Those outside the travel industry who think travel agents are "dead" in
a world that is supposedly dominated by online travel companies should
spend a Thursday night in August at The Bank at Bellagio in Las Vegas.
During Virtuoso Travel Week, the annual meeting of the
Virtuoso luxury travel network, which just celebrated its 25
th
year, it’s become a tradition after a week of heavy meetings and
appointments for Virtuoso travel advisors and suppliers to gather on
Thursday after the closing gala dinner at The Bank nightclub to blow off
a little steam. And do they ever blow off steam!
The Bank is transformed into "Club V” (Club Virtuoso) with literally a
thousand or more people packed onto the dance floor. And many of them
are surprisingly young given the usual demographic at many travel agent
events. One of the highlights of the evening, however, is when Virtuoso
CEO Matthew Upchurch gets up on a raised platform to dance with Valerie
Wilson, a veteran Virtuoso member and owner of Valerie Wilson Travel in
New York. Upchurch himself then leads the festivities into the wee hours
of the night.
This year's Virtuoso Travel Week attracted more than 4,200
participants, including travel advisors, suppliers, media and other
guests (compared to roughly 3,800 last year). What's more important is
that 2,000 travel advisors attended, more than the number of suppliers
registered.
Last year Virtuoso changed the branding of its annual domestic
conference from Virtuoso Travel Mart as it tried to put more of a
consumer face on its activities in Vegas every August. The idea was to
create a "happening" like Fashion Week that will eventually be
recognized by consumer media and the outside world.
Last year I wrote that Virtuoso Travel Week was still a "work in
progress," which perhaps wasn't surprising given that it was the first
year with the new name and focus. This year roughly 15 consumer media
attended the event, so Virtuoso is continuing to build up its consumer
face. I'm just waiting for the day when the Bellagio fountain is lined
with TV cameras and crews eagerly awaiting news of the latest and most
innovative luxury travel products.
Nevertheless, Virtuoso's giant event this year truly emerged as a real
phenomenon, largely because it just keeps growing and getting busier
year over year. Virtuoso Travel Week is now the largest convention
hosted by Bellagio and the property makes a special effort to ensure
that its entire staff is on duty and ready to serve its Virtuoso guests.
Indeed, Virtuoso even released a video made by Bellagio showing just
how much preparation the resort puts into the event.
Last week Virtuoso Travel Week had not one but three keynote speakers
at its opening general session. In addition to Upchurch, the session
featured Simon Sinek, author of “Start with Why,” who first spoke to
Virtuoso in 2010; Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D, Age Wave president and CEO, who
spoke in 2006; and Lee Brower of Empowered Wealth, LLC, who for more
than 12 years has also served as an entrepreneurial coach for Strategic
Coach Inc.
Last year Virtuoso hosted its first celebrity guest, Francis Ford
Coppola, who regaled Virtuoso attendees with stories of his Godfather
movies, but also happened to be a preferred supplier who owns luxury
resorts in Belize. This year Virtuoso featured magician David
Copperfield, who is also effectively a Virtuoso preferred supplier as
well as owner of Musha Cay, the exclusive island resort in the Bahamas.
Not to disappoint the crowd, Copperfield also performed one of his
signature illusions on stage.
But the real heart of Virtuoso Travel Week remains its famed (some say
infamous) four-minute meetings, where every Virtuoso travel advisor can
meet virtually every Virtuoso preferred suppliers. Each travel advisor
and preferred supplier is scheduled for roughly 98 meetings per day for
four days. This "speed dating" has been a major part of Virtuoso Travel
Week since its inception, but now it has spilled over to encompass every
ballroom in the Bellagio and many of the hallways in the convention
center.
Row upon row of tables and chairs line every room and time clock
countdowns on the individual meetings are projected on giant screens on
the walls, as sharp tones indicate when meetings are about to come to an
end. It certainly is speed dating, though it often reminded me of a
giant bingo game, where the prize is matching a travel product to the
right customer through a Virtuoso travel advisor.
I sat in on an hour's worth of meetings, as I have in the past, and I
continue to be amazed about the process. The goal, however, is to build
relationships, however brief, which can result in connections over time,
so Virtuoso travel advisors can work more intimately with resorts,
destination companies, tour operators, cruise lines and other top
suppliers.
At just a little under 4,000 rooms and suites, the Bellagio can no
longer hold every Virtuoso attendee, so the conference has now spilled
over to the adjacent Vdara and Aria. Indeed, Upchurch told me he
believes at some point Virtuoso Travel Week will take up a good part of
the "campus" that links the Bellagio and City Center resorts.
And what of the annual tradition at The Bank? Well, I wouldn't be
surprised if next year Upchurch and Wilson will have to repeat their
dance performance at Hyde, Bellagio's other big nightclub, as well as
The Bank. In the end, the message is this: Travel agents are vibrant,
alive and dancing the night away at Bellagio!
James Shillinglaw is editor in chief and editorial director of travAlliancemedia, which publishes TravelPulse.com, Agent@Home magazine and Vacation Agent magazine.
