Two new faces drew stares as they worked the cocktail parties and seminars during the CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. national conference last month aboard the Norwegian Epic.
Sean and Josh Tolkin were not only among the newest employees attending the conference this year, but they were visibly the youngest, in a business that suffers from a lack of young blood.
And as their nametags revealed, these were not just any new hires.
Sean, 22, and Josh, 24, are the sons of the co-CEOs of World Travel Holdings, Brad and Jeff Tolkin, respectively.
Sean graduated in May from Duke University. Josh graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 and spent some time working at an Internet startup before deciding to join his father's business.
While this might sound like a typical case of nepotism, the elder Tolkins were wary of simply handing their sons jobs in the family business. They wanted them to earn positions and to be placed in the divisions right for them.
Sean and Josh are undergoing two-year immersion programs during which they will spend roughly four to eight weeks in each World Travel Holdings division.
"Having a firm understanding of the business from the ground up will make them better leaders for the future," said Jeff Tolkin. "From the thinking and reading we've done and the interactions we've had from other people in family businesses, we've learned both from mistakes they've made and the things that have gone well."
At CruiseOne and Cruises Inc., the young men have been working in marketing, operations, finance, IT, network development and training.
They will field calls in the sales centers for World Travel Holdings' Villas of Distinction division.
The program will have them living for spurts in Orlando; Virginia Beach, Va.; and Wilmington, Mass., as well as the CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. base in Fort Lauderdale.
"We started them in home-based divisions because we fundamentally believe it is a growth area of the company and that there is a lot of opportunity there," said Jeff. "They need to learn that is a foundational piece of the program.
"As they matriculate into other areas of the company they will be on the phones this winter, taking reservations, and looking at how the company operates from the top down," he continued. "How we source leads, process bookings, relate to suppliers, etc."
The younger Tolkins said they intend to be part of the business for the long term.
"They want us to understand the inner workings of the business so we can make more educated decisions throughout our career," Josh said.
Although the young men are third-generation travel sellers, Josh and Sean are the only ones among their siblings who are going into the family business.
"We each have three children: Sean and Josh expressed an interest in joining the business, the other four have not," said Jeff. "That's a decision that each of them made on their own. Brad and I have neither encouraged nor discouraged our children from joining."
Upon completion of the program, Sean and Josh will be placed in areas of the company where World Travel Holdings sees a good fit.
They will soon begin training to be sales agents and will be ready to spend Wave season fielding calls.
The significance of their youth is not lost on either Sean or Josh, or the senior ranks at World Travel Holdings.
"As I have stated often, recruiting younger and smarter people to the industry is critically important to the industry's future success," said Dwain Wall, senior vice president and general manager of CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. "I'm counting on Sean and Josh to assist us in crafting a recruiting message that will resonate with people their age."
Josh said he believes one reason young people are not entering the business is because they don't see the opportunities.
"We're looking to reverse that trend," Josh said.
Sean echoed that.
"We want to figure out how to be the leaders in grabbing the youth and finding young individuals like Josh and I out of college who want to be in the travel industry," said Sean. "I don't have the answer to it yet. ... I firmly believe that the company and cruise line that figures out how to attract this young blood into the industry will be the company that leads the industry."
They both brush off any notions that the travel agent is a dying profession.
"Only 20% of Americans have cruised," Sean said. "The growth potential is huge. The travel agent model is very important, experiences like what happened with the ash cloud taught us that... ... We are going to capture the 80% of people that don't cruise."
Vicki Freed, Royal Caribbean International's senior vice president of sales, who was also onboard the Epic for the conference, said she was happy to see young, smart people choosing careers in travel.
"They have had successful role models: their fathers, who have been in the travel business most of their adult lives and have achieved great success," she said. "There is money to be made in the travel industry, and let's face it -- this is a wonderful industry. Travel is a big industry. Translate that into big opportunity and big rewards knowing that travel shapes and influences lives."