking systems with 24/7 support and assistance. Every Travel Counsellor is in control of when and how they work and are connected to a network of over 1,800 Travel Counsellors worldwide, who share ideas, local destination knowledge and product information.
For Emer, it was a considered decision to move her operation from McDermott Travel, but one that she made knowing that she could grow her business even further with Travel Counsellors’ assistance. It was a unique opportunity to do what she loved without the massive overheads involved with owning a travel agency today.
“I had an agency for years, and I was familiar with that model – where you had a shop, and people came in and used your services.
“There is no stumbling block for
me to grow my business.”
However, with Travel Counsellors I had this image that I would be based from home, and I couldn’t see that working for me,” says Emer. “It was only after meeting Cathy Burke and Bernie Whelan from Travel Counsellors Ireland head office that I was encouraged to look at Travel Counsellors in a different way. I could work at an enterprise centre, in an office, and that was the clincher for me.”
The progressiveness of Travel Counsellors, and the fact they don’t push a “traditional home-working style” ensured Emer could set up her office in the Leeson Enterprise Centre in Westport. The Travel Counsellors model also allows for travel agency owners such as Emer to work with a team behind them and keep their identity.
“For the growth of my business with Travel Counsellors, this forward thinking approach is great. There is no stumbling block for me to grow my business,” she says.
Emer, who has achieved more sales than ever before with Travel Counsellors, is now looking to the future with optimism.
“When I partnered with Travel Counsellors, I got the opportunity to step up another gear,” she says. “I was a small retail travel agent, ticking along, and now I am part of a much bigger story.”