Welcome To The Neighbourhood

“It takes a village to raise a boy,” observed The Travel Agent Next Door’s (TAND) founder, Flemming Friisdahl, as he welcomed travel trade types to a special appreciation event at TAND’s offices on York Street in Toronto this week.

And he continued that “starting a new company in the travel industry isn’t easy and it takes a community to make a company a success.”

His point being that without the support of its partners and its suppliers TAND wouldn’t have gotten off to the great start that it has.

Friisdahl told the select group that in its first 3 months of operation, TAND has signed up just over 30 “experienced” travel agents; it has expanded its staff to 7; and it has a further 128 leads that it is currently working on.

“That’s a testament to the program that we’ve put together,” Friisdahl said, before praising the suppliers who have supported TAND’s vision and the preferred and approved approach that it has taken. And he also thanked Travelsavers for its support, through its social media, marketing, extranet initiatives.

As for what’s next. Friisdahl said that TAND will be targeting small and medium-sized agencies, telling his audience that “we don’t see the Travel Agent Next Door as a home-based [operator], we see it as an agency services business.”

In taking that approach, Friisdahl announced that TAND will be launching a program for agencies who want to start a home-based business. That initiative will see TAND providing the back-end for such operations, observing: “We’re not the front end, we’re the back end, so [with us, agencies] can be whatever you want to be.”

For more on the Travel Agent Next Door, go to http://www.thetravelagentnextdoor.ca .