Universal Travel celebrates 10 years

An awards banquet at the Tropic Breeze Hotel was the vehicle used by Universal Travel to commemorate 10 years of service to customers here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines last Saturday evening. The evening’s arrangements were shared with staff, friends and customers who all made some level of contribution over the 10 years the company has been in operation. {{more}}

The travel agency, headed by local businessman Ken Murray, took the opportunity to give back to its customers for their support. Members of Universal Travel’s staff joined with Murray to hand out special awards to long-standing customers and friends of the business.

Using the awards banquet to commemorate the long-standing achievements of Universal Travel, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism Andreas Wickham was on hand to officially applaud the company on behalf of the Tourism Ministry. Wickham gave the assurance that travel agencies will be be around for a long time to come.

“When we go out to market St. Vincent and the Grenadines we interact with travel agencies … the travel agency is very critical to the development of any country … so I am certain travel agencies would be around for a long time,” the Permanent Secretary said.

Wickham was also full of praises for the contribution made by Universal Travel over the past 10 years: “We recognise its role not only as a partner in tourism, but an authentic Vincentian business contributing to the economy of the country.”

His comments were later supported by Siddique Sylvester, managing director of Astral Travel in Grenada, who reminded his counterparts to be mindful of the changes taking place in the travel industry. Referring to the devastation of his native homeland Grenada as an example, the businessman assured the gathering that out of bad experience, there is still good. “When you sum it up totally, providing you stick to the foundation and remain concrete to the basics, the end result would be much better than expected,” he assured.

The occasion ended with a number of invited guests receiving surprise gift prizes of airline tickets to Miami, New York, London and Jamaica.