Travel Counsellors has announced further expansion, officially launching in Belgium this month. The new operation will be headed by Travel Counsellors’ Netherlands General Manager, Fred van Eijk, and will be supported by Netherlands head office in The Hague, which last month was voted as the Best Travel Company in the Netherlands at the annual Dutch Travel Awards. 
Travel Counsellors, which now has over 1,300 agents in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, Canada and Dubai, is confident that its concept, which is based around supporting its agents in all areas of their businesses so that they are able to provide customers with the highest levels of personalised service, will be a success in Belgium.
Steve Byrne, Travel Counsellors’ Managing Director, said: “As the company continues to grow we felt this was the right time for further expansion and Belgium was the natural choice owing to our successful operations in the Netherlands.
“This expansion will hugely benefit our existing agents in Ireland and across the globe as we continue to build on our global buying power and local knowledge, while enabling us to re-invest in supporting them even further. It also enhances the 24/7 support we are able to offer agents, so there is always someone available to assist them in all areas of their business, which has proved invaluable during out of office hours.”
Last year Travel Counsellors experienced its best ever sales and highest number of recruits in its 20 years’ history, and celebrated its best ever January last month with operations in Ireland up by 22%. The company believes that its proven track record in recruiting the very best travel professionals, providing them with the tools, technology and support to grow hugely successful travel businesses from home, will provide a robust business and attractive proposition for agents and customers alike.
Steve added: “We have already recruited our first three agents, with a view to having a further 20 by the end of the year, on top of the 138 Travel Counsellors currently in the Netherlands. We believe travel professionals in Belgium will relish the opportunity to run their own businesses with the support and back-up of our expertise and focus on personalised service. Our agents are successful because they are committed to building lasting relationships with their customers and we look forward to bringing that expertise to Belgium.”
