New York, NY. “We’re in the renaissance of the travel advisor in the distribution channel, driven by the general public,” Travel Leaders Group president John Lovell told a group of trade reporters last week.
TLG’s annual press conference, held this year at the 18-month-old Ritz Carlton Nomad in Manhattan, echoed what many travel advisors already know: Wave Season began early and is cresting strong. Groups are back, corporate is growing, and luxury is blossoming. Artificial intelligence is coming; small groups of like-minded travel advisors are growing. And into 2024, TLG’s biggest new member, InteleTravel, will be fueling—and funding—some of its growth.
Where in the brick-and-mortar past newcomers to the industry started as full-time employees, today they are going the independent contractor route and opening businesses of their own. “Those ICs used to be the pipeline for full-time employees,” Lovell noted—and now the pipeline is gone.
“We’re trying to attract new talent, but we’re getting 10 here and 10 there—and we need hundreds,” he said. So perhaps the most important thing for those looking to hire is to get out the word that being a travel advisor is a great job opportunity.
And here’s the pitch for you to use, Lovell suggested: “What industry can you put your finger on and say it’s going to grow 8%? If you look at the hotels, ships, and river cruise ships being built, you can see it is going to grow 8% –and the travel advisor distribution channel is getting more and more of the market. Royal Caribbean just built a $2 billion ship—now that’s a vote of confidence!—and we sell 30% of their inventory. It’s a great time, and a great moment in time, for us as an industry.”
Travel Leaders Network president Roger Block was quick to agree. “Name a metric and 2023 was outstanding; 2023 was a heck of a year in terms of growth, profitability, business moving upscale, membership—and 2024 is looking as good, if not better.” TLN has signed 300 new travel agency members in the United States and 42 in Canada (for a net gain of 155), projected to sell $635 million worth of travel.
And that’s not including the first 2024 new member, “mega-host agency” Inteletravel, which claimed $800 million in 2023 sales.
Among the biggest growth areas for TLN advisors is luxury, where 2024 sales already are up 19% over 2023. The 328 members of Travel Leaders’ Luxury Leaders Advisor Alliance racked up a total of $450 million in sales last year, averaging $1.37 million each.
Group travel also is on a wave; it “really didn’t come back in 2023, but now people are taking out speculative groups; affinity groups are coming back together; businesses are getting teams together and doing incentive trips,” Lovell said. “We’re really seeing group business come back very strong.”
Travel Leaders programs
One big Travel Leaders initiative has been its by-invitation-only Leaders Alliance program, which brings together communities of travel advisors to share their success stories and concerns at their own events. There are currently four alliances, the Luxury Leaders Alliance (328 members, $450 million in annual luxury sales), Honeymoon & Destination Weddings Leaders Alliance (98 members, $97 million in sales), Technology Leaders Alliance (55 members), and Independent Advisors Networks Leaders Alliance (55 members with 46,500 independent contractors, $2.2 billion in sales).
“Business is really pretty simple,” Block said. “It’s all about how you attract customers, retain them, get them to buy more at higher margins, and control costs. The alliances are about putting like-minded people together to share ideas so they all can benefit.”
One notable switch, he said, has been the growth in the luxury sector as a whole. Where in 2022 luxury specialists were the fourth-largest group of TL members (18%), the percentage grew by almost 50% in one year, and today they are the largest (28%). And there is plenty of business, apparently. Nine out of 10 members (92%) of the Luxury Alliance sell an international trip every month, and 80% sell a luxury hotel every week.
Of course, being a TL agency helps, said chief marketing officer Stephen McGillivray. The Travel Leaders website generated 250,000 leads in 2023, resulting in 63,000 bookings and $46 million in commissions.
Travel Leaders also this year offered a free one-year trial of the travel-advisor-friendly version of ChatGPT, dubbed TobyAI, to a selection of travel advisors. Now it is working with suppliers so they can add their own content to the system “and make TobyAI smarter,” McGillivray said.
There’s also a new free program (for advisors with 1,000 followers or more) through which TL shares posts to advisors’ social media. In beta since August, it already has generated 114 leads, at no cost to the agency.
Also in the works are a B2C cruise booking engine agencies can post on their websites so clients can book their own trips on 19 cruise lines, and a CRM-agnostic API, said TLN CIO Cory Voss.
The Elephant in the Room
Replying to the inevitable question from the press, the group addressed the negative feedback it has received from some members since accepting InteleTravel as a member in February.
“When we look at the growth of InteleTravel, their training progs and support structure, they have done a huge metamorphosis from what they were seven years ago,” Block said. “They are creating successful travel advisors today versus what their reputation was in the past.”
Indeed, the group of executives agreed, InteleTravel is one of the top 25 largest agencies in the country and growing, and is a Top 5 distributor of every travel supplier. (Editor’s note: InteleTravel has said it expected sales of $800 million in 2023.)
“It takes EBITDA to be able to fund technology, staffing, training programs, all the services we provide,” Block said. “You’ve got to be able to provide the services for your customers. And that takes money.”
“The proof is in their sales numbers,” agreed Lovell. “At the end of the day they are selling almost $1 billion worth of travel, so they are doing something right. James (Ferrara) is running a good organization and working with quality providers that support him, and making a difference in the industry.”
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.
One thought on “Finding Staff, InteleTravel, and TobyAI on the Agenda at Travel Leaders Press Conference”
I just left TL for NEST in mid-January (2024).
Everything about NEST is easier (their website/portal is easier to navigate, they offer profit sharing upon achieving a sales goal, their annual agency membership is $100 less [fee waived for agencies with sales production of $500,000+]). Support is constantly available as well as live webinars & training modules.
At first I was leary of changing. But after having the support and access to upper executive management is really awesome. It feels like family.
Regarding InteleTravel — I had an IC leave my agency for InteleTravel. Two months later she contacted me asking if she could come back to my agency. Her reason was no training, no help with questions, no support. Even the “TA” who recruited her was unavailable. And yes, I warmly welcomed her back.
I don’t know if the reasons my IC left has changed for the better, but their reputation as an MLM is still attached to their name. Time will tell if they can shed the stigma.