Articles tagged “virtuoso”

Travel advisors are finding that kids are playing an increasingly important role in travel planning decisions. They must address the preferences of all family members, including their emotional needs.

Virtuoso Travel Week drew record attendance to the annual event it likens to Fashion Week. While heavily touting the consortium's new Wanderlist travel planning tool, it also emphasized the human touch.

Ultra-wealthy travelers are growing in number, and many are willing to pay for expertise in fulfilling their champagne wishes and caviar dreams. However, serving these clients, especially the newly rich, can put advisors to the test.

The dissolution of the Mexico Tourism Board means that travel advisors and others involved in the selling and marketing of Mexico have lost a major resource. With safety perception issues still dogging Mexico, the timing couldn’t be worse — for the destination and advisors alike.

Following up with clients after a trip is a critical part of the travel-planning process. However, getting clients to truly open up about their experiences takes finesse.

A growing number of travel advisors are offering mystery vacations, created by keeping trip details a secret from clients until the departure date. It puts the surprise element back in travel, which is something often lost these days, but the challenges for advisors are many.

Virtuoso is a you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours kind of business. The luxury travel network has some good programs to help member agencies, and that increases engagement with Virtuoso. It also provides learnings on how to keep refining the company.

Today's luxury agent has to be part travel advisor, part business person, and part life coach. Finding candidates with this trifecta of skills is no easy task. That's why a pair of top luxury agency consortia is tackling the recruitment conundrum through education.

Justyna Smith built up a modest Instagram following, and she's used that, plus word of mouth, to run a four-woman luxury travel agency that's making money. Many businesses decide to market wherever the customers are; in Smith's case, the customers came to her and the business followed.

These travel advisors have a certain swagger about them these days. Their U.S. trade association, the newly named American Society of Travel Advisors, is now back among the living, and has the challenge of keeping things moving in the right direction.