Gold Medal Travel Group Hosts Key Trade Ahead of Irish Launch
ITTN's Katie joined Gold Medal Travel yesterday in Dublin where they hosted key travel trade in a wonderful sit-down meal in Suesey Street restaurant. The company, which is an exclusively B2B tour operator, offers packages around the world to travel agents and is launching in Ireland next week.
Simon Applebaum (MD of Gold Medal Travel), Karen Fletcher (Head of Trade Partnerships) and Olivia Martin (Trade Partnerships for Ireland), spoke to agents yesterday evening to detail their brand-new offerings. Although part of the Emirates/DNATA group, Gold Medal Travel prides themselves on their expert team that's 400-strong and located across the UK and in their Head Offices in Preston.
"At the heart of it, we're a north-western English business," said Applebaum, "I think sometimes the Emirates Group affiliation makes people think we're part of this big corporate machine, but actually we've been based in the Northwest of England for 50 years and that really comes through when you look at our culture and the sort of personality we have as a business." And they must be doing something right: many of their key leaders have been in the company for decades, including Karen Fletcher who’s celebrating 30 years at the company soon. While many members of their team have met their future spouses, married and had families and their kids are now working within Gold Medal.
"We really wanted to make sure that when we came here that we brought not just what we do in England, Scotland and Wales but actually made something that was really shaped – and fits into – the Irish travel market," said Applebaum speaking to Katie before the event last night. "Karen and our sales director were out earlier in the year talking to agents about where the gaps are and what the opportunities are in the market. There was a lot of encouragement for Gold Medal to come across. We know a lot of agents here have access to the GDS and booking systems, but because of our global scale as part of the Emirates group, we're able to access what we call private fares or fares that agents will be able to get from us that they can't get from anywhere else - across all major airlines that fly out of Dublin, Shannon and Cork. We have exclusive prices we're able to bring and open up for the Irish travel agent market."
The company sells travel around the world. Alongside their flights and hotel packages, their system allows agents to book car-hire, day-tours and attraction tickets that are included in the packages. Known for being a Florida specialist, Gold Medal’s platform hosts everything from expeditions to the Poles to safaris in Kenya to complex, weeks-long itineraries in Australia backed up by expert advice available on-call whenever travel agents may need it. They host 35,000 hotels globally across the sector; from economical options to 5-star hotels.
The company, that operates four other brands across tour operating, cruise and luxury, is bringing the Gold Medal brand to the Irish travel industry first, launching next week with six members of their team coming to visit as many travel agents as they can with brochures and training. With successful participation on the TTR Roadshow a fortnight ago, the brand has already 30 agencies signed up and ready to go and are continuing on to Limerick and Cork today to meet more agents.
Gold Medal Travel will also be present at Travel Centres Conference and the Worldchoice Conference in November, where Olivia will meet agents and answer any questions they might have, she can also provide online demonstrations of the platform to interested agents; while those signed up will also benefit from virtual learnings on destination content, from beginners to experts across the year.
On their website, Gold Medal Travel have curated offers where agents can see their best deals and download window cards, social media content and emails to send to their clients, generated by the quotes created in their contact centre.
“By the end of November, it will be fully bookable so we're just taking a bit of time to make sure all of that is completely localised end-to-end, but in the next few weeks agents will be able to search cost and book on our unique Irish website,” said Applebaum.
Excitingly, Gold Medal Travel are launching an exclusive fam trip to the Maldives next May for five Irish agents - giving them the chance to win a place by making a booking. The company is renowned for their incredible incentives and trips abroad, hosting approximately 42 trips per year for their agents. They also host other reward schemes like Farebank with a variety of bookings qualifying for different amounts from 10 euros to 1,500 euros. Agents can sign up for Farebank during the onboarding process and can choose to pool it together as a team or sign-up individual consultants.
At the end of his interview with Katie on Tuesday, Applebaum spoke to his excitement that Olivia Martin is joining the team: Martin, who was the Winner of Northern Ireland Travel Consultant of the Year 2025, has gone on to pick up Best Worldwide Tour Operator 2026 for Gold Medal at the 34th Northern Ireland Travel Awards just last weekend. The company will also have a team of six dedicated reservation team members for the Irish market based in their HQ.
"From day one we'll have boots on the ground and someone able to support agents," Applebaum said, "because we understand this market, and the trust that's required. It's all about credibility and we're really confident in the service and the quality we deliver."
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