National Travel Group
National Travel Group
All things travel.
Origin Story / Overview
Introduce yourself.
I'm Maite Newell, Co-founder and General Manager of National Travel Group. I've been in the travel industry since 1997, starting out as a travel advisor after studying Travel and Tourism, and working my way up through corporate travel over the following two decades. Along the way I spent seven years at BCD Travel as a technology executive, rolling out major travel systems across Asia Pacific and taking responsibility for the online booking platforms across 12 markets in the region. I later ran my own digital marketing company, Websalad, for three years, experience that shaped how I think about combining technology, marketing, and customer experience in travel. In January 2020, right before Covid hit, my business partner David Sumich and I acquired a travel business, timing that turned out to be one of the toughest tests we could have asked for. We got the company through the pandemic and came out stronger, and since then we've built it into National Travel Group: a family of three brands — National Travel, National Seniors, and Trade Travel - operating as one unified group. We specialise in mature travellers: designing experiences that let them explore the world with confidence, comfort, and curiosity, while running a business that's genuinely profitable and sustainable for the long term. It's been just over six years since that acquisition, and we're still building.
What inspired this venture?
Travel is genuinely in my blood, both my parents worked in the industry, so I grew up around it from an early age. Beyond that, I was surrounded by entrepreneurs within our family and watching them build Aboitiz and Company with real love and passion, gave me the motivation to eventually go out and do the same.
What do you hope younger family members learn from your story?
What a question. If there's one thing I hope they take away, it's this - it's easy to throw stones from the sidelines when you're not the one actually doing the work. Failure is okay...it means you're actually in the arena, actually progressing, actually learning. What matters is that you start, and that you keep going. Don't give up. At the end of the day, it really does come down to hard work.
How can our family best support your business?
We'd be delighted to look after your travel arrangements. We work with trusted travel partners from cruising to touring across the world, so whatever the trip, we can help make it happen.
Lessons & Advice
What do you wish you'd known earlier?
That it's about progress, not perfection. Early on, I put so much pressure on myself to get everything exactly right before moving forward, the perfect plan, the perfect system, the perfect decision and looking back, that mindset cost me time I didn't need to lose. The businesses that grow aren't the ones that wait until everything is flawless. They're the ones that keep moving, learn as they go, and improve one step at a time. Progress compounds. Perfection just stalls you.
What principle has shaped your success?
My belief that a world better travelled is a wiser and kinder world. I genuinely believe that by helping people travel, I'm helping them understand the differences between cultures, and that makes for a better, more understanding world. For older travelers especially, I believe it's healthy to keep moving, keep exploring, keep educating themselves, you don't need to sit at home and watch the world go by. This principle has worked for me because it gives everything we do a purpose beyond the transaction.
Advice for the next generation.
Make sure you love what you do. If you love it, you'll find the energy to keep going even on the hard days and there will be hard days. Just start, and keep going. Don't wait for the perfect moment or the perfect plan, it's about progress, not perfection.
Image Gallery (click to zoom)
Speed Round
Walk us through a slice of your routine.
First and foremost, I'm a Mom. My day starts at 6am with 30 minutes of exercise, then getting my son organised and ready for school before dropping him at the bus stop. I'm at my desk by 8:30am, starting with an operations huddle before moving into emails and meetings. When I'm working on a key project, I'll block out do-not-disturb time even just an hour or two so I'm making real progress on it rather than just reacting to whatever the day throws at me.
Share a challenge you've overcome.
Oh wow, so many to count. We live in such a volatile world and travel often gets affected by it, but Covid is one I will never forget. I still think I have PTSD from it. My children Josh was in year 1 and Kirra in year 9 at the time, and with lockdowns in place I was home-schooling Josh while running a business that was dealing with cancellations across the board, as no one could travel as our borders were closed. I'd spend the mornings with him for a couple of hours, then turn to work. These were long hours... Getting through it wasn't easy. We had to reduce our staff, and government subsidies helped carry us through that period. We're grateful our clients stayed loyal and when the borders finally opened, it was incredible to see, everyone was itching to get out and see the world again. At the same time, we pivoted. Very funny when I think about this now. This is where the entrepreneurship really came into play. I built an ecommerce site within 24-48 hours and started a business called People Protect, selling PPE, games and puzzles for the home. I was IT, order taker, packer, procurement, you name it. You just do what you need to do. The sales from that business ended up supporting our travel business through the toughest stretch.
Share a small win.
Being recognised in the industry puts a smile on my face. We've been finalists in industry awards in 2023, 2024 and 2025. But the one that was truly special was being a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2023 Women in Travel Awards.
Image Gallery (click to zoom)
Origin Story / Overview
Introduce yourself.
I'm Maite Newell, Co-founder and General Manager of National Travel Group. I've been in the travel industry since 1997, starting out as a travel advisor after studying Travel and Tourism, and working my way up through corporate travel over the following two decades. Along the way I spent seven years at BCD Travel as a technology executive, rolling out major travel systems across Asia Pacific and taking responsibility for the online booking platforms across 12 markets in the region. I later ran my own digital marketing company, Websalad, for three years, experience that shaped how I think about combining technology, marketing, and customer experience in travel. In January 2020, right before Covid hit, my business partner David Sumich and I acquired a travel business, timing that turned out to be one of the toughest tests we could have asked for. We got the company through the pandemic and came out stronger, and since then we've built it into National Travel Group: a family of three brands — National Travel, National Seniors, and Trade Travel - operating as one unified group. We specialise in mature travellers: designing experiences that let them explore the world with confidence, comfort, and curiosity, while running a business that's genuinely profitable and sustainable for the long term. It's been just over six years since that acquisition, and we're still building.
What inspired this venture?
Travel is genuinely in my blood, both my parents worked in the industry, so I grew up around it from an early age. Beyond that, I was surrounded by entrepreneurs within our family and watching them build Aboitiz and Company with real love and passion, gave me the motivation to eventually go out and do the same.
What do you hope younger family members learn from your story?
What a question. If there's one thing I hope they take away, it's this - it's easy to throw stones from the sidelines when you're not the one actually doing the work. Failure is okay...it means you're actually in the arena, actually progressing, actually learning. What matters is that you start, and that you keep going. Don't give up. At the end of the day, it really does come down to hard work.
How can our family best support your business?
We'd be delighted to look after your travel arrangements. We work with trusted travel partners from cruising to touring across the world, so whatever the trip, we can help make it happen.
Speed Round
Walk us through a slice of your routine.
First and foremost, I'm a Mom. My day starts at 6am with 30 minutes of exercise, then getting my son organised and ready for school before dropping him at the bus stop. I'm at my desk by 8:30am, starting with an operations huddle before moving into emails and meetings. When I'm working on a key project, I'll block out do-not-disturb time even just an hour or two so I'm making real progress on it rather than just reacting to whatever the day throws at me.
Share a challenge you've overcome.
Oh wow, so many to count. We live in such a volatile world and travel often gets affected by it, but Covid is one I will never forget. I still think I have PTSD from it. My children Josh was in year 1 and Kirra in year 9 at the time, and with lockdowns in place I was home-schooling Josh while running a business that was dealing with cancellations across the board, as no one could travel as our borders were closed. I'd spend the mornings with him for a couple of hours, then turn to work. These were long hours... Getting through it wasn't easy. We had to reduce our staff, and government subsidies helped carry us through that period. We're grateful our clients stayed loyal and when the borders finally opened, it was incredible to see, everyone was itching to get out and see the world again. At the same time, we pivoted. Very funny when I think about this now. This is where the entrepreneurship really came into play. I built an ecommerce site within 24-48 hours and started a business called People Protect, selling PPE, games and puzzles for the home. I was IT, order taker, packer, procurement, you name it. You just do what you need to do. The sales from that business ended up supporting our travel business through the toughest stretch.
Share a small win.
Being recognised in the industry puts a smile on my face. We've been finalists in industry awards in 2023, 2024 and 2025. But the one that was truly special was being a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2023 Women in Travel Awards.
Lessons & Advice
What do you wish you'd known earlier?
That it's about progress, not perfection. Early on, I put so much pressure on myself to get everything exactly right before moving forward, the perfect plan, the perfect system, the perfect decision and looking back, that mindset cost me time I didn't need to lose. The businesses that grow aren't the ones that wait until everything is flawless. They're the ones that keep moving, learn as they go, and improve one step at a time. Progress compounds. Perfection just stalls you.
What principle has shaped your success?
My belief that a world better travelled is a wiser and kinder world. I genuinely believe that by helping people travel, I'm helping them understand the differences between cultures, and that makes for a better, more understanding world. For older travelers especially, I believe it's healthy to keep moving, keep exploring, keep educating themselves, you don't need to sit at home and watch the world go by. This principle has worked for me because it gives everything we do a purpose beyond the transaction.
Advice for the next generation.
Make sure you love what you do. If you love it, you'll find the energy to keep going even on the hard days and there will be hard days. Just start, and keep going. Don't wait for the perfect moment or the perfect plan, it's about progress, not perfection.
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