Virtuoso Travel Week, which took place last week in Las Vegas’ Bellagio Resort & Casino, ARIA Resort & Casino and Vdara Hotel & Casino, proved to be a resounding success for Virtuoso, with a 6 percent growth in attendance—6,071 travel professionals from 100 countries met for one-on-one meetings. So what’s in store for 2019 for this ever-growing consortium? Well, they’ve got a few things that will enhance advisor productivity and profitability in the coming months and year, including the much-hyped, but still under wraps Virtuoso Orchestrator.
- Virtuoso Orchestrator, which will debut in 2019, helps advisors and clients create a long-term bucket list of journeys together. It’s currently being tested by a group of 22 advisors working with 500 clients.
- Two new communities will debut in 2019—Virtuoso Culinary Travel & Virtuoso Ultraluxe Travel. That will make for six communities that also include Adventure, Family, Wellness and Virtuoso Voyages. What are the benefits? Training and new regional networking opportunities; marketing tools; community filters for advisors and products; quarterly educational e-mails; communication forum; and advisor information pages, among other benefits. Virtuoso Community advisors collectively sold 72 percent more in Community partner product than all other advisors this past year.
- The Virtuoso Travel Academy has been revamped, offering an easy-to-navigate visual experience, curated recommendations; and improved training search experience, among other new tools.
- Virtuoso has new custom private-label sites and hosted website solutions, displaying Virtuoso content branded with the advisor or agency’s identity (mobile friendly, too).
- Two new partnerships with ABC Global Services and Booking.com will help Virtuoso advisors maximize non-preferred bookings. The ABC Global Services is launching with 340 participating four-star, global properties, approved by Virtuoso, and client benefits include breakfast, WiFi, and $25 credit with no minimum stay.
- Virtuoso announces new MyMarketing platform, rolling out in the second half of 2018. It’s a comprehensive marketing platform that centralizes marketing communications to provide deeper insights into the success of campaigns and improve efficiencies.
- The 2019 Virtuoso U.S. & Canada Forum—designed for agency owner and manager staff—will take place in Austin, TX at The Fairmont Austin Jan. 24-26.
- The 2019 Virtuoso Symposium, designed for agency owner and manager staff, will take place May 5-11 in Melbourne at Crown Towers and Park Hyatt.
- The 2019 Virtuoso Travel Week on tour will take place Jan. 31-Feb. 1 in New York City; Feb. 1-2 in Amelia Island, FL; Feb. 7-8 in Washington, DC; March 22-23 in Los Angeles; and March 28-29 in New Orleans.
For more information, visit virtuoso.com. Want to get the 4-1-1 on where to send your affluent clients in the fall and the holidays? Click here.
