Agents Of Change

In this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press, Vision Travel’s COO, Brian Robertson talks to executive editor, Bob Mowat about where the leading travel management company is headed, telling him: “Our direction is corporate. Our direction is high-end leisure. Our direction is meetings & incentives and playing in the loyalty space. That’s where we’re going and we’re not restricting our business to bricks and mortar in Canada, we’re looking to expand into the United States and become more North American.”

Montreal editor, Mike Dunbar – just back from IATA’s World Passenger Symposium in Hamburg – reports that even though airlines and their trade association are leading the charge towards a New Distribution Capability, travel agents of all stripes will be turning to the GDSs for technology and connectivity support when adopting the new data transmission standard. That was the surprise finding of a six-nation survey of retailers, underwritten by IATA at the request of the World Travel Agents Association Alliance.

And CTP’s western editor, Ted Davis was in Orlando for the Ensemble Travel Group’s annual international conference and he writes: Developing solutions to meet challenges in the “new world” of travel retailing is enabling Ensemble Travel Group members to prosper, say chief executives of the consortium. They are doing so with a progressive outlook that is taking member agencies beyond traditional business boundaries ….

For the full story from Mowat, Dunbar and Davis check out this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press by clicking here.