When you attend a Travel Agent Next Door National Conference, you kind of get the feeling you’re ascending on a big family gathering like you would for the holidays, except it’s in an exotic location with nearly 200 of your closest friends and coworkers.

It’s not any wonder really because when you factor in there are 37 TTAND team members helping about 380 primary agents, it makes about it about one staff member for every ten agents, that one-on-one ratio is the highest in the industry.

“We believe strongly in your success; your success is our success,” TTAND Founder Flemming Friisdahl told the crowd of agents and suppliers at the opening of the conference Monday morning at the Iberostar Playa Mita in Puerto Vallarta. “We reinvest in you, that’s just what we do and what we believe in.”

It shows. Sales are up a whopping 53.7% over last year to date, which, Friisdahl reminds the crowd, is due to the agents. After all, The Travel Agent Next Door does not sell travel, they only support those who do.

To put the numbers in perspective, Friisdahl beamed that if the company ends 2019 with that rate of increase, it would put The Travel Agent Next Door on the books as having Canada’s largest sales volume of any host agency.

“We already give out the highest split at 100% on certain products, so we’re very proud of that and it’s a win-win,” says Friisdahl. “And that’s really what The Travel Agent Next Door is all about.”

The love and support clearly go both ways. Supplier awards were handed out Monday morning, as voted on by the agents, and to much crowd excitement we might add.

The 2018 Supplier Award Winners are:

Most Supportive Tour Operator – Transat

Most Supportive River Cruise – AmaWaterways

Best Overall Approved Supplier – Goway

Most Supportive Land or Guided Tour Partner – Goway

Most Supportive FIT Partner – TravelBrands

Best Overall Preferred Supplier – Transat

Most Supportive Ocean Cruise Partner – Royal Caribbean

Most Supportive Specialty Product Partner – G Adventures

It’s clear Friisdahl runs a successful business, but he is also a big believer in giving back. Pencils for Kids is an organization close to his heart and we listened to an inspiring story from founder Robin Mednick and her husband Ed, (We’ll have more on that later, that’s an entirely different story on its own). The conference is aiming to raise $15,000 for the organization, it’s already raised $34,000 through a raffle, silent auction and donations. The TTAND agents are volunteering on Wednesday to help the community in Puerto Vallarta, something they do at each conference in the city they’re in.

Friisdahl also handed out bracelets to everyone from 4Oceans, an incredible foundation that is ridding our oceans of plastic. A lot of hands went up in the crowd when asked who had heard of them before; this writer hadn’t and was incredibly impressed and encourages you to check out the work they’re doing here.

There’s so much more to come this week at #MoreU – stay tuned!