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Manchester, United Kingdom — 22-25 September 2009

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Meet our newest member: Welcome To Travel

Apr 23, 2018

Interview with Adam Ogle, Co-Founder/Director

Tell us your story. How did Welcome To Travel organisation get started?

 Darryl and I (co-founder) have known each other 20 years and this project is really the result of things we’ve taken from both travelling and working in Australia over the last 7/8 years.

We came here as backpackers, worked our way up the food chain at Peterpans and that excellent experience at the top level of a company makes you eager for more.

We wanted to do something ourselves, still work in this industry, but ultimately offer something a bit different too, so Welcome to Travel was born.

Last year we discussed a few projects and strangely we’d actually both had the same idea and this one gave us a buzz. Because of that we both worked extremely pretty quickly to get it together meaning it went from an idea at the beginning of 2017 to us running our first tours in January 2018.

 What makes Welcome To Travel different from your competitors?

 We are the customers. Everything our customer is experiencing while planning their trip to Australia, and while being in Australia, we’ve experienced it too. We’ve worried about things before coming, we’ve done farm-work, we’ve decided to move to a City after it and we’ve travelled the place too.

The product mixes must do bucket list items with destinations and experiences known only by locals, so we really do have a kind of backpacker perspective with some handy insider knowledge.

We aim to have no filler days but to offer some kind of wow factor to every single day, and we don’t think anyone else does that.

What is your favourite success story from your organisation?  

Seeing people nervous at the start of their adventure and watching them blossom throughout the week, ending as confident and competent young travellers with a new network of friends for life.

That flourishing of a person and enabling them to get the most from Melbourne and Australia is the biggest satisfaction and I guess that makes the concept and the itinerary the biggest success.

We are also extremely proud of the promo video we put together which showcases Melbourne and Victoria excellently. The feedback on it was incredible and that whole situation was pretty humbling.

We’re also proud of being Z-List Backpacking Celebrities for a week when this video went viral.

 What can we expect to see from Welcome To Travel in the future?

 We are always looking to learn and improve the company and ourselves. We’re new to the game as operators and perfecting our products as we develop is our number one focus right now.

How do you work to ensure the health and safety of young travellers involved with Welcome To Travel?

We cover it in a few ways. All staff are fully first-aid trained, we request all participants inform us of health conditions prior to travel and we ensure ALL travellers have travel insurance.

It’s a trip that you can feel extremely safe on.

What was your motivation to join WYSE Travel Confederation?

You can never network enough and you can always learn from other people. WYSE provides the platform for this so it seemed an obvious move for us.

Have you attended a WYSE Travel Confederation event? (World Youth and Student Travel Conference, STAY WYSE, WYSE Exchange Australia, WETM-IAC) If so, what was your experience with the event?

Not yet but we will be at the WYSE Exchange in Sydney, and we can’t wait!

 What is an industry challenge your organisation is facing at this time?

 It’s a global multi-industry challenge, there’s not enough time in the day.

Member snapshot

Welcome To Travel is a start-up that currently offers Australia’s most unique and inclusive arrival package, Welcome To Travel: Melbourne. We operate a bespoke 8 day itinerary that will tick off all the must dos and didn’t know you could dos, giving everyone a true Melbourne experience.

For more information, visit their website: www.welcometo.travel

Membership: WYSE Travel Confederation Starter Member

Join WYSE Travel Confederation

If you’d like to join WYSE Travel Confederation and benefit from new connections, free access to industry research, informative webinar sessions, discounts on industry events and brand exposure within the youth and student travel industry, click below to view our membership options and find out more.