Spencer Travel has welcomed personnel from two of its sister Sydney suburban travel agencies to its headquarters at Mascot, as the Virtuoso member trims costs during the current financial crisis.
Staff from Shire Travel in Caringbah and Spencer Travel Southside in Kogarah – both in Sydney’s southern suburbs – are now working from the one location as Spencer Group of Companies rides out the pandemic and overseas travel restrictions.
Penny Spencer, Managing Director of Spencer Group of Companies, said the reason for the relocation of two shopfront offices to its 2.5-year-old expansive digs near Sydney Airport was because the group currently could not afford their expensive regional rents and overheads.
“My strategy is that moving forward, we have to consolidate and survive – part of survival is making sacrifices and unfortunately no longer having shopfronts may be the future,” Spencer told LATTE.
“As we don’t know when international [travel] will return, to have everyone under the one roof and working together as a team and one set of overheads makes sense for coming out of COVID,” Spencer explained.
She said that the agency’s clients have been “supportive and understanding” of the strategy, suggesting the ‘new normal’ for consulting will be for the group’s advisors to meet new and existing customers in-person.
“It will be more about us visiting them, rather than them visiting us – or more over the phone and email.”
Spencer Travel moved from its Sydney CBD address of 20 years to its larger office HQ at Mascot’s Heritage Business Park in May 2018.
