The Advantage Travel Partnership has welcomed Travel Den as a new member as its owner Gilli Knight looks to grow her business. For almost 50 years Advantage has been dedicated to meeting the needs of its diverse membership community by delivering an ever-growing portfolio of products and services to empower business leaders in the travel sector.

Travel Den was born in 2019 after Gilli Knight gave up a successful career in financial services management and decided to turn her passion for travel into a business. Gilli battled through the challenges of the pandemic taking her business through various affiliations until this year when she decided to go out on her own with Travel Den, specialising in bespoke, tailor-made and long-haul luxury.

As a homeworker based in Dorset, Gilli decided to make Travel Den a member of The Advantage Travel Partnership operating under its managed services model (AMS) due to the organisation's bold and ambitious agenda to drive forward, recognising the importance of continuous improvement and adaptation. Gilli also cited the support and marketing opportunities offered by Advantage along with the fact that the organisation does not restrict which suppliers she can work with, and the systems that are in place to create quotes and after-sale documentation as a massive draw for her business.

Advantage Managed Services (AMS), which recently celebrated its 15-year anniversary, is a model originally set up to alleviate the time and resources needed to run the operational side of a travel business and allow more time for members to focus on sales and customer service. The membership has grown significantly since 2009 and today encompasses members right across the UK, that collectively generate in excess of £150m turnover annually.

Gilli Knight, Travel Den owner said: “Travel Den has always been a place of inspiration, challenging my clients to incorporate more into their travel and broaden their experiences.  I love to create bespoke and interesting adventures; to compliment the fly and flop or city break trips throughout the year. With the support of Advantage, my goal is to grow my business and offer homeworking travel advisors a great place to come and work with me. No silly joining or upfront fees, no astronomical monthly costs to pay and a high level of commissions split to reward their hard work, basically creating a space that I would have wanted to have worked in.  From the first call with the Advantage team to discuss what they offered, I felt very much at ease and that they would support me in every way but that ultimately it was my business. I’m really excited for the future of Travel Den and to be working with Advantage.”

Kelly Cookes, Chief Commercial Officer of The Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Travel Den as a member of The Advantage Travel Partnership. Now is a really exciting time to be an Advantage member under AMS, it’s the fastest-growing model for members across the partnership with turnover up 63% versus pre-pandemic and we are so looking forward to supporting Gilli as she looks to grow her business.

“We are continuing to invest heavily in this important part of our business and last year we implemented a new back-office system”. AMS isn’t only market-leading in its own right; members operating within this model also gain automatic access to a varied array of additional benefits which come with being a member of Advantage.”

As our profile has continued to grow in the wake of the pandemic, we continue to make sure we are taking the pulse of the industry and are always working on ways to ensure that Advantage continues to meet the needs of our members, the travel community and the general public.”