The Global Travel Marketplace was held at The Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Florida.
Travel advisors and suppliers from all over the world come together for this event. The gathering of over 300 industry professionals was described as the best event ever.
To be eligible to attend travel advisors must have annual sales of $1 million or more and be an owner of a multi-million dollar agency.
There are two days of one-on-one appointments where suppliers come to the travel advisor's table for six minutes. The goal is for both parties to get to the point where they can help each other grow their businesses.
Suppliers host board room presentations where they get 30 minutes to showcase their brand and answer any questions from advisers.
"For a decade we have seen instant return on investment for our participating suppliers and advisors, and once again this year, business was booked on-site during our more than 7,000 face-to-face appointments." Gtm is a group of professionals who meet with professionals and move their businesses forward. Our industry is currently experiencing a travel boom, and we are so happy to be celebrating this milestone.
To break the ice and get the attendees to meet new people, everyone was given half a photo and asked to find their match. The game brought people together in a fun way.
Attendees were hustling to find their match before time ran out because of the incentive to win a case of wine from Australia by finding your match and posting a photo to social media.
In the travel industry, relationships are very important.
Advisors and suppliers are aware of the importance of coming together.
It's great, whether it's networking with my peers, which I love, or the relationships you build with some of the suppliers, it's great. It's nice to get to know the suppliers that you've already met. There's more than one level, it's the networking and relationship building.
Michael Gelber is the CEO of IWorld of Travel.
One of the things my father taught me was that you want to have relationships first and then do business second, and I think that's the greatest value of what you get here. You meet people that you would like to have a relationship with. It's about good business and good relationships when you're friends with someone. It's not about selling the most, being the most, or being the biggest, it's about doing the right thing and not being focused on you. It's very gratifying.
Both advisors and suppliers can reach new heights with the one-on-one appointments and the board meetings.
Shannon Kittner is the proprietor of Main Street and Beyond Travel Company. The Disney World was promoted by me. Now that the rest of the world is open, I am excited to work with all of the clients I have built over the last couple of years to promote all of the amazing destinations and suppliers that I am learning about. All of the knowledge I'm learning has been amazing.
This event inspired Monday Evans, owner of Such a Time as This, a Travel Agency, and a member of the Gtm Advisory Board, to grow from selling only one type of travel to now selling the world.
Evans said that it was the best event he had seen. It provides everything that I need to grow my business and it has just been the catalyst for change in my business because of it. I changed my business name because I wanted to be here, right now.
Evans claimed that 80% of her business was selling Disney. Evans said Disney is just under 40% of her business after re- branding her agency. Evans said that he is selling more Disney now than before.
She launched her own host agency, the Pickles Travel Network, just two months after taking her business.
She said that attending Gtm will benefit her new endeavor into owning a host agency. Half of the people I have spoken to so far will do live trainings with us. It will help with the relationships between the suppliers and the agents of the network. I am excited to work with these people. I have found some suppliers that we will work with for a long time.
Suppliers who sponsor a board of directors can dive deeper with their advisers on what they have to offer.
It gives you the chance to go more in-depth on your policies. It's great to have more time than just one-on-one, since everything has changed since the Pandemic. The agents have done a good job.
Having her peers with her helped lead to a better environment for everyone.
The presentations in the board room were very good. It's great that you're getting different perspectives from the agents in the room on the same presentation because sometimes they think of questions that I may not have thought of. A lot of the advisors in the room have experience with the suppliers so they're giving their feedback and saying, "yes work with this supplier they're awesome, I've had a great experience."
Visit Lauderdale sponsors the welcome reception. Across the street, it was hosted at thediplomat landing.
There was a gorgeous outdoor setting for the weekend.
The breakfast was sponsored by Virgin Voyages and ended with children crashing the presentation to protest the fact they can't sail on the exclusive to adults cruise line.
Too funny. Kids interrupt the @VirginVoyages presentation this morning at Global Travel Marketplace to protest that they can't sail on the exclusively adults brand cruise ships. #gtmelite pic.twitter.com/gGv0l3eIiV
— Eric Bowman (@EricBowman_) July 29, 2022
The presentation on the new Seabourn Venture ship was part of the lunch sponsored by Seabourn. The video of the first purpose-built ultra-luxury expedition ship left the advisers amazed and many continued talking about it through the weekend.
Princess Cruisessponsored the reception on Friday. The team at Princess Cruises put on a great party.
T-shirt tosses from the stage to the dining room were part of the breakfast sponsored by Tourism New Zealand and Air New Zealand.
One lucky advisor won a trip to Anchorage, Alaska, after lunch on Saturday, thanks to Visit Anchorage and the Alaska Railroad.
The Gtm will be held at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Florida. Click here if you would like to learn more about the event.
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