PHOTOS: Industry gathers to celebrate Penny Martin’s retirement

Penny Martin’s retirement from The Travel Agent Next Door (TTAND) was acknowledged with one last hurrah on Wednesday (July 31) as friends, family and travel industry pros gathered to celebrate the executive’s achievements.

A surprise retirement party was held for Martin at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel last night, an event that rallied a room full of familiar faces.

Martin joined forces with Flemming Friisdahl, TTAND’s president and founder, in 2014 to help launch what would later become Canada’s largest host agency.

READ MORE: Q&A: “I’m lucky”: Penny Martin on success, “retirement” & life after TTAND

Martin and Friisdahl worked together to design a travel company, from scratch, and build it into a thriving business that, today, is poised to reach half-a-billion dollars in sales.

Martin’s role at TTAND was vice-president of agent experience, but as previously reported, she doesn’t always identify this way.

Working alongside TTAND’s network of more than 1,400 travel advisors, sharing her expertise in training, sales and marketing, she often viewed herself as “vice-president of agent happiness.”

“I always advocate for travel agents, looking at how we can make them better and help solve their problems,” Martin told PAX recently. “It’s the whole culture at TTAND – to keep agents happy and selling.”

You could say Martin is semi-retiring: while she leaves her full-time duties at TTAND (and winds down a more than 40-year-long career in travel), she hopes to pursue all kinds of passion projects, as well as a planned move from Toronto to Atlantic Canada.

Notably, she’s planning on selling travel part-time (as an agent under the TTAND banner), focusing on special-interest trips that incorporate her hobbies, like baking and cooking, and her husband Dan Galbraith’s passion, photography.

She may also take on special assignments for The Travel Agent Next Door on an as-needed basis.

“I’m going to keep my toe in TTAND. Not an entire foot, but a pinky,” she told PAX.

How does she feel about leaving TTAND? “I’m both excited and scared. I get asked about retirement often. It’s more about having a choice in what I’m going to do each day, and how and when I’m going to do it. I’m going to be more flexible. It will be a different pace of life,” she told us.

Martin also shared that travel will always be part of her life in some shape or form.

“Travel is part of my life. Once it’s part of your life, it’s always in your heart. So many of us in the business are friends. It’s a difficult industry to walk away from. So, I’m going to sign my contract as a travel agent. Dan and I will travel – we have a long list of destinations we’d like to visit. We’d also like to organize group trips that involve culinary and baking activities and photography,” she said.

As for working at TTAND, “it has been the greatest experience,” she said.

"I’m so lucky Flemming invited me to do this. We started with no agents or suppliers, but because of the faith people had in us, we grew. And it was a risk. We started with nothing. I remember us sitting around a little table with Flemming, using his iPad as a hotspot, creating programs from scratch. It has been fascinating. It’s hard to leave.”

“I am very happy for Penny"

Martin’s knowledge, resourcefulness, kindness (and smile) will be undoubtedly be missed around TTAND's headquarters, which is now buzzing with new executives to help ease the transition and lay a future path.

As Friisdahl put it at the host agency’s national conference in Jordan this past June: “TTAND wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Penny – certainly not at the level it’s at today.”

“Penny has been by my side from well before we even opened our doors and I could not have built this company without her and she has been a key member of our team and instrumental in our growth,” said Friisdahl when Martin’s departure was first announced last year.

“Many people often would joke that Penny was my work wife and Rhonda was my home wife. I’m not sure who was the lucky one, but without both these ladies, The Travel Agent Next Door would simply not be the company it is.”

“I am very happy for Penny as she moves into this new phase in her life and I will miss my daily interaction with her.”

Congrats, Penny! 

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!  Click here to follow PAX on Facebook.