On Saturday 7 November 2009, Victoria Travel & www.cruise.co.uk celebrated a very special milestone, the 25th Anniversary of the company. And to mark this occasion a surprise party was organised at the Westmead Hotel, Hopwood for chairman Andrew Gardner and his wife Mary. Over 140 people joined in the celebrations including current staff, past staff, travel partners and cruising friends. The evening was enjoyed by all with good company, food, drinks and musical entertainment!
The company was founded by Andrew Gardner in 1984 and first opened its doors in the August in a small shop premises in Barnt Green, with only Andrew and two other employees. The company was named after Andrew’s daughter Victoria and the aim was to become a successful travel agent selling all kinds of holidays.
The very first booking they did was a cruise on QE2, which came as a surprise, but jolted Andrew into action to research and explore the possibilities of cruising. He decided to go to London and visit all the cruise lines, literally knocking on their doors offering his business. He succeeded and the company started selling cruises.
In 1988 the company expanded and moved to new larger premises on the high street in Barnt Green, now with 8 employees, including Andrew’s wife Mary looking after the accounts and a college leaver looking after bookings.
By 1990 the company was the appointed travel agent for 69 different newspapers and magazines. By 1992 the company had grown such that they started to charter the ships with Fred. Olsen Cruise Line and then went on to become Cunard’s top agent in the UK.
By the end of the 1990’s, as more people started cruising and more travel agents were selling cruises, the company started more direct advertising and tour operating and in 2000 launched their cruise.co.uk website, not really knowing what effect this would have on the company.
Today Victoria Travel/www.cruise.co.uk is the largest online travel agent with 75 staff, having won the award for The Best European Travel Agent in 2008 and then again in 2009. They have also been at the forefront of innovation with their cruise community site at www.cruise.co.uk which has over 110,000 registered users and the market loves their double discounts!
And to now and on Sunday 8 November, Chairman Andrew Gardner and Managing Director Seamus Conlon were invited to the World Travel Awards, where at a glittering awards ceremony in Mayfair, London, the chairman , Andrew was handed the coveted trophy 'World's Leading Cruise Travel Agent for 2009 in what was a pinnacle moment in Cruise.co.uk/Victoria Travel's 25th anniversary year.
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