From Maxine accidentally getting a job in travel after popping into a local agency to tell them all about her family holiday to Malta to the Travelmax team receiving congratulations from the captain on their flight home from the recent TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies ceremony in Manchester, it’s been quite a journey for the Travelmax family.

‘Putting our community on the map’

A week after the agency scored a TTG Top 50 hat-trick, picking up the Tui Community Hero Award before later being crowned Top Travel Agency in Northern Ireland and then the UK and Ireland's No.1, Maxine and Savannah say they’ve been inundated with congratulations and gifts.

“My cheeks are sore from smiling every single day,” says Maxine. “It takes a lot to make me speechless, but we're just completely overwhelmed. We were not expecting this. But it's like everything we do – we like to take it to the max, and we've really taken it to the max this time!”

Savannah adds: “We've had clients coming in just to say, ‘we're so proud of you and what you've done for Ballymena’, and that gets me every time. That’s more than just their thanks for being a good travel agent – they’re thanking us for keeping our community, our local town, on the map.”

(Credit: Travelmax)

Savannah grins when she recounts letting a member of cabin crew on their Air Lingus flight home know about the win. “I wanted to surprise the team and I thought she might just do a little announcement herself, but she was so excited and let the captain know,” explains Savannah.

“She must have looked it all up on Facebook or something because then the captain came over the speaker and he had so much detail – he listed us all by name! It was so lovely.”

Travelmax is already promoting the win, and within an hour of emailing clients, received more than 50 congratulatory responses. The agency has also shared a press release about the win ,and has received coverage from the Belfast Telegraph, News Letter, the local chamber of commerce and other websites.

“This gives people another vote of confidence in us, and with everything that's going on in the world right now, what bigger sign do you need to book with a travel agent, let alone this one, right on your doorstep?” says Savannah.

“We’re hopeful it will bring new people through the doors and they’ll wonder what they’ve been missing out on, although most people think that when they experience our service anyway!”

Maxine adds she was particularly touched by a client who recently came in to pick up her tickets. “She gave me a massive big hug and said, ‘I am so, so proud of you – I don’t know if you’ll remember, but you booked my first holiday when you were only 18-years-old’. That was really special. She, her children and grandchildren all still book with me; we’ve just become part of people’s lives.”

Family formula

I ask that well-worn – but pertinent – question of what Maxine and Savannah think it is that helped the 14-strong Travelmax team, which includes several homeworkers, stand out in the TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies field.

“There's a lot of love in this office, and I think it resonates whenever the clients come in or phone up,” says Maxine thoughtfully. “If you sound happy, positive and genuinely interested in matching that client's requirements with the best possible results – giving maximum service, maximum value, maximum choice – it’s going to set you on your way.”

“Without sounding too cringey, I agree, it's us as people,” adds Savannah. “We're in a very unique position – at least I am – because I've never known any other travel business in my life.”

Credit: Travelmax

Maxine, who launched Travelmax 25 years ago this October, started her travel career aged 17 when local agency Gulliver’s Travels hired her on the spot.

“I was walking past the agency having had my Malta holiday photos developed and I saw there were no customers in so I walked in and said, ‘I'm just back from holidays with my mummy and my brothers – we went to the island of Malta and when we were in to book, none of you had been so if you’ve got five minutes I'd like to tell you bit about it’.

“I gave a presentation with my 36 images and explained quite a lot to them and obviously I left them quite shocked as the next morning we got a phone call asking me to go back in to see them. I thought they were maybe wanting a wee bit more information on Malta, but they offered me a job!”

After three years at that first agency, during which time Maxine completed her British Airways exams, she went on to set up an agency for a local family, before being snapped up by Airbreak Leisure Group’s Next Island brand after she’d sent them some business suggestions.

“I set them up in Northern Ireland basically, and took their small number of seats – which was 2,500 a year because they just had one weekly flight from Belfast to Athens in June, July and August – and within that one year, I sent 16,900 people away.”

Maxine was then approached by Globespan to set its operations up in Northern Ireland, where she worked for almost 10 years, filling a Belfast-Toronto flight every week and becoming general manager for Ireland.

Maxine recalls: “That's when I decided I was going to set up Travelmax. I set up the first online travel business where you could look and book 24/7 in Northern Ireland back in 2001, and we had a retail office as well.”

At that point, Savannah was three and her brother Marcus was six months old. “I used to take Savannah into the Globespan office in a crib – it wasn’t client-facing. She was the best-behaved baby! She’s been in travel training since she was three months old!”

Credit: Travelmax

Savannah continues: “I've grown up in this. I've been subconsciously hearing how to speak to a client and how to deal with hard situations and everything that's thrown at you from when I was a baby.”

Maxine’s husband and one of her sons are also involved in the business, with her two other sons “involved when they really have to be!”, while two other members of Travelmax staff, Claire and Colleen, have been with the brand since they were 16 and attended the TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies ceremony with Maxine and Savannah.

“So our core staff really are like family,” says Savannah. "We are one big unit. We know everything about each other and can tell from a look across the office what each other need.

“I think being so tight-knit does put us in a unique position as when people come through the door they see not only how we interact with them, but how we interact with each other. There’s just such a buzz about the agency and it’s so bright and welcoming. We treat everybody's holiday and booking like it's our own and that really has gone a massively long way for us."

The agency has become something of a hub for the community, the pair add. “We have mothers with newborn babies come in with their prams and we have a private space where they can feed; we often have more than one wheelchair user in at a time too, because we’re accessible. There aren’t many spaces that you can even fit that many people into, let alone make them feel welcome.”

Future gazing

I ask what’s next for Travelmax. “We do have a lot of big plans starting this year – we did anyway because it's our 25th year in business,” explains Savannah. “We've got quite a lot of exciting things coming up, between events and collaborations with bigger brands, and since this [win], that has accelerated – we've been given even more opportunities even in this past week.

“Who knows what the future holds. My whole life, family and friends have said ‘of course the business will go to Savannah one day’. But I really dislike that, because while it may well go to me, I need to work for it. I don't want to own any kind of business that I've just been handed on a plate. I need to find my own feet and make a name for myself. And I think I started to feel that last year, being recognised in the TTG 30 Under 30.”

Maxine chimes in: “I'm a million percent confident that if you were to take the business on it would be a smooth transition because you already finish my sentences… but I don’t know what I'd do with my time because we have such companionship here in the office.

“Even when we go home at night, we're messaging each other at the office for the craic.”