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Some companies throw glitter at milestones. Others get on with the job. And then there’s TravelManagers Australia—a company that’s somehow managed to clock a staggering $500 million in annual turnover without losing its soul or sense of humour along the way.

Yes, you read that right. Half a billion dollars. That’s enough to buy 2,000 high-end campervans, an entire island off the Queensland coast, or several Sydney homes (well, maybe two). But for TravelManagers, the real victory lies not in the dollar signs, but in the people who made it happen.

“Back in 2008, we brought in just over $26 million,” recalls Chief Operating Officer Grant Campbell, whose memory appears sharper than your average boarding pass barcode. “Now, we’re averaging almost 20 per cent growth each year.”

To put that in context: if your waistline grew at that rate, you’d be banned from both Jetstar and dinner parties.

But the numbers, impressive as they are, are just the cherry on top of a travel cake that’s been rising steadily for two decades—one lovingly prepared by a network of over 1,600 personal travel managers (PTMs) and 57 stalwart staff at the National Partnership Office (NPO), many of whom have stuck around for more than a decade.

Yes, in a world where loyalty sometimes lasts only as long as your phone contract, TravelManagers has held onto its people like prized passports.

“Our PTMs aren’t just agents—they’re trusted advisors, shoulder-to-cry-on types, and often miracle workers,” Campbell says, not without a glint of pride. “Some of them could probably reverse-engineer a round-the-world fare using only a rotary phone and a Lonely Planet guide from 1987.”

The model, if you’re wondering, is simple yet oddly revolutionary: give passionate travel professionals the tools, tech, and trust they need—and get out of their way. And in return? They deliver tailor-made experiences with the sort of care you can’t bottle, digitise, or stick behind a chatbot.

“In an industry that sometimes forgets the ‘personal’ in personal service,” Campbell notes, “we’ve doubled down on it.”

And it’s paid off. Not just in turnover, but in tears of joy from travellers whose trips were saved, dreams stitched together from scratch, or honeymoons recovered after airlines played musical chairs with their bookings.

But don’t mistake TravelManagers for an old-school holdout. Their tech is sharp, their systems are slick, and their training programs wouldn’t look out of place in a top-tier MBA. It’s just that they also believe in things like handwritten notes, birthday calls, and treating colleagues like family—not KPIs.

Looking ahead, Campbell says the goal isn’t to chase the next zero. “The real milestone,” he grins, “is keeping our PTMs inspired and our clients coming back with stories, not complaints.”

And if that sounds old-fashioned—well, perhaps that’s precisely why it works.

Here’s to TravelManagers. May their bookings be bountiful, their clients loyal, and their coffee always hot—because behind every good travel agent is a better espresso machine.