ACTA award winner a model of innovation
TED DAVIS
In the spring of 2020, Angela Harrison-Mowbray took a trip. Two-plus years later, she is the winner of the 2022 ACTA Leadership Award for Canada’s Travel Consultant of The Year. During the recent ACTA Travel Industry Summit in Richmond BC, Harrison-Mowbray explained her career journey over the past two years and how that has benefitted her business goals.
In 2020, while most businesses on the planet were scaling back operations or even shutting down, Harrison-Mowbray saw an opportunity to make significant gains for her retail travel venture – Travel Escapes, based in Revelstoke, BC. So she packed her bags and set out on her travels as quickly as possible.
“I left the country the second I could get onto a flight and went straight to Italy for a month as well as a couple of weeks in Greece,” said Harrison-Mowbray. “I did a Celestyal cruise around the Greek islands and explored the Athens area. In Italy I spent a lot of time in Venice, Florence, Rome, Sorrento/Amalfi Coast as well as exploring the eastern less explored side of Abruzzo on the Adriatic.”
Harrison-Mowbray says she focused on the preferred suppliers used by her consortiums. That meant staying at many Marriott hotels, including their Luxury and Autograph collection boutique hotels. “I met with the GMs and sales departments to build a working relationship for my future clients.”
She also found time to take an AmaWaterways cruise on the Rhone in the south of France, “a must-do cruise” that she had not previously experienced. In Italy, she explored the eco-type farms stays, manor houses, villas and castles that comprise the Agritourismo mode of vacationing. And she did cooking classes, wine tastings and winery tours of Chianti Classico.
Throughout her travels during the pandemic, she enjoyed the singular benefits of touring with no crowds or line-ups at attractions. The empty streets were “eerie sometimes, but I will be forever grateful for being able to spend time in the Papal apartments looking at Raphael’s work with six people, having the Colosseum to ourselves, and to wander up to any gallery or museum and go straight in.” The experience of touring through Europe in this way was “once in a millennia,” she said.
The purpose for all these travels was not just to experience premium sightseeing with no crowds, but to greatly increase her knowledge of the attractions, products and accommodations in her preferred destinations. This information would have a direct and positive impact on her travel retailing business.
She explained that her goal is to concentrate on “bespoke journeys” for clients with more acquired tastes, so it was important for her to see what a luxury brand really does offer and what her luxury clients would be expecting.
She has been back to Europe four or five times in two years, with more attention on exploring Italy, as that is a primary focus.
As a result of her efforts, she now has two AmaWaterways group bookings for 2023 that she is hosting herself. She is also hosting a group of 12 with Intrepid Travel to Morocco in November 2023 – the reboot of a trip that had been cancelled in March 2020.
She is also keen to form connections with entrepreneurs who have an interest in developing partnerships from friendships. “I am now fully confident in building unique travel experiences even more than I was able to before,” said Harrison-Mowbray.
