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Complex trips made simple: Diversity Travel

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A route to safety

How Diversity Travel got a team of NGO staff to safety during the 2021 Myanmar coup d’état — amid widescale flight disruption, limited repatriation options, and a life-threatening situation on the ground.

The Traveler

20+ employees working for a Charity organization in Myanmar — each with a range of different passport and visa requirements.

Book urgent flights to and from multiple destinations

The Complexity

Flight cancellations, COVID entry requirements, visa restrictions, communication on the ground

MEET DIVERSITY TRAVEL

“No two days are the ever the same”. That’s how agents describe working for Diversity Travel. Based in Manchester, UK, the agency specializes in booking journeys for the charity sector and non-government organizations (NGOs) . It also operates a student language travel program. The agency has over 120 agents plus a dedicated out-of-hours team. Its Chair is a former Ugandan refugee, who recognized this specific subsector in travel needs different fares, specialist content, and region-specific offers.

A life or death situation

In February 2021, a military coup erupted in Myanmar. The country’s streets — and even private homes — became highly dangerous as deadly violence and clashes took place. For charities working in the country, the priority was to evacuate all staff on the ground, but this was a monumental, volatile, and high-risk challenge.

Jen Herbert, Head of UK Operations at Diversity Travel, told us “This was a life-or-death situation. People were being shot in the streets”.

Diversity Travel is used to sending aid workers to crisis situations, natural disasters, or geopolitical events. But as Jen  tells us, evacuating an entire office is much rarer, especially under conditions like these where things are constantly changing.

As the coup unfolded, domestic and international flights were cancelled, and only two repatriation flights took place each week. To make things even more complex, the world was still in various stages of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, directly impacting which countries people could flee to. And, since the teams on the ground were from many different places, each traveler had a unique set of rules and needs.

Cool, calm, and collected

When the call for help came, Diversity answered immediately. Agents there are used to staying calm in a crisis — in fact, it’s a quality the business tests for when hiring new recruits.

The team quickly got to work, using Travelport’s real-time content updates on Smartpoint to get the latest flight information. The challenge was amplified by the need for accurate details for passengers, and, once flights were booked, making sure people could actually make it safely to the airport.

Often, the team said, you’d think got someone out and then something changed. But there was no giving up until every single person had been safely evacuated.

It was all about the traveler safety.

Stu Booy, Customer Service Director, Diversity Travel

THE TOOLS for a successful evacuation

You can only admire and applaud the Diversity Travel team. To be responsible for so many people’s wellbeing — and to effectively plot their route to safety — would be nail-biting for even the most experienced of agents.

In a crisis, having fast, reliable, and straightforward tools can make or break your ability to solve the problem at hand. Travelport is so proud to have played a role by powering their flight search.

Heartfelt messages of thanks

What would have happened if this charity hadn’t had a TMC, and relied on booking direct? The reality is that the people in Myanmar would likely have had to go to their respective country’s foreign embassy and camped out there. If, that is, it hadn’t already been evacuated too.

When it comes to complex trips, the value of travel agencies is even clearer. And the reward for the agent is so much more than the average day at work, it’s getting messages like “I just wanted to let you know, I’m home”.

That, Diversity Travel says, is what makes everything worthwhile.

Travelport absolutely helped make it easier to get people out of danger.

Jen Herbert, Head of UK Operations, Diversity Travel

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Private equity firm makes ‘significant investment’ to buy Diversity Travel

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Private equity firm Primary Capital has announced a “significant investment” in Diversity Travel, the international travel management company serving the humanitarian, academic and not-for-profit sectors.

The value of the deal and size of the investment had not been disclosed.

Diversity was founded in 2008 by Harish Sodha, Chris Airey, Matt Truin and Sarah Burrows, and now supports more than 900 clients.

Primary has taken a majority shareholding in Diversity, alongside Harish Sodha, Christopher Airey and other members of the senior management team.

Peter Liney also joins the company as non-executive chair to support management and Primary. He held strategic roles at British Airways before becoming chief executive of STA Travel and, latterly, Great Rail Journeys. He is on the board of several other travel operators and a trustee of English Heritage.

In a statement, Primary said its investment will support Diversity’s management team “as they continue the strong growth momentum the business has enjoyed either side of the Covid pandemic and seek to expand its presence in the US and European markets”.

The statement said Primary has provided “significant equity finance alongside management”, with alternative finance provider ThinCats providing debt facilities to support the buyout.

Back in July, Sky News reported that Diversity Travel was on the verge of being bought by Primary in a deal worth about £40 million.

More : TMC Diversity Travel ‘being bought in £40m deal’

Chris Airey, Diversity chief executive, said: “We are excited to announce this investment and to partner with Primary as we embark on the next chapter of our development.

“We look forward to continuing to support customers and building Diversity into a truly global operator across the markets and geographies we serve.”

Alec Parkinson, partner at Primary, commented: “Diversity provides global travel management services to some of the world’s leading humanitarian and academic organisations with a clear customer-focused service proposition and a strong track record of growth.

“We are thrilled to be working with Chris and the Diversity team to support the company’s next stage of growth through investment in technology, international expansion and service offering development.”

Sodha, founder of Diversity, added: “Primary shares our vision for the business and, with their support, I look forward to seeing Diversity continue to thrive and offer a world-class service to the programmes and clients with whom we work.”

Parkinson, Pete Lyons and David Richard led the investment for Primary, while Michelle Heptinstall, Stephen Gater and Anna O’Neill led the debt funding team at ThinCats.

Heptinstall, business development director at ThinCats, commented: “The deal is a flagship transaction for ThinCats’ North West team and marks the start of a relationship with a highly regarded mid-market sponsor and local business. Our experience in funding high growth, sponsor-backed deals, was critical to us delivering a competitive debt structure within the necessary timescales.”

ThinCats was advised by Pinsent Masons. Diversity was advised by Houlihan Lokey, Addleshaw Goddard and Travel Trade Consultancy. Primary was advised by Clearwater International, Cooley and Evelyn Partners. Alvarez & Marsal, Kroll, Travology, Highwire and Vista provided due diligence services.

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