The itinerary was titled "Access the Inaccessible," offering a dozen hand-chosen travel advisers a three-day peek at a side of Las Vegas generally seen only by the high rollers and extremely wealthy.
Perry Lungmus
The goal, according to Travel Leaders Vice President of Luxury Travel Perry Lungmus, was to help make the agents comfortable selling some of the city's new ultra-exclusive suites, which are priced in the tens of thousands of dollars a night, and to expose them to the various properties now accepting retail bookings for their high-end customers.
But the trip was also part of a larger goal for Lungmus, whose mission when he joined Travel Leaders at the end of 2011 was to help build its luxury programs and products.
He developed Travel Leaders' Luxury Travel Center of Excellence, which maintains and develops relationships with high-end suppliers. It also helped launch Travel Leaders' In-Country Partners, a global network of destination management companies that offers tailored travel itineraries. The center also provides member agencies with marketing campaigns, exclusive Internet microsites and luxury travel certification training.
A suite at the Wynn Encore, which holds more Forbes Five Star awards than any other independent hotel company. Photo Credit: Jeri Clausing
Over the past three years, Travel Leaders has also developed the Select Hotel & Resorts program, which is Travel Leaders' proprietary, invitation-only luxury and ultraluxury hotel offering. Select Hotels & Resorts was launched in 2013 with 447 properties and now has 869 hotels in 340 cities throughout 75 countries.
Lungmus, who started his career in his family's travel agency and has worked for Virtuoso, Abercrombie & Kent and Travcoa, wants to introduce more familiarization trips for agents who sell luxury.
"It comes down to being able to recommend a product that can be pretty pricey," he said. "It's hard to encourage someone to step up to a $5,000- or $10,000-a-night property."
The tour also included two shows, Arkana at Aria and Steve Wynn's Show Stoppers; a nighttime ride over the Strip provided by Sundance Helicopter; and fine dining. The group is also organizing a Windstar cruise and trip to South Africa.
"It all comes back to the emphasis on the Luxury Center of Excellence," Lungmus said.