“Virtuoso is the network for you if travel is important to you and you want to customize your trip with someone who specializes in you. ‘Self-care’ becomes ‘self-preservation’ for those who recognize the value of travel…at any cost.”
-Misty Belles, Virtuoso’s vice-president of global public relations
Virtuoso Travel Week was in August at the MGM inter-connected Bellagio, Aria and Vdara Casino Hotels, Las Vegas. It was a worldwide, weeklong gathering of travel advisors and providers from across the globe.
Over 4,700 Virtuoso luxury travel advisors, hoteliers, cruise directors, CEO’s and executives and tourism board officials from 97 counties compared notes and booked trips for those who turn to Virtuoso’s travel network for luxury planning and to book custom, exclusive itineraries.
“For one week in Las Vegas, we create a temporary city,” said Jennifer Campbell, Virtuoso Travel’s senior vice president of network products and events. She took the stage in one of Bellagio’s giant ballrooms during Travel Week’s dynamic general opening session.
The session had been drummed into order by a dazzling visual deejay. “The collective strength and harmony of our network is on display here: the new and the next in luxury travel.”
The Voice of Virtuoso
Virtuoso Travel Week’s 2024 theme was “The Voice of Luxury,” with a commitment to building community. Practically speaking, a Virtuoso-created booking through a partner advisor may allow travelers access to suite upgrades; early and late checkouts; tables at otherwise tough-to-book restaurants; and the ability to skip the line at notoriously popular places such as the Sistine Chapel and the Eiffel Tower.
“Trusted relationships and shared growth are the elements that give Virtuoso advisors the influence and access to make these experiences possible,” said Helen McCabe Young, senior vice president of marketing.
Client reviews of Virtuoso Advisors averaged 99.3, according to Virtuoso’s executive vice president David Kolner. Kolner used musical themes ranging from Taylor Swift to Mariah Carey’s Christmas song, during his remarks. The lively, funny fellow, with an open collar, focused on celebrating success and talked about digging deeper into trends and the opportunity ahead.
He surprised the crowd by delivering a portion of his remarks from a front-row seat next to longtime Virtuoso travel advisor Nancy Strong. He playfully brought up the “Swift Lift:” a 139-percent increase in booking night volume during Taylor Swift concerts.
“Taylor Swift is an economic force,” said Strong, who then described even herself as a “Swiftie,” which was very cool.
Speaking of cool, Kolner said data showed destinations with chillier climates, such as Finland, Norway, Iceland and Denmark, were growing in popularity among vacationers who’d sweated out hot summers with suspect air-conditioning in Europe.
“But overall warm destinations still out-book cooler ones by 10-to-1,” he admitted.
Virtuoso’s Upchurch Says A.I. Does Not Care About You or Your Family
While Virtuoso Travel generates data to study, Matthew Upchurch, Virtuoso’s CEO and founder, gave another defense of human connection versus artificial intelligence.
“Virtuoso travel advisors and partners sometimes must battle the commoditization of quality. Some companies suffer from corporate amnesia. Too many finance people think of a travel advisor as an intermediary. But they are part of a smart direct-to-consumer strategy,” said Upchurch.
He allowed that A.I. has its place in helping work with predictable elements of travel planning: it can free up a travel advisor’s ability to then humanize the exceptional. “A thoughtful question, an appreciative inquiry, can illuminate a room or a company.”
In terms of technology, Upchurch then asked the gathered what seemed like a rhetorical question, but was sobering: “What happens when you can’t trust anything you read, see or hear?”
To illustrate his question, Upchurch displayed a Google Pixel commercial for photo editing that showed the ease of completely altering a photograph of a father and son enjoying a beach.
The software changed the weather, the duo’s distance from the surf, and even the height at which the dad was joyfully tossing the boy into the air. “Artificial intelligence is causing a default to distrust. But humans are wired to trust.”
Upchurch, also in an open collar and with a frequent, broad smile, then pointed to the attitudes of millennials as making the simplest, most basic argument for enlisting a travel advisor to plan a trip:
“Millennials feel they can do it themselves…but they don’t want to! And they know they don’t have to!”
When the crowd stopped laughing, Upchurch followed that with another sobering reminder that justified the millennial attitude: “Life energy is not limitless. A return on investment meets return on life.”
Starting With “Why” Again
Next came Virtuoso Opening Session keynote speaker Simon Sinek, a return performer who first hit the Virtuoso stage in 2010 before he struck fame with his business bestseller “Start With Why.” His new book is “Together is Better – a Little Book of Inspiration.”
“I have used Virtuoso Travel advisors before and planning a trip is a different experience when someone cares about you. It’s magical,” Sinek insisted. “Artificial intelligence can answer questions, but AI doesn’t care about making you feel heard.”
Sinek and Upchurch bantered on stage, with Sinek spilling more advice. “Do business with people who believe what you believe and share your values. And don’t confuse humility with weakness. Humility is the ability to consider other people’s ideas. That is what creates partnerships.”
Sinek also pointed out that “good service” does not always mean you get what you want. He then gave an example of an airline customer service representative who, at a passenger’s request, genuinely tried, at every possible level, including contacting a manager, to enact a last-minute flight change. The rep was ultimately unable to implement the request and expressed regret.
“But the customer still loves the airline because they feel a sincere effort was made,” Sinek posited. “Somebody didn’t just refuse the request by saying ‘We can’t do that.’”
A Royal Appearance by Martin Luther King III
The next surprise guest to hit the Virtuoso stage was Professor Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King. He took the stage with his wife Arndrea Waters King.
The Kings created an organization called “Realize the Dream.” “It’s a movement calling for 100 million hours of service by 2029, the 100th anniversary of my father’s birth,” King III, explained. “It’s about making the world better for all of God’s children”
Mrs. King followed up: “When good people come together, the world can change.”
Upchurch, moved and proud, pledged. “Virtuoso will donate 2,000 hours of paid volunteer time for its staff over the next five years,” he revealed, before bringing his family onstage to share in the joy and live band as the Opening General Session concluded.
Virtuoso Travel Week, with its thousands of meetings, caucuses, speeches, coffees, lunches, dinners and parties, including one right on the Las Vegas Raiders’ NFL turf at Allegiant Stadium, began.
Read more of Michael Patrick’s work at The Travel Tattler and contact him at [email protected] Order his book Travel Tattler – Less Than Torrid Tales at https://amzn.to/3Qm9FjN
- Inside Virtuoso Travel Week’s 2024 Global Gathering in Las Vegas - September 10, 2024
- Travel Tattler Spills Secrets and Tells Tales from Las Vegas Virtuoso Travel Week 2024 - August 28, 2024
- A Travel Spree to Six Cities – and One Russian Battleship – in Eight Days - August 26, 2024