PATH Symposium – 13 Years & Growing!
Written by: Joanie Ogg, CTC, MCC, Co-Owner – FindaHostTravelAgency.com
This year PATH, The Professional Association of Travel Hosts celebrated their 13th Annual Symposium at the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco, California. The overall sense of “We are Thriving” was strong and felt by all. This Symposium enjoyed the highest attendance to date and the energy in the room was palpable.
Each year the Event is held over a two-day period, with the first day being a meeting for just the Host Agencies and the second day welcoming suppliers to join in. We have had the pleasure of attending the PATH Symposium for many years now representing TravelProfessionalNEWS.com and FindaHostTravelAgency.com.
The event began with a warm and heartfelt welcome from the President of PATH, Anita Pagliasso. She emphasized that our industry is one of relationships, about caring about what we do and caring about each other. PATH is a “path” to connections and provides a forum where we can all come away with ideas and challenges to work towards addressing together.
Other PATH Board Members in attendance were Betsy Geiser, Vice President of PATH and VP of Uniglobe Travel Center, Kelly Bergin, Treasurer of PATH and CEO of Duglin Travel Group, Kirsten Little, Secretary of PATH and Vice President of Andavo Travel, Jackie Friedman, Director of PATH and President of Nexion Travel Group and Drew Daly, Director of PATH and SVP/GM of Dream Vacations and Cruise One. Two new board members have joined the ranks and they are Skip Fortier, Vice President of Network Expansion at Avoya Travel and Joshua Harrell, CMO of WorldVia/Travel Quest Network.
One of the highlights of this year’s event included an update from my dear friend and colleague Diane Petras Demeure, President of The Travel Institute. She has always been at the forefront of our industry forging the way to provide the best educational programs to travel professionals. I am honored to have known her for so many years and am so impressed by all she has accomplished at the Institute.
Diane talked about how many new entrants there are to the travel industry and how the Institute has been able to enable these new agents to gain the knowledge needed to start their career in Travel. She shared that she believes consumers will be looking for informed and professional travel agents. They train about two thousand students per year and their content is distributed through third party schools in the US and even through an entity in Dubai.
The Travel Institute has certified over 27,000 travel professionals. “Our focus is always on education” said Diane. There is no question that The Travel Institute is the leader in education and the place all travel professionals should go to gain the knowledge needed to succeed.
The first session of the day was moderated by Jackie Friedman and Drew Daly. This interactive session was entitled “Best Practices – What’s Working?”. Hosts and supplier attendees were assigned table numbers and spent the next hour engaging and going over some key issues that impact both the hosts and the suppliers. The conversations were lively and thought provoking. Each table shared their answers to the proposed questions and placed them on the wall on sticky notes. The picture of the wall is featured here, so that you can see the enormous number of ideas shared.
The suppliers and hosts in attendance discussed a variety of questions during the “Breakout Sessions” over the next few hours and then each group reported back to the entire group with a summary of their answers to the question. There were a total 12 tables each with 6 or 7 hosts and suppliers. Here are some of the very important questions that we were tasked with:
- What are some ways that you engage with Travel Advisors?
- What are your key initiatives and plans for building/rebuilding the business?
- How can we partner to enhance the level of Advisor professionalism?
- How can we collaborate to reduce service and support issues that arise?
- What are a few effective problem resolution approaches that you have implemented or learned?
- What are some best practices for information security & fraud protection and PCI Compliance?
- How to effectively help advisors stay on top of the changing protocols?
- How are you overcoming issues with talent acquisition & retention right now?
- What are the biggest headwinds impacting the travel industry now? In the future?
- How has your team/agents balanced the responsiveness in their emails? Is there a best practice that your organization has identified to help alleviate the email clutter?
- What are some great ways to bring on new Advisor talent?
- What are effective ways to motivate Advisors to keep up with training & certification now that there is less time?
Following are some of the thoughts and insights shared by the attendees about this year’s PATH Symposium.
“I put the PATH Symposium on my calendar right away every year as it is a very unique gathering in our industry. Each year the conversations get more interesting and instead of hearing presentations, it is truly brainstorming and deep conversations that make the PATH Symposium so valuable. The interaction between retailers and suppliers is unparalleled and I might add, fun!”
Scott Koepf, Senior Vice President of Strategic Development – Cruise Planners
“The annual PATH Symposium is my favorite event of the year. Not only do I get a chance to see all my friends, but we also share valuable information on best practices. I realized years ago that if we experience any issue or challenge, others are experiencing the same things. So we don’t have to recreate the wheel. I have also watched, over the years, how our supplier partners adapt and change based on what we discuss at these meetings.”
Betsy Geiser, CTA, VTA, Vice President – Uniglobe Travel Center
“Just a note to say thanks so much for a great conference. It was a great second year for me and very productive. Thank you all again for motivating us all to be better!”
Michelle Homoky, Director Market Sales, Southeast Region- Celebrity Cruises
“As the landscape of the Host agency continues to evolve, suppliers need to understand the needs of the Hosts and how we can engage with their IC’s. If you have never attended a PATH Symposium you would be amazed at the open discussions and sharing of ideas that make us all stronger in our relationship with HOST agencies. PATH continues to grow in attendance every year and is well worth the time to attend.”
Cheryl Hudak, CTC, Sales Rep West – Cayman Islands Dept of Tourism
The exchange between the suppliers and the host agencies and the desire to work side by side to build strong relationships and collaboration efforts moving forward was so positive and exciting. The ideas flowing in that room were hard to keep up with! I could not take notes fast enough to get it all in this piece.
Needless to say this amazing travel industry is stronger and more vibrant than ever before. It has been yet another year of more changes and challenges for the industry, but like every challenge or obstacle faced before us, we persevere and grow and build upon change to make our industry better and stronger than ever before. I appreciated the opportunity to have represented FindaHostTravelAgency.com and TravelProfessionalNEWS.com at this outstanding event and look forward to the 2023 PATH Symposium.