Over the coming weeks BBT will be catching up with some of the winners from the 2014 Business Travel Awards to highlight their stories and find out how the win has affected their business.
In the third instalment of this mini-series BBT speaks to Diversity Travel about winning Best Travel Management Company (Less than £50 million UK sales annually) and how it has affected their business.
Why did you decide to enter the 2014 Buying Business Travel Awards?
We wanted to celebrate another year of exceptional growth and success. Diversity Travel had performed exceptionally well in 2012-2013 in spite of difficult economic conditions. Our turnover grew by 36 per cent from £18,107,898 in 2011/12 to £24,736,993 in 2012/13.
In 2013, Diversity was the only company in the travel industry invited to join the Government’s Accelerate 250, a group of the 250 companies that were leading economic growth and employment generation in the UK.
So we knew we were doing well – winning the award confirmed it!
What did winning the award for Best Travel Management Company (Less than 50m UK sales) mean to your company?
This was the first time we had entered the awards, so to win at our first attempt meant a great deal to us. After only six years trading, we have become one of the leading specialists in charity and not for profit travel in the UK, consistently delivering – and able to demonstrate through our many client testimonials - exceptionally high levels of service to the Third Sector. So to have the judges highlight this in their commendation was very important to us – it really validated the hard work of the whole company, especially the staff members who have contributed to our rapid growth while delivering such a high standard of service to our clients on a daily basis.
Has winning the award had any positive benefits for your company – both internally and externally? If so what have those benefits been?
Externally, winning the award has resulted in positive PR for the company. It has also strengthened our recent bids: we have been tendering for a number of new high-value accounts and international clients, and the award played a part in helping us secure a number of multi-million pound contracts, including one managing travel for an organisation’s 52 offices worldwide.
We place great emphasis on good communication with suppliers and clients and were quick to share news of our success with them, too – we had many, many messages of congratulations.
Finally, we have been able to use the award in our recruitment to compete in what is a tough market for the best people – we have expanded our workforce by more than 40% over the last year alone and now employ more than 80 people in our offices in London and Manchester.
Since the win what has Diversity Travel been up to?
Our main achievements have included:
- increasing our turnover by 39 per cent in 2013-2014
- Opening a Melbourne office to service our international clients in different time zones
- Winning a £10 million-pound global account for a major international NGO
- improving our charity fare range by adding two new contracts and enhancing others
- Rolling out our instant report tool mi-bank express, to give clients access to automatically updated management information on their travel expenditure.
What's in the pipeline for Diversity Travel for 2015?
We are in the midst of expanding our London operation, which has historically been visa only, incorporating a new reservations department – we are due to move to larger offices in central London in August. We are also planning to:
- make further inroads into the academic market to continue our exceptional growth
- launch an app enabling clients to view all of their trip details in one place while they’re on the move;
- make further enhancements to our management information system to give clients access to dynamic MI reports without the need to install or run special software.
What did you enjoy most about the Awards evening?
It was a great opportunity to network and catch up with major players in the industry.
Why should organisations and teams enter the awards? And why should they attend the ceremony?
Organisations should enter the awards because it is a rare chance to have your hard work recognised by the people that matter – senior buyers from a range of sectors who really know all there is to know about purchasing travel.
What the Judges said:
“Diversity Travel is an extension of the clients they serve; their entry demonstrated strong customer satisfaction from non-profit organisations.”
The judges also highlighted the staff bonus scheme based on non- monetary goals such as customer service and quality as a reason for their success.
How to enter the 2015 Business Travel Awards
The deadline for awards entries is Monday September 8. To view categories and criteria visit www.businesstravelawrds.com. For the latest updates on the event, follow the Business Travel Awards on Twitter at @BBTAwards