Strictly Business: Travel Counsellors' Eda Ayyildiz

I got into travel… from a young age. I always had a passion for it, because I travelled extensively with my family. I wanted to study travel and hospitality, but decided to study business at university. I then worked for many years in online gaming with my husband and spent 10 years as a stay-at-home mum. As my children got older, I decided to follow my lifelong ambition and set up my own travel business.

I started my business… a decade ago. I was booking my family holidays through Travel Counsellors. One day, my agent asked me if I had ever considered becoming a travel counsellor. I said it was a lifelong ambition, but I didn’t have any travel industry experience. She told me that Travel Counsellors had its own academy where I could be trained by its in-house team. I took the opportunity immediately and have loved every moment so far!

I’ve grown the business… slowly, but surely. Because I didn’t have a travel background, I joined without any clients. I started with friends and family, networking in my local area and sharing a lot of information on social media. My biggest growth came during the pandemic. I kept my Instagram followers updated with all the travel rules, traffic light system and government advice for different countries.

This gained my clients’ trust, so when they were ready to book, they came to me. Using Travel Counsellors’ excellent in-house system, Phenix, I have kept control of my bookings and enquiries, and because of the volume of business, I now work with a team of travel counsellors to keep up with demand.

The area of the business growing the most is… tailor-made, bespoke luxury travel. Working closely with our supplier partners, destination management companies and in-house system, I can create the best personal itineraries. More and more families and couples are looking for enhanced experiences, such as an overnight stay in a Japanese temple or a family-friendly safari adventure in South Africa, and I can do this by using our connections.

The suppliers I have the strongest relationship with are… InsideJapan Tours, Journey Latin America and Canterbury Travel for all my lovely family Lapland holidays.

My proudest career achievement is… when I achieved Gold Travel Counsellor status during the pandemic, which put me in the top 10% of the company.

My biggest industry bugbear is… Airlines charging to pre-book seats when passengers are travelling together – especially for families! I also wish there was more price parity in the industry overall.