The luxury homeworking agency will host more than 100 of its Professional Travel Experts in the capital of the UAE for a four-day trip combining a conference with experiences at a number of local attractions and visits to several five-star hotels.
Speaking to TTG Luxury, Karen Pocock, co-founder of Designer Travel, revealed that Abu Dhabi was chosen as the destination for the educational trip due to high demand from its agents.
“We already sell it, but we could sell a lot more of it,” Pocock said. “And most of us have not been there yet, so it made a lot of sense.”
The itinerary includes trips to Warner Bros. World, the F1 circuit and Ferrari World, as well as cultural attractions such as mosques and TeamLab Phenomena, an art museum in the Saadiyat Cultural District.
“The week will be action-packed and we’re covering a lot of ground in a short space of time,” Pocock said, adding that there will also be a two-day extension for 26 of the advisors who expressed a specific interest in selling Abu Dhabi, further boosting product knowledge.
The advisors, all of whom are chosen based on an “achievable sales criteria”, will stay in the five-star Al Ain Rotana during their trip. They will also have site tours of the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, the Rixos Marina and Hilton Abu Dhabi Yas Island.
When they are not visiting the properties, they will attend training sessions with industry partners, including headline sponsors TUI and Kuoni.
“The suppliers are with us the whole time, which makes our conferences so different,” Pocock explained. “They will eat with us, drink with us, party with us and work with us. It’s a really good opportunity to get together.”
Designer Travel will also be announcing a number of new initiatives at the conference, including the launch of a new consumer policy and updates on its sustainability endeavours.
“We can’t wait to share the successes from the last 12 months and celebrate with the team, but we are equally excited about what the future holds for the business and the plans we have in place for 2025/6 and 2027,” added Amanda Matthews, fellow founder of Designer Travel.
“A business of our size is well placed to cope with the ever-changing landscape in travel. We are beyond excited to share details of several new initiatives and consumer focused policies and pledges that will allow us to continue to innovate and inspire our customers.”
Pocock added Designer Travel would also be celebrating with the team around the agency’s scooping of five coveted places in the TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies Awards, during a glittering event in Manchester in April. The agency scored places under the homeworking, touring, weddings and luxury travel categories, as well as the best agency in the Northwest region. “That night will go down in Designer Travel history as a landmark moment,” Pocock said.
