Longford Travel Agency receives major award
The agency was announced as the Worldchoice Agent of the Year 2024
A Longford travel agency is celebrating winning a major national industry award after they were announced as the Worldchoice Agent of the Year 2024.
Kanes Travel were honoured when they received one of the most prestigious and main awards.
The family run business was honoured at a special ceremony, which rewards excellence in the industry.
Kanes Travel was established in 1956 and is the oldest travel agent in the region.
Ann Kane said receiving such a renowned award as they approach 70 years in business is a major boost.
"We have won other awards over the years but this is one that is recognised by all of our peers so it's quite special for us," she said. "It's also coming on the heels of a tough number of years in the travel industry where we have overcome a lot of challenges in terms of Covid and various different things that have happened on the global scale in terms of wars, terrorism events and volcanic ash and other things that travel has been hit by."
Ann believes it is testament to their "resilience, consistency and persistence" that they have managed to win an award such as this, which is based on sales within the travel group.
"It is also based on our service, our sales, our relationships, and our work ethic and our team essentially," she said. "We are a small team but we have been together a long time, over 20 years, and it's very much a team effort with Lorraine (Connolly), Mary (Kane) and myself at front of house in sales and then Caroline (Collum) in accounts."
Kanes Travel was also nominated in the ‘cruising’ category.
Ann stated they have customers of all ages who are more confident booking through an agent and want to save time.
"It's all about human traffic, a lot of it, that there is someone at the end of the phone, it's all about trust and confidence so that your money is secure," she said. "It's all about impartial advice, it's tried and tested, reviews from our customers or our knowledge of resorts and locations so all of those are part of the overall service.”
Ann stated people are spending a lot of money on travel and they want to get it right.
"It's not just an older client base, we have a lot of younger people coming in who just want that security as well," she added.
Kanes Travel, which is one of the sponsors of the 2024 Longford Leader Sports Stars Awards.
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Ann stated they are delighted to be ending the year on a high and customers are already booking for 2025 and 2026.
She said travel vouchers are proving very popular as gifts and they can be purchased on their website kanestravel.ie or in their store.