For Immediate Release
August 25, 2016
Contact: Alicia Evanko-Lewis, Senior Vice President of Events, Travel Group, Northstar Travel Group
646-380-6244
aevanko@travelweekly.com
SECAUCUS, NJ - Travel Weekly and TravelAge West celebrate the successful completion of the sold-out fourth-annual Global Travel Marketplace (GTM) event, held August 21-23, 2016 at the Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood/Fort Lauderdale, Florida. GTM is a three-day appointment-only event for top-producing travel advisors and leading travel suppliers seeking to conduct business face-to-face.
"From day one GTM has been about making valuable connections that empower our attendees to succeed together, to forge new relationships and—most importantly—to conduct business,” said Alicia Evanko-Lewis, Senior Vice President of Events, Travel Group, Northstar Travel Group. “One supplier reported closing a $20,000 honeymoon booking less than 24 hours into the event, which illustrates the results driven nature of GTM and the power of in-person connections.”
The 115 travel advisors from North America in attendance were selected from nearly 800 applicants. Advisors engaged with 120 suppliers in more than 6,000 one-on-one pre-scheduled appointments, exclusive Boardroom presentations and networking events.
“I’m positive that GTM will have a great financial impact on my business,” said Jill LaBarre of Jill’s Great Escapes. “I now have the confidence to sell products that I’ve previously shied away from because I didn’t have the proper knowledgebase. That alone will generate additional volume for both myself and the suppliers here supporting us.”
“GTM is incredibly inspiring because of the level of relationship that you can build with the people you’re meeting,” said Alvin Adriano of Travelwise international. There’s a vast amount of suppliers here that I’ve never had any contact with and I’ll be able to use those relationships to bring my business to a level that I never imagined possible.”
For supplier attendees, the return on investment from GTM is instantly noticeable. “I really cannot wait to see the figures for the next six to eight months,” said Joann Bundock of Edible Destinations. “So many advisors at GTM are trying to expand their businesses with unique offerings and that’s where we come in. I can already tell that we are going to take our business forward based on the conversations I’ve been having in the six-minute appointments.” An additional 15 appointments were added to her schedule during breaks and meal functions.
Top producing advisors are always seeking new ideas for their customers and that drives the diversity of the GTM supplier roster. “One hundred percent of the 80 or so advisors that I’ve met with at GTM are interested in our unique product,” said Joti Nalluri of Kakslauttanen Artic Resort in Finland. ”They’re so knowledgeable and experienced that they already know how to fit our unique product into their client’s itineraries.” In fact, one advisor connected Nalluri with a tour operator during GTM for future U.S. distribution.
GTM returns to the Diplomat Resort & Spa July 9-11, 2017. Sister event, GTM West, will be held May 18-20, 2017 at The Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa in Henderson, Nevada. Travel advisor applications open in January 2017. Qualifying travel advisors must have a minimum of $1 million in annual sales for GTM, and $800,000 in annual sales for GTM West, reside in the U.S. or Canada, have a global book of business and provide supplier references. For more information, please visit www.globaltravelmarketplace.com. For supplier inquiries, please contact Emmy Morales at emorales@travelweekly.com or 201-902-1951.
ABOUT TRAVEL WEEKLY:
Travel Weekly is the most influential provider of news, research, opinion and analysis to the North American travel trade marketplace. In addition to a weekly print publication, TravelWeekly.com - updated several times daily - is the most-visited industry website. Travel Weekly is a division of Secaucus, New Jersey-based Northstar Travel Media, the largest business-to-business travel publisher in the world.
ABOUT TRAVELAGE WEST:
For more than 46 years, TravelAge West has been the trusted voice of the travel industry in the Western U.S. With award-winning writing and design, the publication brings the best of travel to life for readers. The magazine's first-hand, on-site reports and fresh destination coverage is a valued resource for travel advisors. TravelAge West is a division of Secaucus, New Jersey-based Northstar Travel Group, the largest travel business-to-business travel publisher in the world.
ABOUT NORTHSTAR TRAVEL GROUP:
Northstar Travel Group is the leading provider of business-to-business news, information, data, transactions and custom content solutions for the travel, meetings and hospitality industries and parent company of brands including Travel Weekly, Travel Weekly China, Travel Weekly Asia, TravelAge West, Business Travel News, Travel Procurement, Phocuswright, Meetings & Conventions, M&C China, Successful Meetings, Meeting News, Incentive, Family Getaways, Explorer, Web in Travel and Inntopia.
Northstar's databases—Travel Weekly's Hotel & Travel Index, Official Cruise Guide, and Meetings Facilities Search—provide in-depth data on hotels, meeting and convention properties, and business travel in the United States and internationally.
Northstar publishes a number of online subscription information resources and workflow solutions including Phocuswright Research, The Beat, travel42, STAR Service Online, Intelliguide Corporate and AudienceInsights.
Northstar produces more than 52 face-to-face events including The Phocuswright Conference, Phocuswright Europe, Phocuswright India, CruiseWorld, CruiseWorld China, Global Travel Marketplace, Global Travel Marketplace West, Mountain Travel Symposium, European Mountain Travel Summit, The Global Incentive Conference, The Meetings Leadership Forum, SMU International, Independent Planners Education Conference, Meetings Destination Summits, The Beat Live, Business Travel Tech Talk, Business Travel Trends & Forecasts, Business Travel Hall of Fame, Innovate, Strategic Meetings Summit, Global Travel Risk Management Summit, Entertainment Travel Summit, the Travel Weekly Leadership Forums, Innovate, the Web in Travel conferences, WITX: Women In Travel, WIT Hospitality, and WITNext.
Northstar is the controlling shareholder in Inntopia, the leading SaaS e-commerce software platform that provides innovative solutions of reservation technology and e-commerce services to destinations, ski resorts, vacation hotels, golf courses, attraction parks, and tour operators as well as lodging, activity, event, and transportation suppliers.
Northstar is the industry leader in marketing solutions, custom content communications, content licensing and database management serving the travel and meetings industries. Northstar Marketing Solutions leverages the proprietary content, databases and expertise of the team to produce unique custom content solutions to our clients.
Based in Secaucus, NJ, the company also has offices in New York, NY; Glen Ellyn, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Winston-Salem, NC; Stowe, VT; and global offices in Singapore, Beijing, and Shanghai.
Northstar Travel Group, LLC is a portfolio company of Wasserstein & Co., a leading private equity investor in the media and communications, consumer products, water and industrial sectors.
www.northstartravelgroup.com
