Travel Counsellors celebrates King’s Award for Enterprise Winners’ Royal Reception at St. James’s Palace

We were delighted to attend the King's Award for Enterprise winners' royal reception at St James’s Palace, celebrating our latest national business honour and marking another milestone in our journey of innovation and growth.

The royal reception, hosted by His Majesty The King alongside others from the Royal Family, brought together more than 180 recipients of the 2026 King's Awards for Enterprise to recognise the UK's most outstanding businesses. Travel Counsellors was announced as a winner earlier this year, receiving the King's Award for Enterprise in Innovation, which recognises the continued evolution of our model, and our commitment to innovating with purpose.

At the heart of our achievement is our unique people-first culture and collaborative model, which empowers entrepreneurs to build and grow successful travel businesses on their own terms. By enabling our global community to share knowledge, work together and support one another, we help business owners deliver exceptional, highly personalised experiences for their customers.

Now in its 60th year, the King’s Awards for Enterprise are the UK’s most prestigious business awards, with Travel Counsellors one of just 185 organisations nationally to be recognised in 2026. This marks the fourth time we’ve received the honour and the second time in this category, having previously won the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2003, and for International Trade in 2014 and 2020, demonstrating our long-term commitment to innovation, growth and exceptional customer service.

Steve Byrne, our Global CEO, said: "It was a genuine privilege to represent Travel Counsellors at St James’s Palace and celebrate this incredible achievement alongside so many inspiring British businesses.

“This recognition reflects our long-standing commitment to innovation, but above all, it celebrates the people who bring that innovation to life. Our model continues to evolve,

creating new opportunities for travel entrepreneurs to build businesses that work for them – enabling them to collaborate, share knowledge and expertise, and deliver exceptional experiences for their customers, with the freedom, flexibility and support they need to thrive.

“We’re incredibly proud to have now received the UK’s highest business honour on four occasions. This award belongs to our entire global community of Travel Counsellors and support teams, whose care, expertise and unwavering dedication to putting customers first make achievements like this possible. Every day, they create meaningful, personal travel experiences for customers around the world, and I’m deeply grateful to every individual who contributes to making Travel Counsellors what it is today."

We’ve grown our international footprint significantly in recent years and, following our partnership of TTAND in Canada, now support a global community of more than 4,000 travel business owners worldwide across seven countries, including the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, the UAE and North America.

The royal reception at St James’s Palace marked the latest milestone in celebrating the prestigious award, following the official announcement of the winners earlier this year.

Ready to build an award-winning travel business?

Travel Counsellors' latest King's Award for Enterprise reflects our ongoing commitment to innovation, support and empowering travel entrepreneurs to succeed. Discover how our award-winning business model could help you create a flexible, profitable travel business by joining one of our upcoming Discovery events. Book your place today and see what makes Travel Counsellors different.