Jane Blowes, owner of CWT Blowes Travel & Cruise Centres in Stratford, Ontario, makes it a point to personally accompany her clients to the airport. She then waits for their flight to depart and is there to greet them when they return.
"They love it," Blowes said. "It's both personality and business; you have to connect with your client."
Blowes is one of 125 agents who will attend Travel Weekly's Global Travel Marketplace (GTM), an invitation-only event from July 24 to 26 at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood/Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Invited attendees, an exclusive group of successful travel professionals, will get the opportunity to meet one-on-one with 100 suppliers.
Like the other agents who will be attending GTM, Blowes is financially successful. To even be considered as an attendee, she had to report a minimum of $1 million in annual revenue. She also had to provide a diversified book of business and have at least three industry references listed on her application.
But even at an event that is seemingly all about business, these agents represent much more than financial success.
"Some of them have fantastic stories," said Alicia Evanko, the vice president for events at Travel Weekly. "Amazing accomplishments. These guys have gone above and beyond. They really do care for their clients and create extraordinary travel experiences. They are also all passionate about what they do, and they care about the industry."
In a recent interview, Evanko and Jacquie Hurst, the travel agent acquisition director for GTM, went back and forth listing some of the "recent successes" listed by several of GTM's applicants: the agent who helped her client go to the North Pole so that he could pitch a flag at the top of the world; the agent who found a niche market in sending Chinese clients to Latin America; the agent who bent over backward to help a couple return home the day after a death in the family.
Hurst recognizes that many of these recent successes are due to the "custom independent travel" practices these agents employ to keep their clients coming back time and time again.
"These clients want a custom trip," Hurst said. "[The agents] are taking the extra time and [doing] a lot of extra research."
For example, Blowes said she regularly creates for her clients packages she calls "Carefree Journeys," which include private escorts during the trip and bookings at unique and historical properties. According to Blowes, you will never find her clients in low-end hotels.
The agents, Hurst said, "realize these customers are important. It's not the money; it's the experience. They say, 'I want people to come back or call me when they're there, saying "this is the best trip ever."'"
Penny Sheldon, owner of Penny Sheldon Travel, a home-based agency in Boise, Idaho, promotes her own "one-women business." Another GTM attendee, she shares Blowes' philosophy. Sheldon said her clients describe her as determined, dedicated and loyal, a single person who "knows every detail about them and their vacation."
Her clients, she wrote in an email, "trust me to make that one special week a memorable, relaxing and worry-free experience. And the reason I can do that is because I care and understand about the other 51 weeks in their lives."
While Blowes and Sheldon are experienced agents with almost 60 years of experience between them, their "client-first" philosophy is not limited to the veteran agents who will be attending GTM. It is a philosophy also held by those new to the profession.
Hugh Sheppard, the owner and founder of Encore Travel in Des Moines, Iowa, has a background in sales. It wasn't until recently that he decided to take his love for travel and transform it into a career. He is another firm believer that a successful travel counselor always puts personal relationships with clients first.
"We really try to learn who they are, and what makes them tick," Sheppard said. "How they travel, the little quirky things that bug them … we get to know them rather than slapping a package together — attention to the person, not just to the booking."
In addition to forming a personal relationship with her clients, Sheldon also credits her past successes with expanding her network beyond the client base. She prides herself in knowing the management team on all of the properties she books as well as forming and maintaining personal relationships with tour operators.
"The key is building relationships all over the world," she said.
At GTM, agents will do just that. In a world that seems to revolve around personal connections, these agents understand that networking matters. Blowes said she is excited about attending July's event and eager to connect not only with potential suppliers but also with her fellow agents.
She described the attendees as "a concentrated group of contacts, and the networks will be great. It's going to help my business. It's not what you know, but who you know."
In fact, GTM's agent-to-agent networking started well before the event. Attendees have been communicating through a private Facebook group, where they have been "creating a community, going back and forth, sharing stories," Evanko said. "They feel privileged to be part of such a exclusive group."
Hurst agreed and said she has been impressed with the enthusiasm and professionalism of the entire group.
"All are strong believers in our industry," she said. "You'll hear people out there who say that the travel agent is dead. That's just not the case. These agents prove that."
Visit www.GlobalTravelMarketplace.com and apply today. For the latest news and updates on GTM follow @GTMElite on Twitter and Facebook.