We recently connected with Adam Duckworth and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Adam, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with something countless entrepreneurs have had to figure out on the fly – how have you dealt with the rise of remote work?
Our business is entirely remote. This allows us to have a thriving business with travel agents all over the country who can work from anywhere they want and whatever hours they want. Our agents set their own schedules – some work 8 hours a day, some work 8 hours a month. We have found this flexibility brings more happiness and loyalty to the company. The only pitfall we see is that some of our agents may not know each other as well as they like. We fixed this by creating regional groups, hosting regular zoom meetings, leading weekly training sessions, planning local events and we have a very strong social media community exclusive to our agents.
Adam, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Travelmation is a fast-growing travel agency that has exploded to nearly 1700 agents across the United States. We recently landed on Travel Weekly’s Power List which highlights the top agencies in the country.
I built this company with the goal of modernizing the travel world. Our leadership team accomplished this with innovative digital marketing strategies and we were also one of the first companies to allow agents to market themselves on social media.
Our agents help clients make magical memories in places all around the globe and help take the stress out of vacation planning.
We are an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner and an Earmarked Diamond Producer, selling a record number of Disney Destinations vacations each year; a Diamond U-Preferred agency for Universal Orlando; Preferred Partner of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line; and a verified Sandals and Beaches agency; among others. The company is part of the Travel Leaders Network President’s Circle and is a Cruise Lines International Association member.
Here’s a little more about my journey:
https://www.travelmation.net/
Have you ever had to pivot?
Overall, operations have been smooth but then the pandemic hit in 2020 and completely rocked the travel world. Many places completely shut down for over a year. We were forced to ask ourselves – can we keep our business going? The answer was yes but we had to figure out how. Number one – we stayed hopeful. We also changed our focus to places people could go more locally. As things began to open up we expanded that focus. It wasn’t easy but we kept pushing forward and now we are thriving better than ever. Our clients are thrilled to be able to travel the globe once again and they are booking trips like never before. Europe is very hot right now and so are theme parks and cruising.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I believe what helped us build our reputation was innovation. When we created Travelmation, we aimed to be the very best travel agency on the planet. We wanted to be generous with dollars, have minimal agent fees, develop a supportive group of agents and allow them to market themselves in new and exciting ways. And we backed all of that up with sales. It’s one thing to say, “Look at us – we are new and exciting”. It’s a completely different thing to say that and then prove it with revenue and sales. That combination got us noticed by suppliers and agents so we could continue to grow every day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.travelmation.net
- Instagram: @Adam_duckworth
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/travelmation/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-duckworth-travelmation/
- Youtube: @travelmation5587