LAS VEGAS -- Ensemble Travel Group Co-Presidents Lindsay Pearlman and Libbie Rice celebrated the company's growing membership numbers and booking totals at its annual conference here this week and encouraged members to work with company leadership to broaden their methods of gaining and keeping travel business.
Rice said Ensemble bookings so far this year were about 15% ahead of last year's pace, while Pearlman spelled out how agencies could maximize revenue and commissions throughout the 18-month life cycle between trips taken by a typical client.
"It's not about growing the Ensemble brand; it's about growing your brand and your business," Rice said.
Pearlman added: "It's a new way of thinking. It's about understanding our industry, our economy and your business."
Pearlman and Rice were among those speaking to almost 1,000 members, suppliers and guests attending the first day of the 2011 Ensemble Travel Group International Conference at Las Vegas' Cosmopolitan Hotel. Executives with Qantas Vacations, Crystal Cruises, Globus, river cruise operator Uniworld and Silversea Cruises also made first-day presentations.
Warren Buckner, Ensemble Travel Group board member emeritus and a founder of the consortium, also emphasized the theme that travel spending is on the upswing and that the agency's role in that spending rebound is expanding. Buckner also praised the consortium's increased presence in both the U.S. and Canada.
"Although the industry has taken a beating, we have prevailed," Buckner said. "We have truly become a North American organization."
For hotel and hospitality news, follow Danny King on Twitter @dktravelweekly.