Personal Travel Agents to hold 2023 conference on the seine

The Personal Travel Agents is set to hold its eleventh annual conference onboard Uniworld’s S.S. Joie de Vivre river cruise ship, 20-22 November 2023.

This is the first time The Midcounties Co-operative’s homeworking business has held a conference on a cruise ship and underpins the homeworking business’s strategy to grow sales in the river cruise market. 

More than 80 Personal Travel Agents will embark the ship in Paris for the Rendezvous a Paris conference, where they will have three days to Sail, Discover, Celebrate.

Uniworld is the host sponsor for the conference and the PTAs will also be joined on the cruise by Uniworld MD, Chris Townson, and his team along with CLIA’s Adele Fitzpatrick-Foster. Agents will receive all the latest news from attending supplier partners including Jet2Holidays, Gold Medal, Celebrity Cruises and Co-op Holidays.

Sheena Whittle, Head of The Personal Travel Agents, said: “This will be a completely different style of conference to last year’s glorious event in Malta, which marked the tenth birthday of The Personal Travel Agents. We can’t wait for our agents to experience the beautiful five-star SS Joie de Vivre and to be immersed into the river cruise experience that Uniworld curates so well.

“River cruising is a market our self-employed agents sell already, but we see huge potential for growth. The calibre of customers on our PTAs’ databases is prime for the river cruise product and the experience they will gain from the conference will further enhance their expertise to sell in this sector.

“We’ll also use the conference as an opportunity to provide a business update to our agents, announce some exciting new initiatives and celebrate the individual successes of our PTAs during our annual awards ceremony.”

The Personal Travel Agents, part of The Midcounties Co-operative, was established in 2012 with just six homeworkers and, since then, has grown to 150 agents who benefit from the strength and security of the wider Co-operative brand and exclusive use of in-house tour operator Co-op Holidays, who will also be joining the conference.