The first 25 years of Portugal Travel Team
“It all started in 1996 while I was in the shower.”
I was just thinking of how I would set up a DMC of my own if I ever did it, and it all fell into place – offices in the Algarve and Lisbon, Sales reps in our main markets for the MICE segment, a team focused on Meetings and Incentives, another team focused on programmes for Leisure and Golf, all tailor-made.
It worked, we became quite successful and known for the quality of our services, for being demanding with the standards of our suppliers, for our creativity and for our impeccable delivery of the projects.
All this seemed insufficient to me, as putting myself in the clients’ position I could not decide whether PTT was a reliable company financially, or a very well organised one, with good reputation in various markets. And I decided the next steps: the accreditation by the Norm ISO 9001, the submission of our audited accounts to Dun & Bradstreet every year, the increase of our Public Liability insurance policy to 2 million Euros. And it worked.
We had some magnificent years, not just because of the turnover, more about the satisfaction of some fantastic programmes we worked on, such as, for instance, the 2004 European Football Championship in Portugal, what an amazing year. And so many others throughout these years.
And not everything was perfect, we had some difficult years, different crisis affected us as well, and now here we are again facing the worst times that we could never have imagined would ever happen, the Covid crisis! As always, we will resist this one, determined, resilient, focused.
And we have plans, we are starting the accreditation on Sustainability, this is so important for the future of our Industry, as it is for the Planet. It will take nearly a year to be ready and to say to all our clients that we have it, but it will be well worth our time and effort.
So, get ready for the next 25 years, we will continue bringing you our creativity, our consistency, our partnership, our honest approach and, as with so many of you, our friendship.
We thank you for the first 25 years and we rely on you for the next 25.
