Gifted Travel Network Hosts Symposium on Selling Luxury Travel

How do you define luxury?

That was the question of the week for 62 travel advisors and 18 partners during Gifted Travel Network’s (GTN) Symposium: The Business of Selling Luxury Travel event, which took place March 8-13 onboard AmaWaterways’ AmaMora river cruise ship.

Luxury travel is, of course, subjective, and travel advisors and suppliers onboard the river cruise were encouraged to reflect on their own definitions, as well as how these definitions show up in their business models and how they can incorporate them when connecting with clients.

For Meredith Calloway, chief visionary officer for GTN, luxury is having “permission to indulge.” Phillipe Hertzberg, founder and CEO of Secret Journeys, weaves in the art of storytelling to connect to luxury travelers’ emotions. And Jesus Repetto, CEO of Titanium Tours, equates selling luxury travel to “making a Rolex client think they are buying a Philippe Patek.” 

"Luxury is personal," said Vanessa McGovern, chief sales and marketing officer for GTN, during one of the event's educational sessions. "And there's no specific formula for luxury, because when you get into luxury [travel], it's really about listening and meeting the clients where they are at, and understanding what makes them tick. We all value things differently, and we all want different experiences."

Learning About Luxury

This is the second year GTN has hosted its Symposium on the rivers. Last year’s event centered around selling group travel, and featured several of GTN’s top-producing advisors, according to Kristin Matthews, vice president of member experience for GTN. 

But this year, the host agency brought in outside experts in the space, including Dietmar R. Wertanzl, president and CEO of Anglo-Eastern Leisure Management and the former senior vice president of hotel operations for Crystal Cruises; and Richard Lebowitz, senior vice president of travel industry outreach for Forbes Travel Guide (which, as part of a new program, recently endorsed GTN).

“At Gifted Travel Network, we are serious about hosting, and we created this space for advisors who are serious about their businesses,” McGovern said. “This is their livelihood, this is their income. We focus on advisors who are looking to grow their profitability. And what are the two best ways to make money in this industry? Groups and luxury. So, we did groups last year, and we wanted to do luxury this year.”

And it’s certainly a niche worth exploring. During the Symposium’s opening session, McGovern shared recent data from Marriott Luxury Brands that further emphasizes this point: There’s an expected 11.4% growth in demand for luxury travel between 2023-2025, and the market is set to double in size by 2030. There’s a 38% increase in expected global wealth by 2027.

“We tried to incorporate subject matter experts in different things to go on a journey [of learning] as we go on a journey down the river,” Matthews added. “I think that there's a time and a place for everything, but one of the ways that this is so special is that we are sequestered together for five days … and so it lends itself to learning.”

We tried to incorporate subject matter experts in different things to go on a journey [of learning] as we go on a journey down the river.

And GTN is seeing success with this format: Several second-time Symposium attendees reported a jump in year-over-year sales following last year’s group travel event, some by staggering amounts. For example, Sterling Journey’s Lise-Marie Wertanzl experienced 152% growth, Hidden Gem Travel Consulting’s Susan Wilson saw 184% growth, Inspired Compass Journeys’ Jo Gordo had 1,600% growth, and Krista Nannery of Antidote Travel showed a whopping 11,768%.

This year, presentations and panels included sessions that challenged advisors to look at luxury travel under a variety of lenses, including through embracing agility and innovation in business, focusing on the importance of exclusivity and access, and moving the association of the term “luxury” away from “expensive” and toward “quality.” 

The Advantages of In-Destination Learning 

In between sessions, advisors and suppliers had organic networking opportunities during shore excursions that took place in Amsterdam, Gouda and Kinderdijk in the Netherlands, along with Bruges and Ghent in Belgium. GTN member Jessica Brown of SmithBrown Travel recently transitioned to full-time travel advising, graduating from the host agency’s Travel MBA program in 2022. She believes the in-destination component of the event provided extra opportunities for learning that she will apply to her business.

“Before the Symposium last year, I had never been to Europe,” she said. “[Before this year], I had never been to Holland, and I never thought I would see Belgium. Getting to know the location and how I can show up there, how my people show up there, and how I can express that to more Black people who want to travel and don’t know what it’s like — if it’s safe, friendly and if they will be accepted — and seeing that for myself, is really important.”

For Debbie Ellis of Good Life Travel Co., face-to-face, peer-to-peer collaboration is what sets the event apart. (Attendees participated in an two collaboration sessions, where they swapped best practices and sought out solutions to their most pressing pain points.)

“[This format] is appealing because of the destination, but even more with the people connecting,” she said. “Creating collaborations with the partners, and also just making friends. It's a real family."

It embraces the overall GTN philosophy of “a rising tide lifts all ships,” says GTN’s Matthews, who is at the helm of many of the host agency’s educational and mentorship initiatives. She hopes that the community-over-competition mindset of the event provides opportunities for deeper connections between members.

“We are different when it comes to the educational component, from new advisors to our top producers,” she said. “We rely on each other as mentors. So that's how we set up some of this community. I think our programs are really unique in the industry as well, because we do focus so much on professional continuing education, and lifelong learning.”

“What I really want people to know is anything is possible,” McGovern added. “I want everybody here to have their own personal reflection. [With] the GTN host agency model, we don't have a box that we're trying to fit you in. Our mission is for you to be successful. Coming to events like this is just a piece of the puzzle that you're putting together yourself that makes your business successful.”