Helloworld Travel is adding new pins to the retail map. The group has opened, announced or secured 14 stores across Australia in the past 18 months. The Helloworld Travel expansion spans new agencies and extra sites run by current members.
The move is more than a cheerful round of ribbon-cutting. It is a clear vote of faith in skilled travel professionals. Travellers can book almost anything online. Yet when a trip goes wrong, a chatbot and a booking code can be poor travel companions.
The details appear in Helloworld Travel’s 28 August ASX announcement. The growth blends independent agencies joining the group with existing members opening more locations. Owners gain a known brand, trade deals, new technology and business support. Helloworld gains a wider local reach.
Helloworld Travel Store
Helloworld Hampton, Helloworld Mt Gravatt and Helloworld Nerang have opened. So have Helloworld Waverley Gardens and Helloworld Dutton Park. Delta Holidays and Barrow and Bear have also joined the expansion.
Current owners have added sites under Helloworld Kingsway, Helloworld Noosa and New Farm Travel. Two more branded agencies are on the way. One will be at Chadstone, Melbourne’s largest shopping centre. The other will open in Miranda, New South Wales.
That spread matters. A local agency is part shop, part knowledge bank and, when plans go sideways, part rescue service. The web may find 400 fares before breakfast. A good adviser can spot the one least likely to cause tears at the transfer desk.
MTA adds national reach from the home office
Helloworld’s retail story now reaches well beyond shops. In October 2025, the company bought the remaining 50 per cent of MTA – Mobile Travel Agents. The deal lifted its ownership to 100 per cent.
MTA brought 450 home-based travel advisers and 60 head-office staff under full Helloworld ownership. The Queensland-based business is, according to the company, Australia’s largest home-based travel network.
It is a neat piece of modern retail. Helloworld now has one foot on the local high street and another in the home office. It is backing both models instead of asking them to fight over the last brochure rack.
Helloworld Travel Limited CEO and Managing Director Andrew Burnes AO said consumers valued “the reassurance, expertise and advocacy” of experienced travel professionals.
Burnes also noted demand from owners keen to join a “trusted, well-supported, and growing network”. His point goes to the heart of the plan. This is not only a hunt for more logos above doors. It is a bet that sound advice, human judgement and service still have value.
More Helloworld agencies locked in
The rollout is not finished. More openings and member growth are set for late 2026 and into 2027. The next wave includes Helloworld Elanora, Helloworld Wagga Wagga and Helloworld Toowong. Helloworld North Lakes and Helloworld Whitford City are also secured.
For the wider travel trade, the message is upbeat. Digital tools will keep improving, and smart agencies will keep using them. But complex fares, rule changes, lost connections and insurance questions still test the nerves. They also show why professional advice matters.
Helloworld Travel is growing on two fronts. It has visible local stores and a large national network of home-based advisers. Consumers gain more ways to reach an expert. Business owners gain the support of a known travel group.
Fourteen stores will not settle the future of travel retail. They do, however, offer a strong vote of confidence. The shopfront adviser is not heading for the departure gate just yet. Judging by Helloworld’s pipeline, neither is this growth story.
By: Michelle Warner – © 2026.
Read Time: 3 minutes.
Author Bio:
Michelle Warner has always carried stories the way others carry passports lightly, faithfully, and with purpose. She learned her craft in newsrooms, shaping sentences with care, before swapping deadlines for departures as a flight attendant with some of the world’s great airlines. Years aloft sharpened her eye for character and deepened her fondness for the small, dignified rituals of travel, the quiet kindness of strangers, the poetry of arrival, the patience learned between time zones.
Now grounded by choice, Michelle has come home to writing with the same calm authority she once brought to turbulent cabins. Her prose blends an editor’s discipline with a traveller’s wonder, tinged with humour and reverence for the golden age of travel. Each piece feels like a handwritten boarding pass, gracious, observant, and unmistakably alive.
