Articles tagged “virtuoso”

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.

Luxury travel advisors can thrive with the help of tech, rather than fear it, according to Matthew Upchurch, CEO of Virtuoso, and Jack Ezon, founder of Embark. Their claim makes intuitive sense.

The travel agent still exists for a reason. Despite having the option, plenty of people don't want to do it on their own, and are happy to get someone else to make plans — even if it costs more.

Hurricane Irma is a monster storm the likes of which the Caribbean and United States haven't seen in a while. While tourism usually rebounds after major storms, we haven't seen an active Atlantic hurricane season like this for nearly a decade and many travel brands will need to think long-term to recover.

A new Virtuoso survey focusing on coveted luxury destinations for fall and the holidays doesn't cover new territory, but some trends are revealed by reading between the lines.

It's only a segment of the U.S. population that has a go-to travel agent for trip planning, although they are more popular in other parts of the world. Virtuoso is trying to equip its members with the smarts to adapt to the evolving traveler, and you have to give Virtuoso credit for that.

Wealthy travelers define luxury in many different ways, based on who they're traveling with and why. However, there is consensus in terms of the growing demand for more human connectedness and meaningful experiences for both adults and children.

It remains to be seen how much of the future of travel booking will be based around mobile messaging and service. But it does seem reasonable to expect a hybrid of traditional personal service and digital do-it-yourself accessibility to appeal to many travelers going forward.

The travel agent of the future is focused on end-to-end customer experience, utilizing technology to forge better relationships with travelers.

Travel agents showed some resiliency in 2015. They need to work on becoming a whole lot more visible, and useful, to consumers in 2016.