For many travel businesses across the UK, independence and control over the business they have built is a core necessity. Whether it is all run by one person looking to share their passion for the world, or a business of many providing the support travellers need, having control over your vision and your business is important. “And that’s what a business owner needs,” said Travel Angels Founder, Luan Thornhill, “They need to be able to market how they want, work how they want, work from home when they want, and take time off when they want.” For many PTS members like Travel Angels, this freedom is fundamental and allows them to continue growing a business both they and their travellers are proud of.
Luan Thornhill has been an established travel consultant for nearly 8 years as of 2023. Working as a PTC under the umbrella of Hays Travel, she was working as a self-employed and independent travel specialist without the individual branding that we see today. The unique brand that Luan has established today, Travel Angels, was officially established in August of 2022 after she moved away from Hays and created the brand fondly named by a regular client.
“I wanted my own branding,” Luan said, “Everything was totally self-generated and my own business, it just lacked the branding that established it belongs to me. And that’s where Travel Angels was born. A client named my business many years ago, she’s always called me her travel angel, so I called myself Travel Angels.”
At the core of Travel Angels is Luan’s own passion for exploring different cultures and parts of the world that many people don’t see. She focuses on exciting, adventurous and worldly touring and travel for open-minded travellers looking to explore all the world has to offer with excellent service to match. “Although most of these long-haul destinations tend to get a beach break on at the end,” she said, “Whether you do India and go to Goa or Thailand and have a beach break at the end, it’s the long haul tours I try to focus on like South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, further destinations with different cultures.”
“Our slogan is ‘around the world travel with service that matters’,” she added, discussing the excellent service at the forefront of the business. “We want to sell travel all over and the service be the key thing that people just keep on coming back for. We do everything from all your printed documents (electronic also), we check you in where we can and we offer a full service as a one-stop shop for everything related to the holiday. Service is key to customers coming back to Travel Angels and recommending us.”
The passion and excitement that Luan harbours for adventure travel and long-haul destinations goes all the way back to some of her early work within travel. “I was a Holiday Rep for Thomson (Tui) in my 20s and I went to live and work abroad for them. So, I already have that passion for being overseas. I need to live somewhere where we speak another language with a different culture.
“The purpose of my business and working from home is because I want to work from home overseas and live abroad again. When I set this up 8 years ago, it was always to be able to have a better work/life balance and to be able to work in a different country.”
Following the rebranding of Travel Angels in 2022, the business has begun to take in new team members selling holidays under the brand of Travel Angels. Luan has seen her business hitting its targets since August 2022, with around £300k in sales alone over the course of the past 6 months and a target to double that in the next 6 months to come. After retrieving complete independence and the ability to rebrand her business to fit the travel business she was passionate about, Luan and Travel Angels became a member of Protected Trust Services (PTS) in 2022.
“I don’t feel that I need masses,” Luan said, having joined PTS following a recommendation, “I feel that PTS have me established and has pointed me in the right direction, and allows me to run my business independently.”
Luan wanted Travel Angels to remain an independent business that she had full control over, and at PTS, ensuring our members have complete freedom to create and grow the business they love is at the core of the support we provide. “Something that is a bonus is the contracted suppliers that are already in place, which helped massively,” Luan said and stated that this support was a great foundational part of the support she received. She was able to continue using the suppliers and tour operators that she needed and had pre-existing relationships with, while also taking advantage of the list of partner suppliers PTS provide.
So, if you’d like to learn more about how your consumers’ monies are protected with Protected Trust Services (PTS) and how we support excellent travel businesses, check out our pages. Or you can get in touch with the lovely PTS team by calling 0207 190 9988 or emailing us at ask@protectedtrustservices.com.
