Addressing the 2025 InteleTravel Quest conference in Porto on Saturday (27 September), co-founder and chief executive James Ferrara and UK and Ireland managing director Tricia Handley-Hughes revealed sales in the UK and Ireland ran to £185 million during the first eight months of the year, up 53% on 2024.
These figures include year-on-year growth in sales of land holidays (61%) and cruise (45%). Handley-Hughes said this put InteleTravel on track to "smash" the £200 million sales target it set for 2025.
Ferrara, meanwhile, said the firm's sales topped $1.24 billion (£920 million) globally in 2024, up 44% in 2023. “I want you to take ownership of that because you’re part of that result,” he Ferrara, addressing the more than 450 agents at the conference.
Ferrara also revealed growth in the UK and Ireland is outpacing what InteleTravel is achieving in its US heartland. "The UK and Ireland has led the company in the greatest growth of the year - and has grown even faster than the 34 year-old company in the US,” he stressed.
Handley-Hughes added: “What a year we’ve had. I know we are on track to expand our horizons.”
Globally, August 2025 was the biggest month in the company's history for commission payments. In the UK and Ireland, agents have been paid out more than £8 million in commission this year to date. This is almost double (+96%) compared with last year, with commission payments to Irish agents specifically up 185% year-on-year.
It also compares favourable versus global year-on-year growth in commission payments of 33%. The largest single commission payment in the UK was more than £15,900 while in Ireland it was €9,601 (£8,374).
The conference was host to InteleTravel’s first agent awards, which saw eight agents – four in the UK and four from Ireland – honoured for achieving strong sales and booking performance, while dozens more were recognised for reaching commission milestones.
The awards built on InteleTravel's Path to Pinnacle programme, launched in the summer.
Speaking to TTG, Ferrara revealed a 2026 sales target of £350 million for the UK and Ireland. “That’s going to wind up being around 35% growth [on 2025]," he said. "It’s aggressive, but it’s not nearly the percentage we did this year, so I think we might actually smash that."
He continued: "The leadership here [in the UK and Ireland] is incredibly thoughtful and strategic, and we have a dream team here that is invaluable. But our success is also in the psyche of the people who have become advisors here and the culture we have created.”
Ferrara noted that on average, InteleTravel's more than 30,000 agents in the UK and Ireland agents tended to be younger than those across the pond, adding that when InteleTravel started in the US in 1991, the average age of an agent tended to be in the 60s.
“It has really changed and has come down to around 42," he added, with Handley-Hughes estimating the average age in the UK and Ireland to be sitting “at about 35”.