Gold Medal and Travel 2 are to launch their biggest ever turn-of-year campaign, off the back of an “amazing” year.

The campaign will launch between Christmas and New Year and represents an investment of £1.2 million across the two brands.

Incentives will include 28 different prizes with Travel 2, ranging from handbags and cash to holidays to South Africa and New Zealand, while Gold Medal will offer a holiday each week for eight weeks, plus places on a Queensland/Qantas fam trip.

A separate Pure Luxury incentive to celebrate its latest brochure, released last week, will offer agents the chance to win a luxury twin- centre holiday worth £10,000.

“Collectively this is our biggest turn-of-year campaign ever, and in January and February, there won’t be a week that goes by when our brands aren’t front of mind,” said Gordon McCreadie, director of sales and marketing, Gold Medal and Travel 2.

New selling guides about its different brands, and peaks survival kits containing tea, biscuits, notepads and nail files, will also be distributed during those months.

McCreadie said the year had gone “amazingly well” for the group, with 15% growth in revenue across the two brands. He attributed this to account managers having smaller regions to cover since the team was restructured, allowing more meaningful meetings with agents, plus a boost in high-end sales through Pure Luxury and Simply Luxury.

“It’s been a year of transition for us since we joined the two brands together so we’re delighted to have also had that growth,” he said.

“We have brought the sales teams together, but we still have no plans to drop one of the brands. We’ve said we will relook at it at the end of 2018, but right now it’s business as usual," he insisted.

June’s referendum result slightly softened business for a short period, he admitted, but he said that business had more than come back now that consumers had “taken stock of what it means for them”.

However, sales of all-inclusive hotels have rocketed by 32% this year across the brands, alongside a boost in inclusive touring, which McCreadie attributed to consumers’ desire to budget more effectively and ensure value.

Regions performing particularly well include Asia, with Vietnam up 32% for Travel 2 and 15% for Gold Medal this year, and Japan, up 30% and 12% respectively.

Across the two brands, the Indian Ocean is up by a third, year-on-year, while the Middle East is up 31% and the Caribbean 27%.

Growth in flight sales of more than a fifth compared with last year has been driven by regional departures, McCreadie revealed, with flights out of Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle up 60%, 30% and 15% respectively.

Luxury has also seen a boost this year, with sales of first-class air tickets up 32%.

“Ultimately, [Simply Luxury and Pure Luxury] compete in the same market, but agents have massively bought into one or the other, and both brands are doing exceptionally well,” said McCreadie.

The combined buying power of the two brands, as part of the emirati- owned dnata group, has also been felt this year, he added.

“Between Gold Medal and Travel 2, we have a turnover of just over £500 million, which gives us real clout. [Airlines, tourist boards and tour operators] are coming to us now to work with us; they know we will return on their investment and will deliver.”

He promised a new website for Gold Medal in spring/summer 2017, but insisted it would not simply replicate the relaunched Travel 2 website.

The brands are also committing to offering 20% more fam trip places in 2017. “We took 480 agents this year to experience our destinations but next year we will significantly grow that,” he promised.

“We will make these fam trips ‘the one’ that agents want to be on, where they can experience it like a customer and come back armed with all the information and tips that make the agent look good.”

Gold Medal and Travel 2 recognised 47 top-performing agents and agencies at the annual agent awards – combining both brands for the first time – held at Trump Turnberry in Scotland last week.