Not resting on his laurels, the concierge team he hired to support pre-departure and overflow is now joined by two consultants, which he says is the “the start of the next chapter for my travel brands”.

Casey, the Not Just Travel consultant who scooped Home-Based Travel Agent of the Year and the coveted UK & Ireland Travel Agent of the Year, reflects on his journey to travel trade champion from a career in marketing. He insists this has been pivotal in helping his reach to clients and showcasing what makes him special.

“Having a marketing background has really helped me move forward in terms of what I wanted to do and how I could target my audience,” he adds.

Speaking to TTG after his success at the awards, Casey is adamant that “you don’t necessarily need travel experience to succeed in the industry”.  

“If you’ve got a personality, you’re well-connected and you’re a good communicator, that’s the key to it,” Casey says. “It’s nothing to do with knowing airport codes or all these destinations.”

Casey, who founded Ben Casey’s Great Escapes in late 2019 while still in his full-time marketing role, was particularly commended by the awards’ judges for his “outstanding customer service”.

Part of this service is the agent’s little touches for his top-tier clients who have made 10 bookings or more, a regular part of his service widely praised and shared on social media.

“I don’t do any advertising or any paid social, it’s all organic growth through social proof of what I’m doing right, and that’s really been key to the business,” he says.

Examples include commissioning a piece of art following one clients’ honeymoon, working with a digital artist to create a collage of scenes from their trip and delivering it personally, fully-framed. But first-time bookers also benefit from personalised travel document holders, and monthly Conde Nast Traveller magazines.

Despite recognising the benefits of coming from a non-travel background, his strategic approach and appetite for expanding on his product knowledge was lauded by the judges, culminating in his own ‘fam’ holiday in Mexico in August 2022.

Casey worked with business development managers to book personal site inspections at 12 hotels to improve knowledge of their product. He then shared the intelligence from the trip with Not Just Travel consultants.

’I can see huge potential for growth’

Casey resigned from his marketing role after just three months as an agent after faster-than-expected growth. He is now one of Not Just Travel’s top-selling agents, with a turnover of more than £1 million per year.

He praises Not Just Travel for giving him the support needed to grow, telling TTG even though he decided to join the homeworking agency for its money-back challenge – where agents have the chance to win £15,000 back if they hit certain sales targets – he stayed for the culture.
 
“They’ve been so supportive in the last four years, particularly through Covid, when they kept everyone going,” he explains. “Everyone’s there to support one another, everyone wants the best for one another and there’s no awkward competition between consultants.”

As well as Ben Casey’s Great Escapes, the agent runs a luxury brand, Out of This World, after spotting a gap in the luxury market among his client base.
 
Alongside his recent recruits, “there will be opportunities for me to bring more people on board within the team,” he says. “And that’s the plan.”

Casey is also excited about the boom in the cruise sector, but concedes that “most who know me would know I wouldn’t have said that 12 months ago”.

“I can see the huge potential for growth. It’d be remiss of me to not take advantage, more so as the predominant portion of my business is land-based trips. One of my priorities is to conduct more ship visits to truly comprehend the breadth of product now on the market.”

But he is open to several possibilities for the future, including opening one or more shops. “I’ll never say never,” he concludes. “If the right opportunity comes up at the right time and it’s something that I feel is right for the business, then the high street might be in consideration.”