Phil Hoffman Travel, a multi-award-winning South Australian firm, has 40% bought in 2023 by interstate network
Phil Hoffman (left) and the office of his travel agency at Glenelg, where he started Phil Hoffman Travel in 1990. The agency won the prestigious best retail travel agency title in the 1994 national awards – the first of 12 by 2018.
Australian stock exchange-listed travel network Helloworld bought a 40% stake in multi-award-winning Adelaide-based travel agency Phil Hoffmann Travel from the company’s founder in 2023, intending to take founder Phil Hoffman's remaining 10% over the next three years.
Adelaide school teacher turned travel guru Phil Hoffmann started his family travel business with two staff in Gordon Street, Glenelg, in 1990. Hoffman first cruise travel – something that became his company’s specialty – over seven weeks to Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. He continued teaching but each Christmas led guided tours. When a friend at Stewart Moffat Travel in Adelaide asked him to help headhunt a new manager, Hoffman nominated himself and got the job in 1980. Ten years later, when company was bought out, Phil Hoffmann Travel was founded.
Peter Williams joined Phil Hoffman Travel in 1993 and opened its second branch at Norwood in 1996, before returning to Glenelg in 2003 as a director and later chief executive, Williams’ ability to embrace technology, coupled with offering exclusive products, saw the business lead the market nationally in many destinations.
In 1994, Phil Hoffmann Travel won the prestigious best retail travel agency title in the national awards – the first of 12 by 2018. The business grew to more than 200 staff. It offered innovative additions to clients, including Italian lunches and language classes. Its community included sponsoring more than 50 charities, clubs and associations through fundraising, sponsorship and volunteer work. Covid-19 was the biggest challenge to face the business but it made a swift recovery.
Phil Hoffman Travel became an associate member of the Melbourne-based Helloworld network from 2014. As part of the 2023 deal with Helloworld, chief executive Peter Williams retained his 50% shareholding.
