When travel industry legend and former TAFE lecturer Phil Hoffmann decided to launch his own travel business in 1990, he had a rather modest plan – to build up five staff and continue to play golf on Wednesday afternoons.
“That was my ambition and something went wrong! I finished up with 10 offices and pre-COVID, we had 230 staff!” Hoffmann laughs.
It has now been 35 years since Hoffmann first opened up his store in Glenelg in Adelaide and now he has decided it is time for retirement. Meanwhile, Managing Director and CEO Peter Williams continues to lead the brand, supported by Michelle Ashcroft, who has stepped into the role of Chief Operations Officer.
During his career, Hoffmann was also the founder of Cruiseco, Chairman of the South Australian Tourism Board and a life member of the Australian Federation of Travel Agents, where he was Director and National President.
In 2013, Hoffmann was named as a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for “significant service to the travel and tourism industry through contributions to professional associations and the development of training standards”.
“I have been fortunate to travel all over the world, connecting with different people and cultures, and experiencing all its beauty, wonder, power and fragility along the way, and now is the time for a new chapter,” he said.
Here, the industry veteran shares with travelBulletin his thoughts on retirement.
Why is now the right time to step back from the business?
I still feel so passionate about the industry and I still have hunger for what we’ve done so far and the future, but after 45 years in two chairs – one running Stewart Moffatt Travel and the other running Phil Hoffmann – it’s probably time to slow up and sit back to smell the roses, as they say.
Also, I still want to travel and take my groups away. I’ve also thought that I’d like to take my grandchildren away. They’re at that stage where if you don’t do it in the next couple of years, they’ll have passed that date of wanting to [travel] with you! My wife and I think it’s a good time – we’ve got our health and we’re fit.
What are you most excited about for the travel industry?
I think we had a great growth stage up until COVID. It was a hard time, but I think we’ve come out of it and we’ve all had a chance to revisit our businesses and look at the things we really want to do.
I think we’re now in a growing-up phase of the industry. We’re saying, “Hang on, we’re professionals, we’ve got good advice, we can’t afford to give it out for nothing, we need to be paid, we need to treat ourselves like dentists and accounts”.
That’s the biggest learning curve coming out of the pandemic. We can’t do work for nothing anymore. If you want to get good professional advice and great itineraries that are well-curated, you need to pay for that.
What advice would you give to agents coming through the industry now?
You’ve got to make sure you keep learning about your industry. You never stop learning because so much happens dynamically all the time. And find your niche markets and concentrate on being the best at them. Don’t try to be all things to all people.
We started doing escorted tours to Canada, Alaska, European river cruising and hosted cruises but we also had a corporate team that looked after our corporate accounts. We had specialist consultants that could curate any FIT itinerary. We had a range of consultants who could cover most areas of the industry, and that was our strength.
What are some of the new challenges agents face these days?
From the moment of digital and the internet, all of a sudden, your client had a lot more information than they ever did in the past, whereas you used to control the information flow and that’s no longer the case.
You have to be really on your toes the whole time and keep up with whatever’s happening in the industry. We [used to] control the brochure and information and now we don’t. [Consumers] have got as much as we have in some cases, but they don’t have the technical knowledge, ability and sheer experience that we have. [They are] paying for the knowledge that you have built up over all of those years.
As an industry legend, you have been in business through plenty of challenges, from the GFC and 9/11 to COVID. What have you learnt from navigating your business through those big world crises?
The biggest message that I kept saying to our staff was you have to keep marching through it and talking to your public about what’s happened: “We’re still here, people are still travelling”. We’ve got to be out there talking to our public, marketing, advertising and not hiding under a rock just because something’s happened. The world goes on and it continues and we have to be very positive in this industry.
When we had the start of the Russian-Ukraine war, people were nervous and thinking they wouldn’t go to any of those countries while river cruising. That lasted for a period of time and now [river cruising] is at an all-time high. It hasn’t stopped people going to countries adjacent to those countries.
The Middle East will settle down, but there’s always something happening somewhere that can deter a traveller. I took a group to Egypt and Jordan three weeks after the Hamas attacks and people said you shouldn’t go…but we went and you wouldn’t have known anything was happening. I was sitting on the edge of the Dead Sea on the Jordanian side, looking at Jerusalem 35 kilometres away.
I’m not saying it wasn’t frightening for people in those places…[but] I think we’re in an industry where you need to show bravery – not stupid bravery – but bravery that life goes on and travel goes on.
What consumer behaviours are you interested in?
We’ve seen a lot of people come back to agencies after the pandemic because they really want a professional to handle their arrangements. When flights get cancelled or things happen, they want to know there’s someone who can help. We’ve seen an increased number [come to us] who were online travellers [but now] they want back-up – we provide that 24/7 back-up so that if anything happens, we’re here for them.
A lot of people right from the start said to us, “You guys will be out of business with online”. But we’ve seen the opposite – we keep growing year after year. You just need to have well-trained staff [who are] passionate about travel, building their clientele and giving that service. My motto has always been: “A client for life, not just for one trip”.
We’ve always tried to concentrate on the higher end of the business. You’re doing complicated itineraries, big destinations – you’re not doing a Singapore or Bali booking, you’re doing a six-week Europe trip, staying in igloos in Lapland or going to Antarctica. It’s a sophisticated product, that’s why we’re seeing so much growth with the Boomers. They’re spending now because they’re making up for lost time [after COVID]. They want good, big trips and they’re doing more than ever before.
What is some of the best business advice you could offer others?
Don’t get paralysis. When something happens, get back on the horse or the bike and ride again.
Always be in charge of the budget that you live by.
Keep reading about your industry and learning from other people that are better than you.
Business is no different to sport. You’ve gotta train and play hard and you can have a lot of fun, but you need to put the effort in.
The biggest thing is being passionate about your business and the client sitting in front of you and delivering the dream for them.
