Trade team success, agent integration with Sherpa, and the impact that Travelsphere and Just You continue to make were among sales director Tom Morgan's causes for celebration at WTM 2025
Doubling on-the-road capacity
Travelsphere's on-the-road trade team, which was a team of two last year, now sits at four. More than just sheer people power, though, lies behind the trade sales success that has come with the BDM team's growth.
"One thing for us that has been really nice [about the trade team's capacity boost] is that we have a really nice, personable and easy to work with team. I think, sometimes, that gets undervalued in the trade... the relationships that the team have are so valuable. Obviously, we want to grow and improve, but do so whilst not losing that personal touch that makes selling us really easy for agents."
Beyond the people power, platform power just earned a boost much-requested by trade partners: Travelsphere and Just You's integration into Sherpa. "If you're a travel agent and you work with G Adventures and us, you can manage all the brands through the same booking platform. You can make bookings, hold options, and manage passenger information."
Feedback from homeworking agents, especially regarding contact centre hours, was central to the move towards Sherpa. Tom assured those phone-favouring agents that. "We are not rediverting resources from the contact centre... we are just trying to improve that [online] offering for people."
Empowering communities—and trade partners
The impact Tom, his trade team, and each brand have been able to make is central to Tom's reflection on almost two years with G Touring. "Seeing how we can empower people—whether that is our agents or the communities we travel to—has been, personally, really nice to see, and perhaps something I was a bit oblivious to before I joined. It's actually been so nice to see what difference we can make."
One notable instance of such community impact was Just You's recent tree-planting incentive; at the start of the year, celebrations for the solo tour operator's 25th anniversary planned to see 25,000 trees planted at global projects, including one per booking made by a travel agent.
Just You has already exceeded that target with almost two months of the year remaining; Tom marked that project as "excellent," but also highlighted ambitious plants to grow those roots. "We're at 42 social projects with a total goal of 100. I don't think there is anyone in mainstream touring that is anywhere near that... it's something we're really trying to encourage agents to talk about.
"We're conscious that it's probably not the deciding reason why someone goes away, but we believe it's an important thing to offer to customers and, when they get back, it's often an aspect of their trip that they earmark as one they enjoyed most."
With resources heading in the right direction, fam trip opportunities are set to follow in those footsteps. 2026 will see the return of the more intimate fam trip model, centring around agents' experience in selling escorted touring as introduced last year, but with almost double the opportunities for agents to join in.
"We're going to increase the number of fam trips this year to nearly double 2025's. We're looking to keep them small and personable, making sure those coming along with us can learn and ask the right questions."
Last month, Tom unpacked the opportunities that await for those new to selling escorted touring.
All Travelsphere bookings confirmed by the end of November could see you win a Charlotte Tilbury advent calendar.
Tom spoke to Travel Bulletin at World Travel Market, which took place in London from November 4th to 6th, 2025.
