Prestigious award from AVIS offers agents a career boost

Avis is calling on every Australian consultant committed to quality customer service to now apply for the 2007 Travel Agent Scholarship of Excellence, valued this year at more than $25,000.

To register for the annual scholarship agents need only visit www.avisscholarship.com to enter their name and contact details before June 29.

Now in its 11th year, the scholarship offers travel agents the opportunity to further their careers and with the accolades of their peers.

Winners travel overseas to meet senior industry executives and share experiences with retail colleagues. They also benefit from the advice of a professional business coach, and mix with retail leaders while holding an honorary position on the Avis Travel Agents Advisory Board.

This year’s scholarship offers the winner:

• Two business class return tickets to New York

• Six nights’ accommodation

• Seven days’ car rental

• $1,000 worth of foreign exchange products from American Express

• Personal business coaching from Polonious Resources

• Two years’ membership in the Australian Travel Professionals Program (ATPP)

During their time in New York the winner will meet travel agents in the New York area, as well as senior executives at Avis World Headquarters.

Registration for the 2007 scholarship closes on June 29, and members of the Avis Travel Agents Advisory Board determine the winner over a two-stage process.

Agents must first submit a brief written document providing evidence of their commitment to excellent customer service. Finalists are then flown to Sydney on October 16 to personally present to members of the Avis Travel Agents Advisory Board.

The 2007 winner will be announced that evening at the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney. All finalists will stay the night at the five-star hotel and take home an Avis weekend car hire and a $50 American Express Foreign Exchange voucher.

Previous winners of the scholarship have come from across Australia and offered vastly different levels of experience – from owner/managers to young consultants – but all have benefited from the experience.

Gary Seignior, who won the scholarship in 2001 while a consultant with Reho Travel, Melbourne, said the achievement gave him the motivation he needed to buy his own agency. “To be given the nod from the Avis Travel Agents Advisory Board, which is made up of well-respected industry people, obviously meant I was doing something right,” Seignior said. “The scholarship gave me the confidence to trust my own judgement.”

Avis Travel Industry Manager Russell Butler, said initiatives such as the Scholarship of Excellence were vital if the travel industry was to retain and nurture top quality travel retailers.

A report by The Mole