Earlier this month I attended the Conde’ Nast Travel Specialist Summit in Las Vegas (mentioned also in my How to Fly Home in a Blizzard post). This unique travel summit is organized annually by Condé Nast Traveler and brings together elite travel specialists from around the world as well as luxury travel operators like DuVine Adventures.
Meeting with Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg from Valerie Wilson Travel
The purpose of the summit is two-fold. One, it is an opportunity for the travel agents and the travel providers to meet one on one to talk about what the providers have to offer and two, for both groups to listen to extremely knowledgeable speakers and panelists talk about what is going on in the industry and the changes that are constantly underway. For those that know me well you are well aware that I love to talk about bicycle tours and adventure travel and of course I love to spread the news about DuVine Adventures and how we have developed our own unique take on what it means to travel in luxury while having an active travel experience, so this event was really a lot of fun for me to attend and participate.
As mentioned there was the opportunity to listen to presentations and talk with other specialists, and I learned a number of new things and was happy to confirm that DuVine is right in the thick of things when it comes to carving out our niche within the travel industry. As one would imagine things like customer service, guest experience and social media where big topics. It was good to see that our own investment in things like tour coordinators that assist in pre and post travel assistance, staff travels that ensure that everyone at DuVine can speak knowledgeably about our destinations and our expansion of social media using blogs, Facebook and Twitter are leading the way as the travel industry grows.
Lunch with Klara Glowczewska (editor in chief of Condé Nast Traveler), Phoebe Weinberg and Kimberly Wilson Wetty
Some of the key items that I took away from this event were as follows:
Guests want companies that are real, simple to say but sometimes hard to achieve. Simply put you need to provide your guests with a comfort level about their trips, which means you need to know what you are talking about, you need to have been to those locations and you need to listen, always listen to what people are telling you about what they want to achieve and experience with the trip that you are planning.Talk pros and cons, it’s easy to talk about how great certain trips are but don’t be afraid to talk about the cons of a trip as well. Not every trip is right for every person. In our case, with adventure travel we rate each trip on its difficulty in terms of the bike riding or the amount of hiking. This makes sure that people know what to expect and really enjoy their trip.Advice, advice, advice. Many of the speakers talked about how important it was to go beyond the basics in helping your guests. At DuVine this has really been a hallmark of how we built the business, in particular our tour coordinator positions, which are designed to help people plan how they are going to get to the start of their trip as well as the things they can do after that trip. Often times a trip is defined just as much by what happens before and after as well as during. The more information that you can provide on things like flights, how to check in (and, in our case… rail travel to and from a destination in Europe) - the better the experience.Following in a similar vein about the benefits of being helpful, I was quite impressed with Wendy Perrin’s “shock and awe’”campaign on social media (and saw many a specialist shaking their heads in realization of what lay in store for them if they wanted to keep in the game). She focused on the importance of having your social media plan already started and utilizing all of the benefits of this medium. If you aren’t already in the game, you will be lost. I can personally attest to the value of social media, and am so happy that we at DuVine have been on it for over two years now. It’s not all about sales, content and being relevant…you need to provide helpful information to your audience. It needn’t be all about money – the most useful currency is now information.
Talking with Terry Mccabe from Altour
Each of these things is really all about connecting with guests and building a long-term relationship. Travel isn’t about a one-time experience it’s about a lifetime of traveling and being a company that people can trust and believe in.
So, in summary, I really enjoyed this year’s summit and I came away with additional respect for the team from Conde’ Nast. The event was very well done and the caliber of people was right up with what we expect from an exclusive event such as this. Oh, and we stayed at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel…which is definitely a place you should check out!
Related articlesHow to fly home in a Blizzard! (duvine.com)Inspired Adventure in Aviemore… Scotland (duvine.com)Video Blog – Welcome to DuVine Adventures 2011! (duvine.com)
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Andy Levine, Andy Levine. Andy Levine said: – a great event for DuVine Adventures http://fb.me/FIgvTLfL [...]
Pingback by Tweets that mention The Conde’ Nast Travel Specialists Summmit | Adventure Travel Blog - DuVine Adventures -- Topsy.com — January 25, 2011 @ 11:53 am
Hello Andy,
That is a fabulous post on what you took away from the Travel Specialists Summit in Las Vegas ! Thanks so much for putting it down in words so wonderfully and it was nice to meet you while I was there.
Comment by Gail Boisclair — January 26, 2011 @ 1:19 pm
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My name is Corbin Fraser. I'm a 20-something guy from the flatlands of Canada. After backpacking the South Pacific for a year & a bit I came home to Canada and found out my journey wasn't over. I began backpacking from coast to coast for 6 months, and have been doing so on and off for the last year and a half. 
