Celebrating its quarter century, TIPTO chairmen, suppliers and members of the organising team, past and present, congregated at the iconic Ivy restaurant in London’s Covent Garden for a trip down memory lane.
Taking a look back at TIPTO’s beginnings, with speeches from founding team members, to showcasing its standing today, as a much loved and well-regarded support to the UK and Ireland’s travel trade, the event highlighted TIPTO’s successes and its aims moving into Year 26.
TIPTO has grown from strength to strength across the years, weathering some of the big industry issues, to become an important learning resource for agents. Year 25 has seen suppliers engage with more than 2000 agents across 36 face2face events. For two-thirds of these attendees it was their first time at a TIPTO event and almost half (47%) of them were homeworking agents.
Commenting on this milestone anniversary, current Chairman, Richard Forde, thanked TIPTO for its continued support of the trade: “TIPTO remains as relevant today as it was when it first launched 25 years ago. We are seeing more agent attendees across our events, more first timers and more homeworking agents than ever before. Our operator community is truly committed to the trade, and it shows in their drive and determination to educate, reward and build lasting relationships with agents.”
Jane Dyson, The Network, TIPTO’s first management company, added: “It’s fabulous to see TIPTO in such a strong position 25 years after its conception. The Network were tasked with launching TIPTO in 1999 and recruiting suppliers into the fold. We ended that year with 29 members and we knew then that we’d created something special and something independent operators within the industry needed given the march of the multiples. I’m delighted TIPTO is still going strong and send a thank you to you all for keeping the spirit of supporting travel agents at its heart.”
TIPTO is now in its 25th year of operation with 25 members including: Abercrombie & Kent / Cox & Kings, Ambassador Cruise Line, Blue Diamond Resorts, Carnival Cruise Line, Celestyal Cruises, CroisiEurope, Do Something Different, DriveAway, Fred.\ Holidays, Gold Medal, Holiday Extras, Inghams / Santa’s Lapland, Intrepid, JG Travel Group, Leger Shearings Group, Newmarket Holidays, Playa Hotels & Resorts, RCD Hotels, Red Sea Holidays, Scenic & Emerald Cruises, Titan, Travelpack, USAirtours, Virgin Voyages and Yalago.
