2009 Virtuoso Symposium Update by Michelle Holmes, General Manager, Travel and Transport Vacations

Saturday, April 25, 2009

The 2009 Virtuoso Symposium is an amazing experience, packed with many educational opportunities and experiences I will never forget! During today's meetings, Rick Meadows, EVP of Holland America Cruise Line talked about their $525,000 million investment in their Signature of Excellence program.  The Veenham is currently in drydock undergoing $40 million in room and deck updates. The Veenham will soon be consistent with their rest of their ships that have undergone the upgrade for the Signature of Excellence program.

New Amsterdam is new and will be sailing in 2010. It will be HAL's 4th Niew Amsterdam ship. HAL has also reduced their deposit amounts and has 25% discounts on pre and post hotel programs.

Peter Bates, President at Strategic Vision, was the moderator for the agency members and vendors as we talked about current leisure travel topics.  It was very much pronounced that the expertise of travel counselors is what clients need today.  The counselors are needed for their expertise and connections in the industry to build dream vacations. And clients need the stability and reliability of trusted counselors/advisors.

There was much discussion between vendors and agencies regarding commissions and services.  Vendors and tourism boards need travel counselors, clients need travel counselors, but commissions will continue to fall.

Social Networking is a hot topic in the industry today. Stats that I received included:
52% of leisure agencies/agents are on Facebook MySpace, etc
15% are on Twitter regularly
14% are on YouTube
10% text clients regularly
52% use other forms of communication to clients.

The afternoon and evening was spent traveling to/from Tobruk, a sheepstation.  The blue mountain scenery  was incredible. The sheepstation proved to be a true outback experience.  We were greeted by horseback riders on the farm.  We had damper - an outback bread made on an open firepit.  The hired hands showed us their skills with boomerangs and whipping techniques.  They also had tiny lambs to hold and their dogs brought in a herd of sheep from the field.  We proceeded to learn more about the life on the sheepstation and had a sheep-shearing demonstration! I had the opportunity to sheer a sheep (with help, of course!)

Travel and Transport Vacations is a proud member of Virtuoso, an exclusive network of upscale vacation travel agencies that encompass less than one percent of travel consultants in the Americas.

Read more updates from the Virtuoso Symposium: April 24 | April 26