TORONTO — TravelOnly hosted its Annual Distinction Awards event with a gala celebration for its travel agent associates, trade partners and media at the Toronto Airport Marriott Hotel.
Since 1974, when TravelOnly got its start headed up by Patrick Luciani, the company has grown over the years to a cross-Canada travel agent network with over 600 travel agent associates.
The night included a supplier trade show featuring TravelOnly’s travel partners and segued into opening keynote addresses from TravelOnly President Gregory Luciani and Ensemble Canada Executive Vice President, Lindsay Pearlman.
Rahul Singh, Executive Director, Global Medic, was one of the night’s special guests, speaking about Global Medic’s global disaster relief efforts, specifically its program of delivering clean water devices to areas affected by hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters to allow people affected to clean contaminated water to get immediate access to clean drinking water which is always in shortage.
The story of Global Medic and the obvious needs that it addressed resonated with those present and attending through social media. More than $35,000 was raised for ‘Travel Agents Care’, an initiative started by TravelOnly travel agent Karen Gill (PlanAVacation.ca). Supplier partner TravelBrands donated $5,000 and Nicole Francis (The Travel Boutique) donated $1,000.
The Travel Agents Care fundraising initiative came together last fall in the wake of the 2017 hurricane season. Gill along with TravelOnly agents Marie Odorizzi, Sharon Loppie and Pat Probert, having spent time in many of the Caribbean destinations impacted by the hurricanes, decided there was no question that they needed to act.
At Saturday’s event, suppliers also took the stage to give brief updates on their products and to give awards to their top producers. They included AmaWaterways, The Barcelo Hotel Group, Collette Vacations, AMResorts, Israel Ministry of Tourism, Carnival, NCL, Air Canada Vacations, MSC Cruises, Globus, Perillo Tours, Palace Resorts, Sunwing, Transat, Royal Caribbean, Playa Resorts, TravelBrands and Manulife Insurance.
During the evening Travel Only also named and introduced its eight new President’s Club members for 2018.
