Australia’s largest jewellery industry buying group, Nationwide Jewellers, has been thrilled at the bookings for its next educational trip abroad – a tour of Spain in May.
Participation to date has exceeded expectations, and the trip is close to fully booked. Nationwide hosts overseas trips every two years for members, with journeys to Japan, China, and Egypt proving eventful.
The group planned to travel to Spain in March 2020; however, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, those arrangements were dashed just days before the scheduled departure.
Membership manager Erin Keller said the group was thrilled to see how many members were eager to recommit to the European voyage.
“Since the pandemic, we found that most of our members who had booked the 2020 trip expressed strong interest in still going to Spain, so we made the decision to re-book the trip for 2024 and again tied it in with an Antwerp trip,” she told Jeweller.
“Quite a few members have also incorporated buying diamonds in Antwerp and the Spain tour into the one overseas trip.”
The group hosted a trip to Antwerp in March, taking members to the ‘heart’ of the international diamond trade.
Keller said that while it costs less than $1,000 to participate in the Antwerp leg of the upcoming trip, the associated marketing program delivers expected diamond sales of between $20,000 and $100,000 for most members.
The trip to Spain begins in Madrid and concludes in Barcelona nine days later, with sightseeing opportunities in Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Valencia, and Toledo.
Nationwide currently represents 369 members in Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, accounting for 419 stores.
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