GI Travel and Journey of Enterprises have joined forces. Together, the two companies will offer training and coaching trips aimed at entrepreneurs and teams of organizations. GI Travel, part of Barentszen, is no stranger to the industry. For more than 40 years, the company has been organizing tailor-made group trips, incentives and business events, both at home and abroad. For example, GI Travel has been organizing the ANVR congress for years in a row. Journey of Enterprises (‘JOE’ for short) has been organising and guiding training and coaching trips since 2016. These trips are aimed at both the entrepreneurs themselves and their teams. ‘Not a meeting room with a PowerPoint presentation and a flipchart, but interactive sessions that connect to the environment,’ says the company. Annemieke Stuurman, director of Barentszen/GI Travel, says she is enthusiastic about the collaboration. ‘The travel industry is changing and we are changing with it. It is our mission to inspire and connect people through experiences and perceptions. We see a growing need among our customers to combine ‘business and pleasure’: learning and growth in combination with relaxation and fun. By combining travel with intervision, relationships between them deepen much more. To this end, we were looking for a partner who could fit training and coaching components into a business group trip. We have found that partner in Journey of Enterprises.’ Rogier de Moel, co-founder of JOE, calls the new partnership an important step in focusing on its own expertise. ‘The combination of travelling and development is very strong. Distancing yourself (by literally going on a journey) helps to get into development mode. Participants appreciate our expertise in coaching and training on themes such as personal growth and leadership development. But organizing a group trip is a profession in itself. In terms of implementation, but also in terms of warranties and liability. That is not our expertise, but it must be taken care of down to the last detail. We are therefore very happy with GI Travel as our new travel partner.’ Photo (from left to right): Karin Meier, Sylvia van Loon, Rogier de Moel, Ralph van Dam, Annemieke Stuurman and Kristel van Dam-le Noble.
